[Review] English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Award 2024

Competition: the activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others.

Defeat. Superiority. There’s no grey area in relation to the descriptive underpinning of the word/concept competition.

Competition to me has always been synonymous with sport. Being the best at a sport is easy to analyse – fastest, farthest etc. So what happens when competition relocates to the arts? Does subjectivity get in the way? Are the winners actually the winners, or just personal favourites?

The responsibility is on the judging panel, and also the credible, holistic criteria they’re hopefully using to inform decision-making. Current fashion means words like artistry, musicality and interpretation abound so that competition environments don’t feel too sport-like. But a little social media research would suggest that any attempts at trying to maintain balance and integrity in dance competition environments, and the attached value systems are (currently) failing. Not across the board, but enough to warrant discussion.

Once over a triple pirouette was considered a wow moment. Now? 19 spins, and generally in an unattractive position executed with a “sitting” dynamic are de rigueur. Additionally, we now have to consider that 19th-century choreography is all about “look how high my leg is regardless of the appropriate style”. And you guessed it – the 180-degree-plus extension isn’t well placed physically or contextually.

Most (reputable) competitions are geared towards students coming to the end of their training, and exposure to experienced coaches and industry audiences are of course beneficial. However, with the Emerging Dancer Award (award, not competition… though there is a winner), started by former English National Ballet artistic director Wayne Eagling in 2010, we move into the professional sphere. A different proposition.

So what’s the point of it? The benefits of the EDA are much the same as elsewhere. The ‘competitors’, experience exposure to classical and modern repertoire, and coaching that perhaps they wouldn’t otherwise – coaching that is in part overseen by their ENB peers. This is surely beneficial for all involved, encouraging generosity, humility, self-reflection, and deepened analysis skills, and therefore a very worthwhile component of the event.

They also enjoy additional stage time, with the opportunity to perform for an audience full of normal folk, hardcore balletomanes, their own company’s senior management and a broader cross-section of industry power players. Quids in.

And perhaps most importantly, the six dancers selected have been chosen by the ENB company members, their contemporaries, meaning that the selection process comes from a place of recognition and respect… unless there’s full-scale, tactical manoeuvring at play of course. I jest.

Elsewhere, the evening features two additional awards:

The People’s Choice Award, which is self-explanatory. Meaning Yvonne from Bristol has her say too (Hi Yvonne!). This recognition is tantamount to understanding which dancer(s) speaks to the average audience member, who doesn’t necessarily contemplate the proficiency of an artist’s temps de flèche execution when they’re deciding they like to watch a specific individual more than another.

And the Corps de Ballet Award, bestowed by ENB’s Artistic team to an Artist of the Company who has gone “above and beyond, both on stage and off” – yay for the underdog!

So, to 2024 and the featured dancers. The information below was sourced from the ENB website, and includes all the necessary data:

• Anna-Babette Winkler and Jose María Lorca Menchón perform an excerpt from La Bayadère (Gamzatti and Solor) and the final duet from Akram Khan‘s Dust. They worked with Repetiteur Mavin Khoo and were mentored by Lead Principal Erina Takahashi and First Soloists James Streeter and Junor Souza.
• Breanna Foad and Thiago Pereira dance a pas de deux from Satanella and perform a new contemporary work by Choreographer Ching-Ying Chien. They were mentored by Lead Principals Fernanda Oliveira and Francesco Gabriele Frola, and First Soloist Daniel McCormick.
• Anna Ciriano and Shunhei Fuchiyama present a pas de deux from Don Quixote, and were mentored by Lead Principal Shiori Kase, First Soloist Ken Saruhashi, and Artists Lucinda Strachan and Ashley Coupal. English National Ballet dancers Rentaro Nakaaki and Fabian Reimair created the choreography and music respectively for a new contemporary work.
• 2022’s Emerging Dancer winner Eric Snyder and People’s Choice winner Precious Adams perform a pas de deux from Delibes Suite by José Carlos Martínez.

Also vitally important are the bastions of choice – the judges:

• Amanda Britton MA, Dancer with Rambert (1984 – 1993), Chief Executive, Principal and Artistic Director of Rambert School
• Isabela Coracy, Dancer with Ballet Black, and winner of the 2024 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance
• Monica Zamora, Dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet (1991 – 2003), Teacher
• Edward Watson MBE, Dancer with the Royal Ballet (1994 – 2020), Repetiteur

A very experienced, informed, and broad gaggle IMHO, but I didn’t envy them at all, as the night didn’t quite go to plan.

Two of the classical pas de deux ended up going in the wrong direction, and overall the modern pieces didn’t work as vehicles to show the dancers at their best.

I wonder whether La Bayadère is the right choice, especially the Act 1 pas d’action, as the roles are well known and very demanding.

Jose María Lorca Menchón did a commendable job with Solor, bringing presence and characterisation to the role, but still needs more technical finesse.

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.

The couple did adequately in Kahn’s Dust, but their movement lacked the physical fullness and emotional depth the piece requires.

Satanella performed by Breanna Foad and Thiago Pereira was a much better choice, and accomplished experience. Pereira has technical and charismatic ease, and Foad presented herself as a serious contender from the outset, with assured and sophisticated work for the duration.

The contemporary pas de deux by Ching-Ying Chien had too little dance and far too much knot-tying exploration and “woman as prop” approach. Pereira looked largely lost, whereas Foad revelled in the unhinged, maniac role, and showed true understanding of weight transfer and articulated dynamic within it.

Considering the wedding pas de deux from Don Quixote is probably the most infamous gala ditty, again I feel it was a bad choice of repertoire.

Anna Ciriano’s Kitri was personality-heavy but technically lacking, and Shunhei Fuchiyama’s attack fuelled Basilio definitely had fireworks but needs more elegance to improve the overall balance. Sadly an overhead presage lift went badly wrong which saw Ciriano plummet to the floor. Considering this, she did extremely well to recover at all, and I pray that Fuchiyama doesn’t beat himself up too much. Accidents will happen. Ballet is hard.

The modern work by company dancer Rentaro Nakaaki was absolutely the best contemporary offering of the evening. The overall production shows real promise, but the movement language needs further development as it currently feels a tad predictable and middle ground. Both dancers brought purpose, but nothing felt remarkable.

After the interval previous winners Eric Snyder and Precious Adams brought some much needed finesse to José Carlos Martínez’s Delibes Suite. The piece is on the camp side, so it’s difficult to understand how much of the performance was coquettish as opposed to simply affected. That said, Snyder is like positivity infused caramel, and Adams seems totally in charge of her capable dancing and captivated audience.

Unsurprisingly Breanna Foad was crowned the Emerging Dancer Award winner of 2024. She was the clear front-runner, and proved herself an accomplished, varied dancer on the night.

The Corps de Ballet Award went to Anna-Babette Winkler which felt befitting. She’d had an unlucky show, and is clearly an important, much-loved member of the troupe so brava to her.

The People’s Choice Award went to Precious Adams for the second time, the second dancer to accomplish this feat after Laurretta Summerscales. Adams is indeed a very interesting dancer, and it will be intriguing to see how she develops technically and personally with more featured work and notoriety.

The current ENB artistic director Aaron S Watkin came across as a very generous, humble leader which is great to see. Dancers need encouragement and support within the demand and rigour of the art form, and he seems to be an individual capable of offering it.

The night didn’t show the company in the best light. I appreciate the amount of pressure the dancers were under, and live performance should never be taken for granted. Things can, and will go wrong no matter how much rehearsal time is put in. But the unfortunate moments were on the inexcusable side considering the company’s industry position, and the fact the event is meant to highlight where the emerging talent is going, not regressing.

Closing on a somewhat positive note, we didn’t see 19 spins or 180-degree-plus extensions anywhere; take serious note Youth American Grand Prix (et al) contestants. The work was largely approached with an awareness of taste and appropriateness, and this is good news indeed. However, the experience still left an amateur feel in the air. It lacked polish.

Matthew Paluch Guest Author

Matthew Paluch was awarded a place at The Royal Ballet School in 1990 where he graduated in 1997. His first four years as a professional dancer were spent working with London City Ballet, Scottish Ballet, K-Ballet and English National Ballet, becoming a full-time member of ENB until leaving in 2006.

Matthew graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance, Professional Dancers’ Teaching Diploma in 2007, and was formerly on faculty at The Royal Ballet School. He completed his Masters in Ballet Studies at Roehampton University in 2011, has been a freelance writer since 2010 and currently works in the Law Sector.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.