English National Ballet’s winner of both the 2016 Emerging Dancer Award and People’s Choice Award was Cesar Corrales, competing in May against five other company hopefuls. Now in its seventh year, Emerging Dancer allows English National Ballet to recognise and nurture talent, and encourage excellence in the company, with young and emerging dancers nominated to take part. For 2016 the other finalists were Isabelle Brouwers, Jeanette Kakareka, Rina Kanehara, Daniele Silingardi and Erik Woolhouse.
Corrales joined the Company in 2014 and was promoted to Junior Soloist last year, following in the footsteps of his parents who are also professional dancers. For the competition itself Corrales performed Contrabajo para hombre solo by Julio Lopez, as well as a pas de deux from Diana and Acteon with fellow finalist Rina Kanehara. The pair were well matched and gave strong performances, with Corrales scooping both the Emerging Dancer Award and People’s Choice Award at the London Palladium.
Announced live on stage at the Palladium on 17 May, and for the first time live streamed to audiences across the world, Corrales was selected as this year’s winner by a judging panel made up of leading figures in ballet and dance; Tamara Rojo, Sir Matthew Bourne OBE, Viviana Durante, Thomas Edur CBE, Russell Maliphant, Oxana Panchenko, and Morgann Runacre-Temple. He was chosen as the winner of the People’s Choice Award by members of the public, who voted throughout the 2015/2016 season.
The evening gives the company and its audiences the opportunity to celebrate the young dancers of English National Ballet – both onstage, and live streamed online. Having this platform allows both the artistic team and the dancers to continue their commitment to nurture the stars of the future, and develop them artistically. The evening also saw Jennie Harrington win the new Corps de Ballet Award, presented to an exceptional Artist of the Company who has gone above and beyond the call of duty over the last season.