2014 UK National Dance Awards Shortlist
Every year the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards celebrate all that’s great in dance. As of this week, the votes have been counted for the shortlist of the 2014 National Dance awards, with the final names ranging across ballet, modern dance and flamenco.
The basic protocol of the awards is that voters have to be members of the Critics’ Circle, and the qualifying works have to have been performed in the UK in the last year, specifically between August 31, 2012 and September 1, 2013 for this round of awards.
The categories within the awards that focus on individuals are somewhat simplistic, choosing dancers and artists based on their singular performance or contribution to dance. However, the stylistic categories, such as “best classical choreography” or “best modern choreography,” becomes a little more complicated since the line between movement styles has become more hazy in recent years.
Nevertheless, here is the full list of nominations:
Best male dancer
– Dane Hurst (Rambert)
– Vadim Muntagirov (English National Ballet)
– Sergei Polunin (Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet and guest artist, Royal Ballet)
– Edward Watson (Royal Ballet)
Best female dancer
– Maria Kochetkova (San Francisco Ballet)
– Natalia Osipova (Mikhailovsky Ballet and guest artist, Royal Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet)
– Olga Smirnova (Bolshoi Ballet)
– Eva Yerbabuena (Ballet Flamenco Eva Yerbabuena)
Outstanding company
– Boston Ballet
– Mikhailovsky Ballet
– Rosas
– San Francisco Ballet
Best classical choreography
– Mark Morris (Beaux for San Francisco Ballet)
– David Nixon (The Great Gatsby for Northern Ballet)
– Alexei Ratmansky (24 Preludes for Royal Ballet)
– Christopher Wheeldon (Aeternum for Royal Ballet)
Best modern choreography
– Guilherme Botelho (Sideways Rain for Alias)
– Matthew Bourne (Sleeping Beauty for New Adventures)
– Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Puz/zle for Eastman)
– Russell Maliphant (Fallen for Ballet Boyz the Talent)
Outstanding female performance – classical
This category is geared towards dancers who are younger or less prominent, and covers a single performance of any dance style rooted within a traditional codified language, such as ballet, flamenco or kathak.
– Nancy Osbaldeston (for the ballerina in Petrushka for English National Ballet)
– Cira Robinson (in War Letters for Ballet Black)
– Akane Takada (for Olga in Onegin for Royal Ballet)
– Yuan Yuan Tan (in RAkU for San Francisco Ballet)
Outstanding male performance – classical
(See the same description above.)
– Jeffrey Cirio (in Plan to B for Boston Ballet)
– Israel Galvan (for flamenco performances at Sadler’s Wells)
– Nicolas Le Riche (in Le Jeune Homme et la Mort for English National Ballet)
– Brian Maloney (for Bratfisch in Mayerling for Royal Ballet)
Outstanding female performance – modern
– Julie Cunningham (in New Works 2012 for Michael Clark Company)
– Rocío Molina (in Danzaora at Sadler’s Wells)
– Clemmie Sveaas (in Witch-Hunt for Bern Ballett)
– Hannah Vassallo (for Aurora in Sleeping Beauty for New Adventures)
Outstanding male performance – modern
– Nathan Goodman (in Madcap for Richard Alston Dance Company)
– Christopher Marney (Count Lilac in Sleeping Beauty for New Adventures)
– Liam Riddick (in Buzzing Round the Hunisuccle for Richard Alston Dance Company)
– Paul White (in The Oracle for Meryl Tankard)
Best independent company
– bgroup
– Ballet Boyz the Talent
– New Movement Collective
– Shobana Jeyasingh Dance
Photo (top): Whitney Jensen, Bo Busby and Jeffrey Cirio in Jorma Elo’s Plan to B. Jeffrey Cirio was nominated for the award of Outstanding Male Performance – Classical for the 2014 National Dance awards. Photo by Gene Schiavone.