Hamburg Ballet Takes It All at Benois de la Danse
On May 22nd, six star performers and famous personalities in the world of dance received prizes at the 20th annual Benois de la Danse Award ceremony at the Historic Bolshoi Theatre. The prizes were given for the best work in classical ballet or other genres of dance in 2011. The winners are as follows:Benois de la Danse for choreography went to Lar Lubovich, founder and director of the Lubovich Dance Company of New York, for Crisis Variations.
The award for the best performance by a ballerina went to Alina Cojocaru for the role of Julie in Liliom of the Hamburg Ballet.
For the best performances by male dancers the jury awarded two prizes, one to Mathias Heymann of the Paris Opera Ballet for dancing Zaël in La Source and the other one to Carsten Jung of the Hamburg Ballet for the title role in Liliom.
Benois de la Danse for the best composition was given to Michel Legrand for the music to Liliom of the Hamburg Ballet.
A special lifetime achievement award in choreography went to Pierre Lacotte, a French choreographer who celebrated his 80th birthday in April this year. He did most of his work for the Paris Opera, but choreographed productions for most of the famous ballet and opera houses in the world as well, including the Historic Bolshoi Theatre and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
The jury this year was co-chaired by Yuri Grigorovich, (choreographer of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia) and John Neumeier, director of the Hamburg Ballet (Germany). The rest of the jury was composed of Altynai Asylmuratova, artistic director of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg; Laurent Hilaire, ballet master and deputy director of the Paris Opera Ballet; Kim Joo-won, prima ballerina of the Korea National Ballet of Seoul; Manuel Legris, artistic director of the Vienna State Ballet; Alessandra Ferri, director of the ballet program, of Festival dei 2 Mondi in Spoleto (Italy) and Jorma Elo, resident choreographer of the Boston Ballet (USA). All the jurors are themselves former Benois de la Danse laureates.
The Benois de la Danse is one of the most prestigious ballet competitions, recognizing exceptional events occurring during the previous year on stages around the world. The idea was initiated in Moscow and the founders succeeded in obtaining the patronage of UNESCO in the autumn of 1992. Its scheduling is meant to coincide with the birthday of the great Alexandre Benois (1870-1960) for whom it is named. Members of the jury change every year and consists of only top ballet personages. Statuettes of the Benois de la Danse award, designed by French sculptor Igor Ustinov are given to the winners in the categories of lifelong achievement, ballerina, danseur, choreographer, composer and designer.
Source: www.kommersant.ru, www.gazeta.ru
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species