My passion continues to give young talents a chance to express their artistic and technical abilities with their peers.
I began competing in my early years in our exciting profession. Through this, I discovered how to meet and deal with challenges in order to succeed in our industry. It was by competing with the industry's best, as well as meeting and learning from my peers, that hair designing as a hobby evolved into a profession.
Because I used applied arts, design principles and design elements, the artistic and technical aspects of competing became easier. Today they continue to serve me well in teaching and coaching.
In addition, I have been a student of the Bauhaus Concept for many years. The application of this knowledge has evolved into the Pivot Point designers' philosophy taught in 69 countries.
~ Leo Passage, Founder, Chairman Emeritus
For the last 35 years, Pivot Point International has been a proud sponsor, along with the world organization OMC (Organization Mondiale de la Coiffure) and its 60-plus member countries, of many international competitions.
In 1980, Pivot Point persuaded OMC to allow students and apprentices to compete on specially designed mannequins at the world championships in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This gave young designers the opportunity to compete on a more affordable basis than the professionals, who worked with live models. This also gave the young designers a chance to see the competitions first-hand and to meet the new champions of the world.
Since then, this tradition has continued to play out at national and international competitions, including the biennial, prestigious HairWorld event. There, both the Junior Ladies and Gents apply their artistic and technical abiliti
For the last five years, Pivot Point U.S.A. has sponsored the NCA (National Cosmetology Association) Talent Search, which allows students to compete on Pivot Point-designed mannequins.
It was during my tenure as NCA Chairperson for competitions that we built a large following of young designers. NCA will be the host of HairWorld 2008 in Chicago. Along with the NCA competition committee and its judges and trainers, the new young talents are being offered a rich opportunity to compete and show their artistic and technical abilities.
Pivot Point International is also a generous sponsor of the WorldSkills competition by the I.V.T.O. (International Vocational Training Organization). Member countries of I.V.T.O. compete on a national basis to qualify one competitor to represent his or her country at the WorldSkills competition
This biennial WorldSkills competition allows students and/or apprentices to compete on Pivot Point mannequins in eight tests over a four-day period: Four tests in Ladies' Hair Designing and four in Gents' Hair Designing.
In the U.S., each state holds competitions with the 1st place winner moving on to the SkillsUSA Nationals event. Each year, Pivot Point U.S. furnishes each competitor with three customized mannequins. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place medalists at Nationals move to International Training sponsored by Pivot Point International.
Pivot Point trains these competitors with their coaches/instructors at the World Headquarters in Evanston, IL. The WorldSkills trial competitions are held every two years at the Chicago Midwest Beauty Show. The highest-scoring competitor then represents the U.S. at WorldSkills.
The U.S. team members that Pivot Point has sponsored over the years are:
- WorldSkills 1999 Montreal, Canada: Kimberly Carr, Texas
- WorldSkills 2001 Seoul, South Korea: Keisha Jones, New York
- WorldSkills 2003 St. Gallen, Switzerland: Crystal Pruskowski, Pennsylvania
- WorldSkills 2005 Helsinki, Finland: Viviana Zuniga, Florida
- Worldskills 2007 Shizuoka, Japan: Winner to be announced
Our commitment to the global 'Youth of Tomorrow' is to provide assistance and make available the best tools in education, trainers, customized fashion mannequins and related items, through our International Pivot Point Network in 69 countries.
For more information visit the following Web sites and links:
1) Pivot Point competition mannequins and tools, education
2) Pivot Point International network (69 countries)
3) Pivot Point's Hot Competition News
4) OMC Web site link
5) Angles Web site for the latest CDs of OMC competitions
6) NCA Web site
7) I.V.T.O. WorldSkills Web site
8) SkillsUSA Web site
