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The 2005 winner is the The Royal Ballet
The nominations for 2005 were
Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Scottish Ballet
More information about each company is given below:
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Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet's 2004-5 season consisted of just two full-evening ballets - Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet and Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker and of six skilfully varied mixed bills - all performed on tour as well as at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The choreographers represented comprised Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, company director David Bintley, John Cranko and Twyla Tharp and the seasons saw the first British performance of the Nijinsky-Hodson/Archer Rite of Spring, within an all-Stravinsky programme. Among the new creations, there were Bintley's Orpheus Suite, Oliver Hindle's The Four Seasons, Michael Kopinski's Dumbarton Oaks and creations by company members.
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The Royal Ballet
Marking the centenary of the birth of its Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton, The Royal Ballet's 2004-5 season was a very special one. The revivals of Ondine, La Fille mal gardée and, particularly, Sylvia after a decades-long absence, all proved highly successful, while the all-Ashton mixed bill containing Scènes de ballet and Daphnis and Chloë, separated by a brief series of well-contrasted divertissements, provided one of the season's most memorable programmes.
Other choreographers were, of course, also represented: Bronislava Nijinska, Kenneth MacMillan, Goerge Balanchine and David Bintley. The season, which also included SwanLake, thus provided the dancers with interesting challenges and audiences with discoveries and happy reminders.
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Scottish Ballet
The appointment of former Royal Ballet Principal dancer and choreographer Ashley Page as Artistic Director in 2002 marked the beginning of a new, successful chapter in the history of Scottish Ballet. Under Page’s critically praised dierctorship, the company, originally called Western Theatre Ballet and created by Peter Darrell and Elisabeth West in 1957, has gone from strength to strength. Page has revised and expanded considerably the existing repertoire, in order to provide the company with classical, neo-classical, modern and postmodern dance works that exploit to the maximum the company’s numerous talents and structure. The success of Page’s artistic policy was particulalry evident at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005.
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Picture credits
English National Ballet © Robbie Jack,
Birmingham Royal Ballet © Phil Hitchman,
Royal Ballet © Bill Cooper,
Scottish Ballet © Bill Cooper.
All text is © copyright of the Critics' Circle / National Dance Awards. |
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