Interview: Chloe Helimets, 15, Candidate for the Prix de Lausanne 2025
Chloe Helimets, Grand pas classique. Awarded Youth Grand Prix, YAGP 2025 Seattle. LK Studio / YAGP
On a weekend in October 2024, nine professionals from the dance world gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland, to watch 445 video applications from 42 countries to select candidates for the Prix de Lausanne 2025, one of the most important ballet competitions in the world. From 2 to 9 February 2025, eighty-six dancers will compete for one of its coveted prizes. The Prix de Lausanne is unique because the prize winners are chosen not just based on their performance of a classical and a contemporary variation but also based on the potential shown during four days of classes and rehearsals. Prize winners receive a scholarship to one of the Prix’s partner schools or companies.
Chloe is a day program student at Bayer Ballet, a highly successful, Vaganova-based ballet school founded and run by Inna Bayer in California. She is one of eighteen dancers from the USA who will be competing at this year’s Prix. If you watch her on YouTube, take note of the depth of her artistry: she manages to pull you into the atmosphere of a ballet even when she is only presenting a short variation. She has also been gifted with a beautiful physique: ballet runs in her family, Chloe is a third-generation ballet dancer, her parents were both principal dancers with San Francisco Ballet. Her talent has already been recognized by numerous honors and awards, including the YAGP Youth Grand Prix 2024 and 2025. She’s also an American Ballet Theatre National Training Scholar 2022-25. TWoA talked to Chloe about growing up in a ballet family, her ballet journey, and about the best way to approach competitions.
What is your first conscious ballet memory?
I've been in the ballet world since I was maybe two years old. I remember watching my dad doing the Nutcracker prince from backstage when I was about three. I spent a lot of time around San Francisco Ballet (SFB) when I was small because my dad was always taking me there; my mom had stopped dancing at that point. I got to watch company class and sit in during rehearsals. It was really great.
When did you start ballet lessons?
I started at SFB at around age seven, and I stayed there for a few years.
Ballet was always in your life, but do you remember when you started falling in love with ballet?
I think it actually started during the pandemic. Before that, I had school all day, and ballet was more of a recreational activity in the evenings. But during the pandemic, when I was about ten, I had a chance to do a class with my parents at the beginning of every day. I started realizing: “I can actually do this. I can get better, and I want to improve.” I had a lot more motivation to become a dancer.
Ballet is part of your DNA. From whom did you inherit your amazing feet?
We've actually analyzed this a lot. It's a combination of my dad and my mom: my mom has a very high arch, and my dad has very bendy toes. I luckily got both. My dad has very bendy toes, but his arch isn't as big as my mom’s, even though it’s very good, especially for a man.
Chloe Helimets and Inna Bayer working on the 3rd Shade. Bayer Ballet
What are the main areas where your parents have helped you develop as a dancer?
My dad taught me how to be partnered, to understand when you have to do the work and when the partner is supposed to do it. That’s been really helpful. My mother really helps with artistry, finding the depth of a character and learning how to really live the role. They provide unique aspects of how to be a full-fledged dancer.
Do you ever have any ballet arguments?
Well, occasionally. But it's usually about analysis: how to make something work, versus how other people make it work, and finding what works for me personally.
Did your parents share any special stories with important life lessons for you?
I remember multiple stories where they discussed how you always have to be ready to be thrown on stage. When my father was rehearsing Lancelot for the ballet Arthur at Birmingham Royal Ballet, he was, I believe, third cast. Then everybody else went off injured. It turned out the second cast didn't know the choreography, so my dad was thrown on the same day, with my mother, who was the fourth cast. After the first rehearsal, Lynn Seymour said she only wanted my mom and one other girl. Then that other girl went off injured, so she had to do every single show. After their stories, I feel if I needed to step in, I would be able to.
You are about the compete at the Prix de Lausanne 2025. Which variations are you preparing, and how did you and your coach Inna Bayer choose them?
For my classical variation, we decided on the third Shade variation from La Bayadère because it's very clean. It's very pure. When it's done well, it can look really impressive. For my contemporary variation, I decided to try “You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio” by Christopher Wheeldon. It was performed at the Prix de Lausanne last year. I really enjoyed the way the dancers all got to develop their original way of interpreting the choreography. I thought it would be a good way to grow in a more neoclassical style as well, because this contemporary variation is on point. It also helps with artistry, with feeling more natural and looser on stage.
I tried to choose two variations that were very different from each other: one that's a little more solemn, and one that's just very happy and loose, but also controlled and fast, so that I can show two different sides of my dancing and that I'm not just a one trick pony.
How do you approach competitions?
I try to never think of competing. I think more about performing a variation. Even if it's not in the context of any ballet, I still try to tell a full story while I'm on the stage. It shouldn’t be just a solo that you're performing, but a performance that you are showing the audience. With a variation like the third Shade, I think of it in the context of the ballet. I feel some artistic interpretation is needed to make it read for a competition stage, so that it doesn't look too solemn because that can sometimes be interpreted as: “Oh, you're thinking about the steps, not your dancing.” Even when I have a somber expression, I try to make sure it looks like it's meaningful. It should look like I am purposefully portraying those emotions instead of “this is what my face is doing.” It shouldn’t look like: “I've been told to do this face.”
How do you cope with the very specific environment of a competition? At the Prix de Lausanne, for example, all classes and rehearsals will also be live streamed on the internet.
I feel it's important to keep your blinders on, to focus only on yourself. Whatever someone else is doing shouldn't have to inform the way you do it. It's definitely a little bit stressful, because obviously you want to do as well as possible. I feel the point of broadcasting the classes is to show how you handle making mistakes and how you handle getting choreography thrown at you and having to perform it right away. That's an important quality in a company dancer.
You've already won some prestigious awards. Do you feel the pressure of outside expectations?
I always have very high expectations for myself. I always want to improve upon my last performances. I will obsess over any videos I have of myself; I’ll find every single little detail that I want to fix. I constantly do that to myself, but I don't normally feel outside pressure by anybody. My personal goals are more important than what other people think of me.
Everybody has a moment when you feel stuck. How do you cope?
Sometimes I do get a little bit frustrated with myself when a step isn't working, or when I just can't stay on my leg. I then try to figure out: why is this not working? What am I doing when it works? How can I keep doing that? Sometimes, I will just go into the studio for, say, a half hour to do one step over and over and over again until it works every single time. When it’s not working, I just take a step back and focus on something else that needs improving until I’m in a better head space to deal with it.
Do you have any pre-performance or pre-competition rituals?
There are definitely some rituals that I have. Usually, during the open stage for competitions, like at Youth America Grand Prix, I'll go to the center of the stage, and I'll knock on the center. It's just a little superstition, but it makes me feel good. Right before going on, I knock on the wing as well. I knock on the floor right before going on. It’s a bit superstitious, but it's just a tradition.
What do you do after a competition to wind down?
Honestly, just try to take care of my body. I’ll do skincare, hair care routines, I just try to let my mind relax. I generally try to take it easy after a stressful performance.
You are homeschooled and you are an excellent student. What are your favorite subjects at school?
English is definitely up there. I enjoy language and reading and writing. I'm also taking French this year because I feel it's an important language to learn, a lot of people speak French, as well as people at the Prix de Lausanne. I think that'll be important for me in the future. My schoolwork is more structured around what I think I'll need in the future. Sometimes I'll do electives, like explorations in dance or music appreciation, more ballet or performing arts geared courses.
Do you have a favorite book?
I tend to go back to the classics a lot. I've read the Harry Potter series an ungodly number of times, but I actually do have a favorite book. It's very niche, but it's definitely a classic for me. It's kind of been passed down in my family: The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. It's a very eclectic book, but I really enjoy it.
Chloe Helimet, Youth Grand Prix 2025 Paris Semi-Final, Grand pas classique