As winners of the Prix de Lausanne’s Young Creation Award in 2025, Henry Lichtmacher of the U.S. and Alexander Mockrish of Sweden had the opportunity to return to Switzerland to coach this year’s Prix contestants on their choreography. Lichtmacher’s piece, 20 Miles from Shore, was selected by 11 dancers, and Mockrish’s piece, Extinction, was selected by 12.
Dance Spirit spoke with Lichtmacher and Mockrish about their choreographic inspiration, their experience coaching the next generation of dancers, and their goals for the future.
Henry Lichtmacher
What led to you entering the Young Creation contest?
I first found out about the competition in 2023 while I was training at the Tanz Akademie Zürich, because one of the students at the time was a finalist that year. I was exploring a lot of choreography, because we had a large focus on improvisation courses and contemporary classes in Zurich.
Henry Lichtenmacher (right) coaching at the 2026 Prix de Lausanne. Photo by Gregory Batardon, courtesy the Prix.
The next year, while I was training at the (American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School), I decided to apply for the Young Creation Award because you have to be in a partner school in order to apply. That year I didn’t end up making it past the preselection round, but I was still able to have my choreography performed at the JKO Spring Showcase. I also formed a really great connection with my dancer, (fellow JKO graduate) Rachel Quiner.
The following year, I accepted a contract to Houston Ballet II, so I had the opportunity to apply again. This time I got in, got to the finals, and won. It was a culmination, and it took multiple tries to get there.
What inspires you as a choreographer?
I find it’s easiest for me to start with a few pieces of music, even if it’s not necessarily the music that I use. From there, I like to find a motif of some sort. It’s not intentional, but a lot of my motifs end up being related to the ocean. My piece for the Prix was about a man swimming in the ocean.
Once I have a motif, I like to build some movement vocabulary around it. That’s pretty much all I do before I start to work with the dancers. From there, I let the process reveal itself.
Henry Lichtenmacher (left) coaching at the 2026 Prix de Lausanne. Photo by Gregory Batardon, courtesy the Prix.
What was it like to coach your own work?
The Prix provides this incredible experience for the YCA winners to attend its summer intensive and coach their choreography on the dancers there. We basically got a trial run of what the real Prix would be like.
You only get a small amount of time with each candidate, so it’s hard not to get caught up on the details, because they all learned the pieces from a video. I wanted to focus on details, yes, but also on the quality of movement in general, because, in reality, the jury doesn’t know the choreography as well as I do. They’re not going to mind some slight differences in details.
Seeing my choreography last year on the Prix stage was already a huge deal for me, but seeing it on the same stage as (works by) legendary choreographers, like Goyo Montero, was a defining moment for me. I was also just so excited to see how excited the dancers were about the choreography. It was nice to know that for such an important moment for them, they chose my piece, and they thought that it represented them well.
What have you been up to since your win in 2025?
I’m a student at Columbia University. I haven’t declared a major yet, but I’m on the cognitive science track. I am hoping to do a specialization combining cognitive science and dance/choreography. Right now I’m taking ballet classes through Barnard, and though I’m not training at the level that I used to be, my passion for dance is just as high, if not higher. I’m also in the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, which is Columbia’s student-run ballet organization. Last semester, I got to create a work for it, and this semester, I’m the assistant executive director.
Photo by Gregory Batardon, courtesy Prix de Lausanne.
What are your future goals?
Right now, my education takes up a large part of my time, but choreography for me never really stops. Whenever I have time alone in a studio, I’ll be choreographing. The choreography never stops flowing out, and it’s just a matter of if there is an outlet where I can pour it into at the moment. I’m always searching for more opportunities, but at the same time, I feel like I don’t necessarily need a constant project to continue developing my artistic voice.
I’d love to see my work performed on an even larger scale and with an even larger group, and by professional companies. That would all be incredible. But at the same time, with a career in the arts, you can’t really plan anything. You just have to continue to develop your passion, find ways to transmit it, and hope the rest will fall into place.
Alexander Mockrish
What led to you entering the Young Creation contest?
I have known about the Young Creation Award for a long time. Even when I was in Sweden, at the beginning of my dance education, I had a lot of older classmates who applied. So it was always something that I was looking forward to doing. Then I moved to New York City, to the ABT JKO School, and I kept thinking about choreography. I had choreographed a few pieces when the director, Stella Abrera, came up to me at the end of the year and told me she thought I should apply.
Alexander Mockrish (front, left) coaching at the 2026 Prix de Lausanne. Photo by Rodrigo Buas, courtesy the Prix.
What inspires you as a choreographer?
If I’m honest, sometimes I feel like I just create movement, and then afterwards, I can see what it was I was creating. I want to find something that feels natural in your body, but has the music in it too. The push-and-pull was like very much in the solo the entire time.
What was it like to coach your own work?
At the summer intensive, I felt very new to coaching, and it felt pretty weird. I didn’t really know how to do it. But Henry and I got some help from the teachers and coaches. At the actual Prix, I could also look at the professional coaches. You can see how they work, and that helped me.
I didn’t have many English-speaking people who chose my solo, so I couldn’t really spend time talking so much. That’s also not really me as a person. I’m more of the person who makes sounds to explain things and show the movement. It was really fun coaching, though it was very fast-paced.
Alexander Mockrish (left) coaching at the 2026 Prix de Lausanne. Photo by Rodrigo Buas, courtesy the Prix.
What have you been up to since your win in 2025?
I joined Boston Ballet II. In terms of choreography, I got to create a piece for the JKO School straightaway. That’s the thing with the Prix—it gives so many opportunities. When I got to Boston, the second day I was there the director asked if I wanted to create a piece for the school. I got the chance to create a pretty long, like 12-minute, piece on a much larger number of people than I’d ever done before. Now I also have the chance to choreograph on my BBII colleagues. I’m very happy and just want to keep choreographing.
What are your future goals?
I still want to be a dancer, but I’m also not going to drop the choreography thing completely and pick it up later. I want to continue everything at the same time and take every opportunity that’s available. I just want to keep doing what I’m passionate about, and I’m not completely sure where that will lead me in life. But I want to keep improving every day.
Photo by Rodrigo Buas, courtesy Prix de Lausanne.
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