Press Release: English National Ballet Announces Winners of Emerging Dancer 2024

[Jan McNulty]

English National Ballet Announces Winners of Emerging Dancer 2024

 

English National Ballet is thrilled to announce that the winner of the 2024 Emerging Dancer Award is Breanna Foad.

 

Photo caption: English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer winner Breanna Foad © Laurent Liotardo

 

Having performed the Venetian Carnival duet from Satanella and Penrose, a new contemporary work by Ching-Ying Chien, with her partner Thiago Pereira, Breanna Foad was announced as the winner during the Emerging Dancer event, hosted by English National Ballet’s Artistic Director, Aaron S. Watkin, at Sadler’s Wells this evening (Friday 24 May 2024). 

 

Of winning the 2024 Emerging Dancer Award, Breanna Foad said: "I am incredibly shocked and grateful for being the winner of Emerging Dancer. I've learned so much during this process. It's such an honor to win this prize and I feel so motivated to keep growing as an artist."

 

The evening also saw Anna-Babette Winkler, also an Emerging Dancer finalist, named as the recipient of the Corps de Ballet Award, acknowledging her exceptional work over the last year, while Soloist Precious Adams was awarded the People’s Choice Award, as voted for by members of the public throughout the season.

 

The event allows English National Ballet to showcase the excellence of its artists. This year’s esteemed judging panel included Amanda Britton MA, Chief Executive, Principal and Artistic Director of Rambert School; Monica Zamora, Former Principal Dancer of Birmingham Royal Ballet; Edward Watson MBE, Former Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet; and Isabela Coracy, Senior Artist of Ballet Black.

 

 

Aaron S. Watkin, Artistic Director of English National Ballet said: “Emerging Dancer is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate English National Ballet’s incredible young talent and a bright future of ballet. The standard we saw on stage tonight has been exceptional and a joy to watch - I know it will have been very difficult for our panel to pick a winner. Huge congratulations to Breanna Foad, I can’t wait to see what’s next for this brilliant dancer.”

 

The other finalists this year were Anna Ciriano, Shunhei Fuchiyama, Jose María Lorca Menchón, Thiago Pereira and Anna-Babette Winkler.

 

English National Ballet Philharmonic performed live throughout the evening, finished with the Delibes Suite pas de deux performed by the 2022 Emerging Dancer winner Eric Snyder and People’s Choice Precious Adams. 

 

A full recording of the event will be available on English National Ballet’s YouTube channel from Thursday 30 May, for a limited time of 30 days.

 

 

Emerging Dancer 2024 is supported by CHANEL. 

 

The People’s Choice Award is supported by Alexis and Frances Prenn.

 

 

Notes to Editors

English National Ballet is a National Portfolio Organisation supported by Arts Council England.

Ballymore is Principal Building Partner of English National Ballet.

 

About English National Ballet

English National Ballet has a long and distinguished history. Founded in 1950 as London Festival Ballet by the great English dancers Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, it has been at the forefront of ballet’s growth and evolution ever since.

 

English National Ballet brings world class ballet to the widest possible audience through performances across the UK and on eminent international stages; its distinguished orchestra, English National Ballet Philharmonic; its digital platforms Ballet on Demand and BalletActive; being a UK leader in creative learning and engagement practice, building innovative partnerships to deliver flagship programmes such as Dance for Parkinson’s; and through talent development initiatives including Ballet Futures which looks to create a more diverse and inclusive future for the artform.

English National Ballet continues to add ground-breaking new works to its repertoire whilst celebrating the tradition of great classical ballet, gaining acclaim for artistic excellence and creativity. 2019 saw the Company enter a new chapter in its history with a move to a purpose-built state-of-the-art home in east London, allowing a renewed commitment to creativity, ambition, and connection to more people, near and far, than ever before.

[Emeralds]

Thank you, @San Perregrino!

Congratulations to Breanna Foad! 💐 

[Emeralds]

(My reply above was moved from the old Emerging Dancer thread before the event thanking @ San Perregrino for the running time information but it's too late for me to edit; I didn't know if a new thread would be started for the results or continued under the old one.) 

 

Congratulations also to Precious Adams on her People's Choice Award win and Anna-Babette Winkler on her Corps de Ballet Award! (I posted the first reply before I got the news about the other two awards).

 

Lots of great performances from all the three winners this season so far and last season;  well deserved. 👏 

[LinMM]

Congratulations to Breanna Foad 

I couldn’t make it this year but she would have been my choice. 

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

(My reply above was moved from the old Emerging Dancer thread before the event thanking @ San Perregrino for the running time information but it's too late for me to edit; I didn't know if a new thread would be started for the results or continued under the old one.) 

 

 

ENB issued a press release which was published before your response on the old thread.

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

ENB issued a press release which was published before your response on the old thread.

Thanks @Jan McNulty! I didn't have time to check all the new threads this morning  but great to see the full results now. 

[Sophoife]

Aussie Aussie Aussie!! 🤣

[Amanda Liu]

The video is now available to watch on YouTube until 28th June.

[LACAD]

After watching the stream it’s quite clear that Breanna Foad is a gem in ENB’s corps de ballet. I knew she had something special since seeing her freshly plucked from the corps by Mats Ek as the lead in the second cast for his Rite of Spring (with Francesco Gabriele Frola as her partner no less!).

 

Thiago Pereira and Shunhei Fuchiyama also impressed me, as did Precious Adams and Eric Snyder in their guest appearance. What fluency they’ve developed, and, as Watkins said upon bestowing the People’s Choice Award—Adams is certainly an exciting ballerina for the company, a principal ranking just might be on the horizon.

 

The competition wasn’t as nail biting as other years, but this year it seemed to all come down to the wonderfully performed contemporary duets. I could watch Breanna’s skulking all night.

[Henry]

I enjoy this event very much.  It's a good to give young dancers a chance to take on  a new challenge. This year I watched on Youtube.  

 

Matthew Paluch in his review on Gramilano refers to a "big fall" 

 

"I'm afraid Anna-Babette Winkler didn't have a great night. She's a very understated, placed dancer, but a number of mishaps and a big fall meant that her performance was more about survival than flourishing."

 

I didn't see this.  Has it been taken out of the Youtube video?  There is a clumsy cut to the audience as the pas de deux reaches a climax.  

 

 

[Emeralds]

On 02/06/2024 at 10:35, Henry said:

I enjoy this event very much.  It's a good to give young dancers a chance to take on  a new challenge. This year I watched on Youtube.  

 

Matthew Paluch in his review on Gramilano refers to a "big fall" 

 

"I'm afraid Anna-Babette Winkler didn't have a great night. She's a very understated, placed dancer, but a number of mishaps and a big fall meant that her performance was more about survival than flourishing."

 

I didn't see this.  Has it been taken out of the Youtube video?  There is a clumsy cut to the audience as the pas de deux reaches a climax.  

 

 

I wasn't able to attend in person in the end,  but I saw two abrupt edits where it got switched to footage of the audience briefly - in the middle of the Bayadere pas de deux (Winkler/Menchon) and the Don Quixote pas de deux (Ciriano/Fuchiyama) so maybe an accidental error/fall/slip happened and a decision was taken by Watkin/lcoaches/after consulting the dancers/all the above to edit it out to show the dancers at their best rather than leaving tempting pieces of footage in cyberspace for pranksters to copy and make menes/cruel videos out of. 

 

I haven't finished all of it yet, but just want to mention (for those who haven't managed to watch it yet and would like recommendations) Breanna and Thiago presented the charming and less often staged Carnaval de Venise pas de deux from Satanella as a wonderful showcase of artistry, Anna and Shunhei really brought the wow factor in their Don Q variations which was a  marvellous treat for an audience, and  Anna-Babette and Jose were stunning in the Dust pas de deux (a piece more difficult than a lot of classical and contemporary pas de deux often used in competitions and galas). 

 

Will mention more when I've finished seeing the remaining contemporary pieces as well as Precious and Eric's performance, but if one is short of time and would like suggestions about what to skip/fast forward to those are my three recommendations for the moment.  🙂

Edited June 4 by Emeralds