The Dance Section of the UK Critics’ Circle has announced its short-listed nominations for the National Dance Awards (#NDA24).
The qualifying period for performances was between 1st January and 31st December 2023, and the short-listed nominees are taken from nominations made by the members of the Dance section of the Critics’ Circle.
Although there was a wide spread of nominations covering a record 29 separate companies (+1 from 2022), The Royal Ballet once again tops the list with a total of 11 nominations (down from 14 in 2022), followed by Birmingham Royal Ballet and New Adventures (5 each) and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Flamenco Festival and Tiler Peck and Friends (4 each).
Announcing the nominations, the Chair of the National Dance Awards, Graham Watts OBE, said,
This is the best year yet for the diversity of nominations across the dance sector with a rich list from flamenco, south Asian dance, dance and musical theatre as well as the usual plethora of nominees from ballet and contemporary dance; all spread over a record number of companies.
In total, there were 311 companies, choreographers, performers and other creative artists nominated, from which the short-listed nominees are:
DANCING TIMES AWARD FOR BEST MALE DANCER
William Bracewell
Paris Fitzpatrick
Francesco Gabriele Frola
Brandon Lawrence
Vadim Muntagirov
BEST FEMALE DANCER
Sara Baras
Jemima Brown
Fumi Kaneko
Tiler Peck
Aishwarya Raut
STEF STEFANOU AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMPANY
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Nederlands Dans Theater
New Adventures
The Royal Ballet
BEST MID-SCALE COMPANY
Acosta Danza
Ballet Black
Ockham’s Razor
Scottish Dance Theatre
ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company
BEST INDEPENDENT COMPANY
Drew McOnie Company
Pett I Clausen-Knight
Russell Maliphant Dance Company
Seeta Patel Dance
Tiler Peck & Friends
BEST CLASSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY
Sara Baras for Alma for Compañia Sara Baras/The Flamenco Festival
David Dawson for Four Last Songs for English National Ballet
William Forsythe for The Barre Project for Tiler Peck & Friends
Wayne McGregor for Untitled, 2023 for The Royal Ballet
Seeta Patel for The Rite of Spring for Seeta Patel Dance
BEST MODERN CHOREOGRAPHY
Kyle Abrahams for Are you in Your Feelings? for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Drew McOnie for Nutcracker for Drew McOnie Company
Kristen McNally for The Limit at The Royal Opera House
Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney for Figures in Extinction (1.0) for Nederlands Dans Theater
Pam Tanowitz for Song of Songs for Pam Tanowitz Dance
EMERGING ARTIST AWARD
Nicole-Lily Baisden, musical theatre artist
Jordan James Bridge, dancer and choreographer
Eric Pinto Cata, artist, Birmingham Royal Ballet
Joshua Junker, choreographer, The Royal Ballet
Sae Maeda, soloist, The Royal Ballet
OUTSTANDING FEMALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Cordelia Braithwaite as Juliet in Romeo + Juliet for New Adventures
Jemima Brown in Surge for Tom Dale Company
Aditi Mangaldas in Forbidden for Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company
Dada Masilo as the Chosen One in The Sacrifice for Dance Consortium
Constance Stamatiou in Cry for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
OUTSTANDING MALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Harry Alexander in how did we get here? for Julie Cunningham & Company
Paris Fitzpatrick as Romeo in Romeo + Juliet for New Adventures
Yannick Lebrun in Dancing Spirit for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Liam Mower as Edward Scissorhands for New Adventures
Charlie Stemp as Bobby Child in Crazy for You
OUTSTANDING FEMALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
Sara Baras in Alma for Compañía Sara Baras in the Flamenco Festival
Isabela Coracy as Nina Simone in NINA: By Whatever Means for Ballet Black
Mercedes de Cordoba in Si, Quiero in the Flamenco Festival
Fumi Kaneko as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty for The Royal Ballet
Tiler Peck in Turn it Out for Tiler Peck and Friends
OUTSTANDING MALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
Gareth Haw in Four Last Songs for English National Ballet
Ryoichi Hirano as Espada in Don Quixote for The Royal Ballet
Brandon Lawrence in Liebestod for Birmingham Royal Ballet
Sooraj Subramaniam in The Rite of Spring for Seeta Patel Dance
Joseph Taylor as Gatsby in The Great Gatsby for Northern Ballet
OUTSTANDING CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION
Carlos Acosta for the concept of Black Sabbath – The Ballet for Birmingham Royal Ballet
Cormac Begley, musician/concertina player in MÁM for Teaċ Damsa
Ravi Deepres, visual artist for UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey for Studio Wayne McGregor
Cassie Kinoshi, composer for Nutcracker for Drew McOnie Company & England on Fire for the Balletboyz
Kate Shipway, pianist at The Royal Opera House
There are also awards for Best Dance Film and Best Short Dance Film and the nominees in these categories will be announced at the beginning of May.
The winners will be announced at a live lunchtime ceremony to be held at The Coronet Theatre on Monday 3 June. The Critics’ Circle is grateful to Anda Winters and the team at Coronet Theatre for their unstinting support.
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.
The National Dance Awards will be sponsored this year by Marquee TV, Harlequin Floors, Stef Stefanou, International Arts and Cultural Projects Ltd, Tendu, the Ballet Association, London Ballet Circle, The L&M Trust, Lee McLernon, Danza&Danza International, Celeste Fenichel, Fern Potter and others to be announced.
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.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.