Dancer From Nutley High School Earns National Award

NUTLEY, NJ — If anyone knows that “practice makes perfect,” it’s Naomi Wei of Nutley.

Wei – a 17-year-old student at Nutley High School – has been training in dance since she was 3-years-old. She began her study at Studio L Hoboken, and has also spent training time with the American Ballet Theatre and at Juilliard in New York City.

Now, the talented Nutley teen has earned another bragging right: a 2026 YoungArts award.

YoungArts, a national foundation that provides space, funding and mentoring for teen and youth, recently announced that Wei is among its latest winners, awarding her a nod in the “Dance: Modern/Contemporary” category.

Wei joins hundreds of the nation’s most accomplished young visual, literary, and performing artists from 39 states and the District of Columbia. Winners were selected from a record number of nearly 13,000 applications across 10 artistic disciplines: classical music, dance, design, film, jazz, photography, theater, visual arts, voice and writing.

See a list of this year’s dance winners here.

Each of this year’s awardees has demonstrated “exceptional technique, a strong sense of artistry, and an extraordinary commitment to developing their craft,” the foundation says.

“If we give young people the validation to pursue artistic careers, then the arts in the United States will continue to thrive,” YoungArts president and CEO Clive Chang said.

“We are thrilled to recognize the extraordinary creativity, imagination, and talent of this year’s award winners and to champion them for the rest of their lifetimes,” the foundation said.

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