National Dance Awards 2019 - nominations

[bridiem]

The nominations for the 2019 National Dance Awards have been announced. Press release:

 

In the year of the Awards’ 20^th Anniversary, the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle is pleased to announce the short-listed nominations for the National Dance Awards  (#NDA20), covering performances in the UK between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2019.

 

The short-listed nominees are taken from nominations made by the members of the Dance section of the Critics’ Circle, over thirty of whom participated in the judging process this year.

In total there were 418 companies, choreographers, performers and other creative artists nominated (up from 396 in 2018) from which the short-listed nominees are:

 

DANCING TIMES AWARD FOR BEST MALE DANCER
Alexander Campbell (The Royal Ballet)
Jeffrey Cirio (English National Ballet)
Israel Galván (Compañia Israel Galván)
Vadim Muntagirov (The Royal Ballet)
Marcelino Sambé (The Royal Ballet)
 

BEST FEMALE DANCER
Sara Baras (Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras/Flamenco Festival)
Francesca Hayward (The Royal Ballet)
Katja Khaniukova (English National Ballet)
Laura Morera (The Royal Ballet)
Marianela Nuñez (The Royal Ballet)
 

STEF STEFANOU AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMPANY
Mark Morris Dance Group
Northern Ballet
The Royal Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
Scottish Ballet
 

BEST INDEPENDENT COMPANY
Ballet Black
James Cousins Company
National Dance Company Wales
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance
Yorke Dance Project
 

BEST CLASSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY
Patricia Guerrero for Catedral (Flamenco Festival)
Cathy Marston for Victoria (Northern Ballet)
Helen Pickett for The Crucible (Scottish Ballet)
Stina Quagebeur for Nora (English National Ballet)
Alexei Ratmansky for Shostakovich Trilogy (San Francisco Ballet)
 

BEST MODERN CHOREOGRAPHY
Matthew Bourne for Romeo + Juliet (New Adventures)
William Forsythe for A Quiet Evening of Dance (William Forsythe/Sadler’s Wells)
Shobana Jeyasingh for Contagion (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance)
Arthur Pita for The Mother (Alexandra Markvo/Bird & Carrot)
Pam Tanowitz for Four Quartets (Pam Tanowitz Dance)
 

EMERGING ARTIST AWARD
Jemima Brown (Dancer, Tom Dale Company & James Cousins Company)
Salomé Pressac (Dancer, Rambert)
Mthuthuzeli November (Choreographer, Ballet Black)
Stina Quagebeur (Choreographer, English National Ballet)
Joseph Sissens (First Artist, The Royal Ballet)
 

OUTSTANDING FEMALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Avatâra Ayuso in No Woman’s Land (AVA Dance Company)
Cordelia Braithwaite  as Juliet in Romeo + Juliet (New Adventures)
Jemima Brown in Epilogues (James Cousins Company)
Natalia Osipova in the title role as The Mother (Alexandra Markvo/Bird & Carrot)
Solène Weinachter as Juliet in Juliet & Romeo (Lost Dog)
 

OUTSTANDING MALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Mathew Ball as the Swan/Stranger in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (New Adventures)
Jonathan Goddard in The Mother (Alexandra Markvo/Bird & Carrot)
Liam Mower as the Prince in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (New Adventures)
Joseph Sissens in Night of 100 Solos (Merce Cunningham Trust/The Barbican)
Saburo Teshigawara in The Idiot (Saburo Teshigawara/ The Print Room at the Coronet)
 

OUTSTANDING FEMALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
Sara Baras in Sombras (Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras/ Flamenco Festival)
Francesca Hayward as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (The Royal Ballet)
Katja Khaniukova as Frida in Broken Wings (English National Ballet)
Pippa Moore as Princess Beatrice in Victoria (Northern Ballet)
Anna Rose O’Sullivan as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (The Royal Ballet)
 

OUTSTANDING MALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
Gary Avis as Kulygin in Winter Dreams (The Royal Ballet)
Cesar Corrales as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (The Royal Ballet)
Nehemiah Kish as the Husband in The Concert (The Royal Ballet)
Marcelino Sambé as the Blue Boy in Les Patineurs (The Royal Ballet)
Nicholas Shoesmith as John Proctor in The Crucible (Scottish Ballet)
 

OUTSTANDING CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION
Koen Kessels (Conductor; Music Director, The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet)
Nadine Meisner (Author, Marius Petipa: The Emperor’s Ballet Master)
Dimitris Papaioannou (Designer, The Great Tamer)
Peter Salem (Composer, The Crucible)
Gavin Sutherland (Conductor/ Music Director, English National Ballet)
 

The winners will be announced at a lunchtime ceremony to be held in Central London on Wednesday, 19^th February 2020.

The event will also play host to the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement for which there are no prior nominations.

 

The National Dance Awards have been organised by the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle in each year of this Millennium to celebrate the vigour and variety of Britain’s thriving dance culture. They are presented by the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle, which brings together over 60 dance writers and critics.   They are the only awards given by the body of professional dance critics in the UK.

In announcing the awards, the chairman of the Dance Section, Graham Watts OBE, said: “Once again, the short-listed represent the remarkable diversity of dance in the United Kingdom with considerably more than half of the UK-based nominees originally coming from overseas.  It is also pleasing that eleven of the short-listed nominees were from visiting companies, more than double last year, including four from the world of flamenco, three from the USA and Saburo Teshigawara from Japan.”.

 

The Royal Ballet tops the list with a record number of fifteen nominations (plus another three for Royal Ballet dancers appearing in other productions).  English National Ballet has six nominations; Scottish Ballet and New Adventures have four each; the Flamenco Festival, Alexandra Markvo/Bird & Carrot, James Cousins Company and Northern Ballet have three apiece

Arthur Pita’s The Mother for Alexandra Markvo/Bird & Carrot and Helen Pickett’s The Crucible for Scottish Ballet are the most successful productions with three nominations each.   Dance theatre based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet received a total of six short-listed nominations, from three separate productions, spread across several categories.  Four separate interpreters of Juliet have been nominated, including Solène Weinachter, nominated for the second successive year for her performances in Lost Dog’s Juliet & Romeo; and two dancers from The Royal Ballet (Francesca Hayward and Anna Rose O’Sullivan) competing for the same award for their respective performances in Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet.

 

The Awards Committee wishes to express grateful thanks to our sponsors, without whom the event would not be possible; to the body of dance critics across the UK for giving their time to ensure the best possible list of nominees; and, above all, the companies, choreographers and performers for providing such a rich variety of choice.

[bridiem]

I see that BRB is (as I think is usual) totally ignored (apart from Koen Kessels). I personally would have nominated both Momoko Hirata and Cesar Morales for their performances in Giselle. I don't think BRB currently fits in with the NDA vision. More fool them.

 

But delighted to see Gary Avis (and others) nominated.

[Dawnstar]

I'm very pleased to see both Hayward & Corrales nominated for their R&J performances. Nominations for Manon in next years awards?!

[Bluebird]

15 minutes ago, bridiem said:

I see that BRB is (as I think is usual) totally ignored (apart from Koen Kessels). I personally would have nominated both Momoko Hirata and Cesar Morales for their performances in Giselle.

 

The nominations are for 2018/19 season performances in the UK.  BRB's Giselle was performed in the 2019/20 season.  Maybe we'll get to see their names in next year's nominations?

Edited November 15, 2019 by Bluebird

[bridiem]

1 minute ago, Bluebird said:

 

The nominations are for 2018/19 season performances in the UK.  BRB's Giselle was performed in the 2019/20 season.  Maybe we'll get to see their names in next year's nominations?

 

Thanks, Bluebird - I hadn't registered that. I hope they will indeed appear next year. And I hope that David Bintley will be awarded the De Valois award (which he won many years ago, but presumably there's no rule that it can't be awarded to someone again?). That would go some way to recognising not just his contribution but that of BRB.

[LinMM]

Hope this isn’t a daft question but can the general public vote in these awards? 

[bangorballetboy]

1 minute ago, LinMM said:

Hope this isn’t a daft question but can the general public vote in these awards? 

 

No, they are voted for by members of the dance section of the Critics' Circle.

[capybara]

I am shocked by some omissions.

[Xandra Newman]

9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Hope this isn’t a daft question but can the general public vote in these awards? 

 

I wish! We'd get a much more balanced and correct result instead of nominations only going to those dancers the critics decide to see.

[LinMM]

Okay thanks for that BBB....certainly a few there I’d like to vote for! 

Edited November 15, 2019 by LinMM

[Xandra Newman]

30 minutes ago, capybara said:

I am shocked by some omissions.

 Me too (and a nomination for somebody who was absent on stage for most of the Season? and barely danced anything at all?) How to take those nominations serious? Some nominations are fully justified and well-deserved, others simply subjective....

Edited November 15, 2019 by Xandra Newman
typo

[LinMM]

And to Xandra too! 
Im glad to see Gavin Sutherland there...he was interviewed at an ENB masterclass event on Wednesday and thought he was terrific. 

 

[akh]

Glad to see Avatara in there, a very intelligent dancer and choreographer , different in everything she does.

[Sim]

I am also surprised by certain omissions, and to be honest we see the same names cropping up year after year.  I am very surprised to see Nehemiah Kish nominated in the Outstanding Male Classical Performance.  Nothing against him;  he was wonderful in this comic role.  But OMCP???   A slight role in a Jerome Robbins piece?? Really?  I just don't get this one at all.

 

It would be so lovely if Morera won something. 

[Xandra Newman]

Just like our politicians, many of the UK critics have gone bonkers and are too narrow minded, frankly the NDA just made a laughing stock of themselves and I am not really encouraged to take them serious nor their nominations.

Yes keeping my fingers crossed for Laura Morera in Best Female Dancer category, a very well deserved nomination.

[Xandra Newman]

42 minutes ago, Sim said:

 I am very surprised to see Nehemiah Kish nominated in the Outstanding Male Classical Performance.  Nothing against him;  he was wonderful in this comic role.  But OMCP???   A slight role in a Jerome Robbins piece?? Really?  I just don't get this one at all.

 

Nor do I. Surely there are more deserving male dancers at BRB, or ENB, or any other company, or RB, who should have been nominated in the category Outstanding Male Classical Performance!

A minor role in Robbins gets Kish a nomination for OMCP

A dancer who hasn't danced at all for most of the year gets a nomination for Best Female Dancer

(enough said, at least I had a good laugh).

Edited November 15, 2019 by Xandra Newman
Typo (sorry I am dyslexic)

[Jane S]

The Outstanding Performance awards are for a single performance - someone who only appeared once in the whole year could be nominated.

[Xandra Newman]

7 minutes ago, Jane S said:

The Outstanding Performance awards are for a single performance - someone who only appeared once in the whole year could be nominated.

 I was not referring to the Outstanding Performance category   but to the Best Female Dancer category.

[bridiem]

Much as I enjoyed his performance, Kish's nomination is incomprehensible.

 

Needless to say, I am very pleased that Alexander Campbell has been nominated as best male dancer... and since he and Muntagirov share a dressing room and tease each other on Instagram, I think they will be highly amused that they have both been nominated. I wish they could both win!

 

And, I suppose it would be rather nice if Nadine Meisner won the Creative Contribution award for her Petipa book. Not that I've actually read it, I'm afraid; but it would be good if the amount of time and research and solitary effort that goes into writing such a book (and probably without great remuneration or sales) were to be recognised.

[Sharon]

Mayerling, La Bayadere, Winter Dreams, Don Quixote, The Firebird. I'm sorry if I've forgotten any, but did Yasmine Naghdi debut and  then be amazing in all these roles? 

[Xandra Newman]

Not in Mayerling, but Naghdi danced her debut on the Opening Night of Firebird (and according to reviews by the critics to great acclaim), Kitri in Don Q., Irina in Winter Dreams, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Sugar Plum, Unknown Soldier (a role Naghdi took over from Hayward when she took time out from dancing for most of the RB Season), and other roles. Being amazing seemingly doesn't work as a sole criteria Sharon: they only consider dancers they have seen whenever the critics have attended an opening night (at best they may attend a second performance in a run) therefore their nominations include some of the same dancers year after year after year. 

What's the point of those NDA nominations if not all dancers in the UK are being taken into consideration? The nominations are distorted because they are solely based on a certain selection of dancers the critics have seen and therefore they miss out on many superb performances by other dancers be they at it the RB, BRB, ENB, Scottish, Northern and other UK dance companies. Is there really no dancer at BRB worthy of a nomination? 

[Pulcinella]

1 hour ago, Xandra Newman said:

What's the point of those NDA nominations if not all dancers in the UK are being taken into consideration? The nominations are distorted because they are solely based on a certain selection of dancers the critics have seen and therefore they miss out on many superb performances by other dancers be they at it the RB, BRB, ENB, Scottish, Northern and other UK dance companies. Is there really no dancer at BRB worthy of a nomination? 

 

Brandon Lawrence? I know it doesn’t qualify for this year’s awards but his performance as Albrecht in Giselle is one of the best I’ve seen, along with Celine Gittens, but of course he didn’t perform it in London and the critics very rarely bother to travel out of London so it won’t be considered in next years  awards either. As already stated these awards would mean far more if they were nominated and voted for by the public.

[capybara]

22 minutes ago, Pulcinella said:

 

As already stated these awards would mean far more if they were nominated and voted for by the public.

 

Unfortunately, as soon as there are 'public votes' there is scope for manipulation and multiple voting by families, friends, and fans. It happens! 

[Xandra Newman]

Yes Brandon Lawrence indeed, very deserving. But no, the NDA nominated Kish instead in the category "Outstanding Classical Male Performance" for dancing a minor role. Unbelievable. 

And I cannot get my head around how the critics can possibly nominate a dancer in the "Best Female Dancer" category who didn't even dance most of the Season 2018-19, ignoring many outstanding dancers at RB, BRB, ( ENB  got one) who performed day in day out and delivered outstanding performances to their audience throughout the Season? It's mind boggling.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Xandra Newman
typo

[zxDaveM]

39 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

Unfortunately, as soon as there are 'public votes' there is scope for manipulation and multiple voting by families, friends, and fans. It happens! 

 

see Strictly Come Dancing....

[alison]

1 hour ago, Pulcinella said:

As already stated these awards would mean far more if they were nominated and voted for by the public.

 

But then they wouldn't be the Critics' Circle awards ...

[alison]

In the meantime, perhaps someone could wake me up once the winners have been announced - or perhaps a week or so afterwards ...

[Jan McNulty]

It is a fact of life that these awards are, as Alison has pointed out, are nominated for and voted on by the Dance Critics Circle and, therefore, will only cover companies and dancers that these critics have seen.  I think we must take them as such and congratulate all the nominees.

 

I actually think we are lucky that there are a number of critics who do take the trouble to see other companies and also more than one performance of the same production by the same company.

 

If you are puzzled by the nominations, one of the categories was changed some years ago when Chi Cao, by then an established principal at BRB, was nominated as best newcomer!!!  I assume it was because he was given a press night in London!

[capybara]

17 hours ago, bridiem said:

Needless to say, I am very pleased that Alexander Campbell has been nominated as best male dancer... and since he and Muntagirov share a dressing room and tease each other on Instagram, I think they will be highly amused that they have both been nominated. I wish they could both win!

 

From Instagram, it seems that Marcelino Sambe now also shares that dressing room.

 

I've just noticed that 30 dance critics voted this year, of whom 15 are on the NDA's 2019 Committee. I have seen many of those 15 at performances other than opening nights - enough times to suggest that, in common with the rest of us, there are particular dancers who interest them.

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by capybara

[bridiem]

17 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

From Instagram, it seems that Marcelino Sambe now also shares that dressing room.

 

Wow! Maybe the dressing room deserves a nomination! 😁

[alison]

*Three* principal dancers sharing a dressing-room?  Even with the recent "culls"?

[LinMM]

Perhaps they prefer it to being on their own! 

[capybara]

Reading today's reviews of the RB's Sleeping Beauty by David Dougill in The Sunday Times and Bidisha in The Observer has emphasised to me the curious and various world the critics inhabit.

After a column about the production and the story, Mr Dougill can hardly bring himself to mention the dancers (Matthew Ball gets only 7 words). And Bidisha, who I have not come across before, treats us, among other things, to: 

"I got Yasmine Naghdi and she is spectacular. Prowling and exultant, punchy and athletic, grinning from ear to ear. ............. She cavorts with a bravura display of skill, stamina and charisma, her majestically controlled high kicks and nonchalant turns reminding me more of a music-hall sailor than a fragile “pwintheth”."

"..................the production is underpowered and baggy, in massive need of updating". 

"At the interminable final wedding, pairs of guests perform like runners-up on Strictly".

"Keep an eye on Yasmine Naghdi and let the rest waft around you like a cheap scented candle."

I know that we have limitations as to the volume of quotes but the above represents only a small selection of Bidisha's comments.