The abundance of dance competitions around the country does not even go someway in measuring against those taking place in the United States. One particular example is The Dance Awards, presented by Break the Floor Productions. Occurring during the summer season, it is a prestigious awards ceremony that recognises excellence in the past year of dance. Competitors from all the Break the Floor events, such as Jump and 24Seven, are invited to gather in one of two entertainment capitals—Las Vegas or New York City.
This year, The Dance Awards celebrates its 5th year, hosting the Las Vegas event from 26 June-3 July, and the NYC event from 5-12 July. As part of this annual celebration of dance, there will be over $100,000 in cash and prizes awarded to dancers and dance training studios. Set in a prestigious theatre, awards are presented for outstanding individual or collective efforts in up to 30 categories. The events are like no other and are a fantastic celebration of talent. The high standards of the events are maintained by the scores for The Dance Awards, monitored by an international auditing firm.
In addition to The Dance Awards being transparent and ethical, it also gives its dancers who are taking part the chance to participate in workshops with iconic professionals: favourite dancers and choreographers. Faculty and judges include big names such as Mia Michaels, Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, Stacey Tookey, Kenny Wormald, Sonya Tayeh and tWitch. The huge events are great participatory events for aspiring dancers, inviting them to make new dance friends and to push themselves as dancers.
For more information on the 2015 Dance Awards, visit www.thedanceawards.com.
The Queen’s birthday honours recently recognised a multitude of talent in the awardees: actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Maggie Smith were recognised in the honours list, which also sees Young Vic artistic director David Lan and English National Opera’s John Berry honoured. The arts faired well as Day-Lewis was made a knight, and Smith was made a Companion of Honour.
The WhatsOnStage Awards are the only major theatre awards in which the audience are the judges. By voting the audience decide on the winners of my different theatrical categories.
The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle has announced the list of nominations for the 14th National Dance Awards, to be awarded at a central London venue on 27 January 2014. The National Dance Awards have been organised each year since 2000, celebrating the variety of Britain’s dance culture. They are the only awards given by the body of professional dance critics in the UK.
The shortlist of nominees for the UK Theatre Awards were recently announced on 3 October, the annual awards ceremony that is run by UK-wide body the Theatrical Management Association. There are many productions yet to grace the UK’s stages which could contend for the short list and then the awards themselves.
The Olivier Awards, the iconic award event which took place earlier this year, is due to take place on Sunday 13 April 2014 with MasterCard. The coveted statuettes – as well as one new award – will be awarded to the very best productions, performers and creatives in London’s Theatreland. Many may argue that the UK’s capital is the best in the world in terms of theatre, but with New York’s Broadway as a prime contender it’s a close call!
With dance continuing to raise its profile within Westminster, it was a delight to see a huge ten dance names recognised for their outstanding work in dance across a wide variety of contexts in Britain in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.