SBFB Student Wins International Competition 

In January 2011, Santa Barbara Festival Ballet’s artistic Director Denise Rinaldi submitted Chelsea Cambron as a candidate for the USA team to compete in the prestigious Cecchetti International Classical Ballet competition in Manchester, England. Chelsea was selected for the team as one of just 8 dancers representing Cecchetti USA at the competition.

Forty-four dancers, ages 14-19, from 7 organizations around the world, competed for prizes awarded in five categories. The young dancers spent three days learning both a set contemporary class as well as a set ballet class. Competitors presented their contemporary class the first day of the competition, followed by their contemporary solo in the evening. The next day included the classical class and solo. Those competitors receiving the highest scores given by the judges on all four events advanced to the finals.

The evening of the finals, 18 finalists were chosen to present both their classical and contemporary solos once more. Ms. Cabron performed the Gamzatti solo from La Bayadère and Athena choreographed by UCSB faculty member Valerie Huston. From these competitors, just five awards were given. Congratulations to Chelsea Cambron on winning the Contemporary Award for her performance in Athena!

Ms. Cambron trained with Denise Rinaldi at Santa Barbara Festival Ballet from the age of 3 through 18. She is currently a sophomore dance major at the University of California, Santa Barbara.