It's USA IBC Time!

Once every four years, some of the ballet world’s best and brightest gather in Jackson, MS, to face off in the super-prestigious USA International Ballet Competition. The event’s list of alums is kind of ridiculous: Boston Ballet’s Misa Kuranaga and Jeffrey Cirio, The Royal Ballet’s Sarah Lamb, American Ballet Theatre’s Daniil Simkin and Sarah Lane, The Washington Ballet’s Brooklyn Mack and Maki Onuki, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Alys Shee…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The 2014 USA IBC kicked off on Saturday, and this year’s roster of competitors includes a lot of familiar names. In the senior women category, there’s Joy Womack, the vibrant ballerina who became the first American to join the Bolshoi Ballet (though she left last fall after becoming frustrated with the company’s politics—an unhappy ending to a fairy-tale story):

Joy Womack for Cloud and Victory (yup, she’s a model, too!)

Among the junior women, there’s the astonishingly self-possessed Gisele Bethea, who grabbed our attention last year when she took home the Youth Grand Prix Award at the Youth America Grand Prix:

Bethea at the 2012 World Ballet Competition USA (Siggul/Visual Arts Masters)

And the junior men group features First Position star Aran Bell, who may have been an adorable munchkin in the film but has since grown into a mature, sophisticated technician:

Aran Bell in class at the Carreño Dance Festival (Photo Rachel S. O’Hara/Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

Merde to all the competitors! Click here for the full list—and stay tuned for information about winners.