English National Ballet's Emerging Dancer competition, now in its tenth edition, will be hosted by former Principal of The Royal Ballet Adam Cooper. The competition will return to Sadler's Wells on Tuesday 7 May 2019 and will be live streamed worldwide.
Through this annual event, English National Ballet recognises the excellence of its artists who are selected by their peers to take part. Six of the company's most promising dancers perform in front of a distinguished panel of judges before one of them receives the 2019 Emerging Dancer Award.
Also revealed on the night will be the recipients of the People's Choice Award, voted on by members of the public, and the Corps de Ballet Award, acknowledging the work on and off-stage of a member of the company's Corps de Ballet.
Joining ENB's Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo, on the judging panel will be Guest Character Artist at English National Ballet and former Principal of The Royal Ballet Michael Coleman; dance writer Gerald Dowler; performer, choreographer and director Carrie-Anne Ingrouille; founder of mavinkhooDance and rehearsal director to Akram Khan Company Mavin Khoo; and former Principal of The Royal Ballet Sarah Wildor.
Each finalist will first perform a classical pas de deux and a contemporary solo: Rhys Antoni Yeomans and Emilia Cadorin dance a pas de deux from Coppelia, Julia Conway and Rentaro Nakaaki will dance that from the Flames of Paris, and Shale Wagman and Alice Bellini will perform the Grand Pas Classique.
Rhys Antoni Yeomans will then dance a solo from William Forsythe‘s In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Rentaro Nakaaki will dance Own created by choreographer Nuno Campos and Shale Wagman will perform Peculiar Mind choreographed by Nürnberg Ballet dancer Sofie Vervaecke.
Alice Bellini performs Danish choreographer Sebastian Kloborg's CLAN B, Julia Conway has worked with Rambert dancer Miguel Altunaga who has created a piece for her solo, Untitled Code, and Emilia Cadorin will dance BAM! choreographed by English National Ballet First Soloist Fabian Reimair, who has also composed the music to the piece.
The evening will also see a special performance from last year's Emerging Dancer Award winner Daniel McCormick, who will perform a pas de deux from Don Quixote with First Artist Francesca Velicu.
As is tradition, and a very fine touch, this year's finalists have been mentored by their peers in the Company. Pedro Lapetra has worked with Julia Conway and Rentaro Nakaaki; Julia has also worked with Shiori Kase during the process. Alice Bellini has been supported by Junor Souza and Fernanda Oliveira, as well as Jeffrey Cirio for her solo; Erina Takahashi and Adela Ramírez have coached Emilia Cadorin; Shale Wagman has been mentored by Fernando Bufalá and Rhys Antonio Yeomans has been working with James Forbat and Barry Drummond.
The evening will be live streamed via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Last year the Emerging Dancer LIVE achieved over 100,000 views worldwide.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
