Tag: National Dance Awards

The Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards 2014 took place at The Place in London, at a ceremony hosted by Arlene Phillips on 26 January.

New records were set as choreographer and dancer, Akram Khan, became the first to win a sixth NDA, picking up this year’s for Best Modern Choreography for Dust, his work for English National Ballet that was part of its Lest We Forget programme. Christopher Wheeldon became the first to win five awards in the same category, winning the Best Classical Choreography Award for The Winter’s Tale for the Royal Ballet.

Natalia Osipova and Jonathan Goddard became the first dancers to pick up two awards at the same ceremony: Osipova won the category of Outstanding Female Performance (Classical) for her performance as Giselle for the Royal Ballet, and Goddard won the Outstanding Male Performance (Modern) for his portrayal of Dracula for Mark Bruce Company (which won Best Independent Company). Both dancers were consequently named Best Dancers of 2014. 2014 marked Goddard’s second collection of The Dancing Times Best Male Dancer, a record-breaking fourth time as Grishko Best Female Dancer for Osipova.

The De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement was presented by Darcey Bussell to Carlos Acosta in recognition of his outstanding career as a dancer and a producer, and The Outstanding Company of 2014 went to English National Ballet. The Outstanding Male Performance (Classical) was won by Xander Parish, the British dancer who left the Royal Ballet to join the Mariinsky Ballet, for his performances of George Balanchine’s Apollo. The Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) went to Wendy Houstoun, for her one-woman show, Pact with Pointlessness, inspired by the death of choreographer, Nigel Charnock.

The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle introduced a new award for 2014 to recognise emerging artists, and this was won by upcoming Royal Ballet soloist, Francesca Hayward, notably for her performances of Ashton repertoire. The awards completely celebrate and encompass the talent of the dance industry, both from home-based companies and many touring ensembles from overseas. The next National Dance Awards are scheduled to be held in London on 25 January 2016.

The nominations for the 15th National Dance awards promise a ‘vintage list’ of eventual winners as traditional dance boundaries are broken down and the spotlight falls on the younger, rising stars. The nominations have been whittled down from a long list of nearly 400 names, and from a year’s worth of performances that took place between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014. A new category, the emerging artist award, was added this year to ensure younger and less established dancers and choreographers were acknowledged, keeping the spectrum of talent as broad as possible.

It is clear that the category boundaries are not clear-cut: for example, Akram Khan’s two nominations as dancer and choreographer of Dust both appear in the contemporary categories, even though the work itself was commissioned and performed by English National Ballet.

The winners of each category will be announced on 26 January 2015.

Best Male Dancer

• Jonathan Goddard (Mark Bruce Company, New Movement Collective, HeadSpaceDance)
• Vadim Muntagirov (ENB, Royal Ballet)
• Steven McRae (Royal Ballet)
• Edward Watson (Royal Ballet)

Best Female Dancer

• Alina Cojocaru (ENB)
• Marianela Nuñez (Royal Ballet)
• Natalia Osipova (Royal Ballet)
• Diana Vishneva (Mariinsky Ballet)

Outstanding Company

• English National Ballet
• Mark Morris Dance Group
• Northern Ballet
• Stuttgart Ballet
• Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
• Ballet Black
• HeadSpaceDance
• Mark Bruce Company
• New Movement Collective

Best Classical Choreography

• David Dawson (The Human Seasons for the Royal Ballet)
• Arthur Pita (A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream for Ballet Black)
• Liam Scarlett (No Man’s Land for ENB)
• Christopher Wheeldon (The Winter’s Tale for the Royal Ballet)

Best Modern Choreography

• Richard Alston (The Britten Bill for Richard Alston Dance Company)
• Mark Bruce (Dracula for Mark Bruce Company)
• Akram Khan (Dust for ENB)
• Arthur Pita (Facada in Osipova and Vasiliev’s Solo for Two)
• Crystal Pite (The Tempest Replica for Kidd Pivot)

Emerging Artist Award

• Francesca Hayward (dancer, Royal Ballet)
• Drew McOnie (choreographer, the McOnie Company)
• Kevin Poeung (dancer, Northern Ballet)
• Marcelino Sambé (dancer, Royal Ballet)
• Alexander Whitley (choreographer, Alexander Whitley Dance Company)

Outstanding Female Performance (Classical)

• Alina Cojocaru (Medora in Le Corsaire for ENB)
• Francesca Hayward (in Rhapsody for the Royal Ballet)
• Natalia Osipova (as Giselle for the Royal Ballet)
• Kristina Shapran (Terpsichore in Apollo for the Mariinsky)

Outstanding Male Performance (Classical)

• Yonah Acosta (Conrad in Le Corsaire for ENB)
• Alexander Jones (Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew for Stuttgart Ballet)
• Vadim Muntagirov (Conrad in Le Corsaire for ENB)
• Xander Parish (as Apollo for the Mariinsky)

Outstanding Female Performance (Modern)

• Fang-Yi Sheu (in PastPresent and Two x Two at Sadler’s Wells)
• Wendy Houstoun (in Pact With Pointlessness)
• Carys Staton (in Still Current for Russell Maliphant Company)
• Clemmie Sveaas (in If Play Is Play for HeadSpaceDance)

Outstanding Male Performance (Modern)

• Miguel Altunaga (in Rooster for Rambert)
• Jonathan Goddard (as Dracula for Mark Bruce Company)
• Akram Khan (in Dust for ENB)
• Liam Riddick (in Illuminations for Richard Alston Dance Company)