Life for independent dance artists is getting harder, as funding cuts bite deeper, rents for rehearsal space rise and regional theatres reduce their programmes. Yet one of the outstanding features of this year’s National Dance Awards, whose nominations have just been announced, has been the heroic strength and variety of the work coming from the independent sector: ranging from Ben Duke’s epic, funny dialogue with Milton’s Paradise Lost to the Canadian ice skating ensembleLe Patin Libre.
Ice dance has never been represented in the awards before and Vertical Influences is a deserving contender, a work that not only reinvents its own genre, but plays with choreographic possibilities that I’d never imagined on or off ice.
This year has also been a good one for flamenco, with the maverick genius of Israel Galván nominated for best male dancer, the equally fierce Rocío Molina for outstanding female dancer (modern) and the choreographers of Paco Peña’sFlamencura nominated for best classical choreography.
I’m not sure that the health of an artform can be judged by a set of award nominations, but it’s also been heartening to see the strong showing of women across this list. Two fiftysomething dancers, Alessandra Ferri and Sylvie Guillem, scoop nominations in two of the categories; women make a decent (if not equal) showing in company and choreographer categories, with Crystal Pite’s magnificent Polaris gunning for the best modern choreography award. There’s also the glimmer of a less London-centric focus, with nominations for several artists and companies based outside the capital, including Rosie Kay for her remarkable portrait of army life, 5 Soldiers.
Below are the full nominations, based on work performed in the UK between 1 September 2014 and 31 August 2015. The winners will be announced on 25 January 2016.
National Dance Awards 2015: the nominations in full
Best male dancer
- Tobias Batley (Northern Ballet)
- Israel Galván (Compañía Israel Galván)
- Steven McRae (The Royal Ballet)
- Vadim Muntagirov (The Royal Ballet)
- Edward Watson (The Royal Ballet)
Best female dancer
- Alina Cojocaru (English National Ballet)
- Alessandra Ferri (guest with The Royal Ballet)
- Sylvie Guillem (Life in Progress Tour)
- Rocío Molina (Compañía Rocío Molina)
- Marianela Nuñez (The Royal Ballet)
Outstanding company
- Candoco Dance Company
- English National Ballet
- Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures
- Northern Ballet
Best independent company
- 2Faced Dance
- Ballet Cymru
- Company Chameleon
- Rosie Kay Dance Company
- Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
Best classical choreography
- Paco Peña, Fernando Romera, Angel Muñoz, Charo Espino and Carmen Rivas (Flamencura for Paco Peña Company)
- David Bintley (The King Dances for Birmingham Royal Ballet)
- Wayne McGregor (Woolf Works for The Royal Ballet)
- Liam Scarlett (Age of Anxiety for The Royal Ballet)
- Kenneth Tindall (The Architect for Northern Ballet)
Best modern choreography
- Mark Baldwin (Dark Arteries for Rambert Dance Company)
- Ben Duke (Paradise Lost [lies unopened beside me] for Lost Dog)
- Rosie Kay (5 Soldiers for Rosie Kay Dance Company)
- Le Patin Libre (Vertical Influences for Le Patin Libre)
- Crystal Pite (Polaries for Sadler’s Wells)
Emerging artist award
- Avatâra Ayuso (choreographer and performer, Ava Dance / Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company)
- Matthew Ball (dancer – The Royal Ballet)
- Cesar Corrales (dancer – English National Ballet)
- Carlos Pons Guerra (choreographer – Denada Dance Theatre)
- Kenneth Tindall (freelance choreographer)
Outstanding female performance (classical)
- Lauren Cuthbertson (in Song of the Earth for The Royal Ballet)
- Alessandra Ferri (as Virginia Woolf in Woolf Works for The Royal Ballet)
- Francesca Hayward (in the title role as Manon for The Royal Ballet)
- Laura Morera (as Lise in La Fil Mal Gardée for The Royal Ballet)
- Eve Mutso (as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet)
Outstanding male performance (classical)
- Matthew Ball (as Lensky in Onegin for The Royal Ballet)
- William Bracewell (as Louis XIV in The King Dances for Birmingham Royal Ballet)
- Erik Cavallari (as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet)
- Kimin Kim (as Siegfried in Swan Lake for St Petersburg Ballet Theatre)
- Vadim Muntagirov (in Symphonic Variations for The Royal Ballet)
Outstanding female performance (modern)
- Sylvie Guillem (in Life in Progress)
- Rocío Molina (in Bosque Ardora)
- Nancy Nerantzi (as Marie in Burning for Richard Alston Dance Company)
- Zizi Strallen (as Lana in The Car Man for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures)
Outstanding male performance (modern)
- Ben Duke (in Paradise Lost [lies unopened beside me] for Lost Dog)
- Israel Galván (in Torobaka)
- Igor and Moreno (for Idiot-Syncracy)
- Dominic North (in the title role as Edward Scissorhands for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures)
- Liam Riddick (as Franz Liszt in Burning for Richard Alston Dance Company)
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