Jason Beechey

Photo: Jason Beechey

In the beautiful lunch area reserved for the candidates (with a stunning view of the Swiss Alps!), the Prix blogging team met up with Jason Beechey, member of the Prix’s Artistic Committee, who gave us a few insights into what the week here is all about:

On opportunities for candidates:

“When I first came here, five years ago, with two of my colleagues from Dresden, we thought: “wow this is incredible, it is like a workshop, the focus is really on opening doors!” I have also been on the jury and later I became a member of the Artistic Committee. The values of the Prix de Lausanne in the past five years haven´t changed and I think this is a good thing! It is really about creating opportunities and opening up doors.”

“The Prix is everything you think a competition isn’t: when I was at school, competitions didn´t have a good reputation: you went, you did your tricks. It was sort of a dead-end street. The Prix is the opposite of that. What I see from the inside is that a lot of people are still surprised when they discover what is really going on: they don´t know that every candidate completes the whole week, that everybody gets individual coaching.”

On communicating via social media:

“I would like it if we could spread the message of the Prix even more, use all of the media tools of today so people know what it is like, what an opportunity this is. The magic of the Prix is, that it is so different every year because of who comes, the energy of the kids and the exciting opportunities they receive, the way the Prix can change their lives.”

“Today especially, social media is second nature to almost everybody, it is nothing new. The families of the candidates send their children half way around the world, all on their own or with a teacher. For them it is so reassuring to follow, see the video blogs, all the photos and learn what is really going on.”