Ballerino Seong Jae-seung, 20, received the top prize at the 10th Helsinki International Ballet Competition (HIBC).

According to the competition website on the 8th, Seong Jae-seung was awarded the ‘Jane Erkko Grand Prix’, the prize given to the overall winner of the event, at the competition that concluded at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet on the 5th (local time). The prize money is 20,000 euros (about 35 million won).

Seong captured the Grand Prix at the competition, which for the first time this year abolished gender divisions and was held as a single integrated category. A Korean dancer winning the Grand Prix is the first since 2016, when Kim Hee-seon did so, and it is the first time for a male dancer. Earlier, at the 2016 competition, Yun Byeol took second place with no first place awarded in the senior male division.

Among other Korean participants, In Ji-young placed third in the Junior division and Kang Yu-jeong placed third in the Young Professional division.

The Helsinki International Ballet Competition, supported by the Finnish government and the Finnish National Ballet, was established under the initiative of Finnish ballerina Doris Laine-Almi and has been held every 4∼6 years since 1984.

Enrolled in the Practical Dance Department at the Korea National University of Arts, Seong won first place with ballerina So Ha-eun in the senior pas de deux category and second place in the senior male solo category at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) in the United States last year, regarded as a gateway to the international ballet world.

Seong will take the stage next month at Hwaseong Arts Center as the prince in the original ballet <The Little Mermaid>.