De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement Richard Sherrington Award for Best Female Dancer Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer Best Choreography (Classical) Best Choreography (Modern) Patron's Award PMB Presentations Award for Best Foreign Dance Company Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) Outstanding Male Performance (Modern) Outstanding Female Performance (Classical) Outstanding Male Performance (Classical) Dance Europe Award for Outstanding Company   The 2009 winner is the Merce Cunningham Dance Company The nominations for 2009 were: The Forsythe Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Royal Ballet of Flanders More information about each company is given below: The Forsythe Company A month-long season, Focus on Forsythe, at Sadler’s Wells and elsewhere in London featured Forsythe’s recent work, films and installations, as well as his final piece as director of Ballett Frankfurt, "Decreation". After 20 years with Ballett Frankfurt, Forsythe founded his own company of 18 dancers in 2005, with a dual residency in Dresden and Frankfurt. His collaborative approach and radical thinking about what dance can encompass take him and the company into the realms of visual art, architecture and multimedia experiments. Merce Cunningham Dance Company The company’s visit to London late in 2008, as the opening attraction in the Dance Umbrella festival, cemented a longstanding relationship between America’s foremost modern dance choreographer and the UK. Sadly, Cunningham died a few months later, having just achieved his 90th birthday. His final Barbican season, which featured classic Cunningham works such as "Crises" (1960) and "BIPED" (1999), showcased his indomitable creative spirit, his commitment to pure dance and his refusal to follow any fashion, except the one that he created. . Royal Ballet of Flanders The Royal Ballet of Flanders is nominated for its performances of William Forsythe’s "Impressing the Czar" at Sadler’s Wells in November 2008. The three-act production, seen by many as Forsythe’s masterwork, contains the famous section "In the middle, somewhat elevated". The company, now directed by Kathryn Bennetts, was founded in 1969 and is based in Antwerp. The Royal Ballet of Flanders is currently the only Belgian classical ballet company and has a repertoire of classical and modern works. Picture credits Merce Cunningham Dance Company © Merce Cunningham Company, The Forsythe Company © Dominik Mentzos, Merce Cunningham Dance Company © Anna Finke, Royal Ballet of Flanders © Johan Persson. All text is © copyright of the Critics' Circle / National Dance Awards.