HUFF POST: In about two months, 17-year-old Joy Womack, [an accomplished Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive student] will be the first American to graduate from a world-class Russian ballet school.The Texas native traveled nearly 6,000 miles from home to study at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, where she trained for years with instructors and other dancers, NBC reports. read more

SAN FRANCISCO GATE: Joy Womack, a 17-year-old ballet dancer from Austin, is set to become the first American to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Russia. She will take her finals and graduate in May, according to the Daily Mail. Womack has been studying at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, recognized as the best in the world, since 2009. She started her dance career at the age of three, first in California, before moving to Austin in 2006 where she studied at the Austin School of Classical Ballet. She has also attended the Kirov Academy of Ballet, the Los Angeles Ballet School and the Yuri Grigoriev School of Ballet. read more

MSNBC.com: When Joy Womack [pride and joy of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive] arrived at Moscow’s elite Bolshoi Ballet Academy at 15, she spoke limited Russian and was one of a number of foreigners allowed to train at the school. Now 17, she is poised to become the first American to graduate from the Russian academy. read more

DAILY MAIL: A 17-year-old student from Texas is to become the first American to graduate from the world’s leading ballet school, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Joy Womack has lived by herself in Moscow, Russia, for three years, more than 6,000 miles away from her home in Austin, to attend the school. Now, after years of dancing for 10 hours a day and six days a week, Joy is preparing to sit her finals and graduate in May. read more

THE DAILY REVIEW: Liliana Kettenburg has been accepted to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy’s 2012 summer intensive held in Middlebury, Conn. This six- week program is accommodated by the Russian American Foundation and is staffed exclusively by the master teachers of Moscow’s 235-year old Bolshoi Ballet Academy, one of the most prestigious centers of classical ballet repertoire and training in the world. read more

REUTERS: Joy Womack, a distinguished student of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive and now the first American student to graduate this spring from world’s most prestigious school – Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet Academy. video

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: On Sunday, ballet students between the ages of 9 and 22 will have a rare chance to audition at the Philadelphia Ballet School for a Bolshoi Ballet Academy summer program. Only 15 will be chosen at 16 sites nationwide, all 15 or older. A larger group, including younger students, may be selected for Bolshoi programs in New York and Connecticut. read more