The Dance Section of the UK Critics’ Circle announces the short-listed nominations for the 25th National Dance Awards (#NDA25). The National Dance Awards have been organised each year of this Millennium to celebrate the vigour and variety of Britain’s thriving dance culture. The nominations are made 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 Committee is: Debra Craine (Deputy Chair), Sarah Crompton, Maggie Foyer, Jonathan Gray, Lynette Halewood, Donald Hutera, Josephine Leask, Bruce Marriott, Emily May, David Mead, Sanjoy Roy, Graham Watts OBE (Chair), Deborah Weiss (Secretary) and Lyndsey Winship
The qualifying period for performances was between 1 January and 31 December 2024.
In total, there were 365 companies, choreographers, performers and other creative artists nominated in 2024 (up from 311 in 2023), from which the short-listed nominees are:
BEST MALE DANCER
Tommy Franzén
Francesco Gabriele Frola
Aakash Odedra
Marcelino Sambé
Joseph Sissens
BEST FEMALE DANCER
Rebecca Bassett-Graham
Francesca Hayward
Sangeun Lee
Erina Takahashi
Eva Yerbabuena
STEF STEFANOU AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMPANY
Birmingham Royal Ballet
National Ballet of Canada
Matthew Bourne‘s New Adventures
The Royal Ballet
Sarasota Ballet
BEST MID-SCALE COMPANY
Acosta Danza
Ballet Black
Boy Blue
Gandini Juggling
Scottish Dance Theatre
BEST INDEPENDENT COMPANY
Mark Bruce Company
London City Ballet
Lost Dog
Pagrav Dance
Yorke Dance Project
BEST CLASSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY
Joshua Junker for Never Known
Akram Khan and Others for Gigensis
Crystal Pite for Angel’s Atlas
Aakash Odedra and Aditi Mangaldas for Mehek
Pam Tanowitz for Or Forevermore
BEST MODERN CHOREOGRAPHY
Kyle Abraham for Love Letter (on Shuffle)
Kim Brandstrup for the Greek Mythology choreographies
Marc Brew and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for An Accident/A Life
Susan Kempster for Mother
Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young for Assembly Hall
EMERGING ARTIST AWARD
Ivana Bueno (dancer)
Daichi Ikarashi (dancer)
Caspar Lench (dancer)
Kennedy Junior Muntanga (dancer & choreographer)
James Pett & Travis Clausen-Knight (as choreographers)
OUTSTANDING FEMALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Rebecca Bassett-Graham in Autobiography
Isabela Coracy in The Waiting Game
Kristen McNally in The Statement
Aishwarya Raut in Analogue
Hannah Shepherd in Ruination
OUTSTANDING MALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Isaac Baptiste (Turbo) as the Mad Hatter in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Marc Brew in An Accident/A Life
Harrison Dowzell as the Swan in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Tommy Franzén in Minotaur & as Ernest in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Jonathan Goddard as Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankenstein
OUTSTANDING FEMALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
Marge Hendrick as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire
Aditi Mangaldas in Mehek
Rocío Molina in Al Fondo Riela
Beatrice Parma as Lise in La Fille mal gardée
Erina Takahashi as Giselle in Akram Khan’s Giselle
OUTSTANDING MALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
William Bracewell as Des Grieux in Manon
Francesco Gabriele Frola as Albrecht in Giselle
Johan Kobborg as Il Matto in La Strada
Aakash Odedra in Mehek
Marcelino Sambé in Different Drummer
OUTSTANDING CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION
Sam Amidon (Singer/Songwriter, Nobodaddy)
Dick Bird (Design, Nutcracker)
Maria Seletskaja (Conductor)
Joseph Sissens for The Legacy Project
Tom Visser (Lighting Design)
The winners of all NDAs will be announced at a ceremony to be held on Monday 9 June at a London venue to be announced shortly. The event will also play host to the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement for which there are no prior nominations.
2024 saw the widest spread of companies with nominations at 34 (up 5 from 2023) and The Royal Ballet once again tops the list with a total of 11 nominations (equal to 2023), followed by English National Ballet (7) and jointly Aakash Odedra Company & Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company with 4 nominations for their joint production of Mehek.
Announcing the nominations, the Chair of the National Dance Awards, Graham Watts OBE, said,
As the National Dance Awards reach their quarter-century, 2024 was a year dominated by nominations from UK-based companies with just five nominees coming from visiting companies to the UK (The National Ballet of Canada, Sarasota Ballet and New York City Ballet from North America with flamenco artists, Rocío Molina and Eve Yerbabuena from Spain). From within the UK, I’m especially pleased to see half a dozen nominations for South Asian dance.”
A call for entries for Best Dance Film and Best Short Dance Film has been launched for films that were made or first shown in 2024. The closing date for entries is midnight on 27 April 2025 and the nominees in these categories will be announced in May.
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.