As usual, many thanks to all who took the trouble to vote - it was good to see lots of new names in a higher than usual turnout. (And maybe some of them would like to move on to joining in on the postings pages??)
The Results
Best production overall: The Bolshoi Ballet's The Bright Stream
The Bright Stream, which for much of the second half of the year had looked like a shoo-in, was hotly challenged by the Royal Ballet's sensational triple bill (Chroma, Four Temperaments, DGV), which would have come top in this section if we'd added in the votes for the separate ballets as well. As it is, it came joint second with the RB's new production of Sleeping Beauty and their revival of La Fille mal Gardée.
Best new production: A tie between Chroma and DGV from the Royal Ballet.
Interesting that these two new works both got the same number of votes; and also that in third place was something totally different, English National Ballet's Alice in Wonderland.
Best revival: The Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty
Something of a surprise, perhaps, as it seemed to get quite a lot of negative criticism at the time. Out of a large number of further nominations, only ENB's Giselle got more than 5 votes.
Best staging: Carlos Acosta
Acosta's show at Sadler's Wells obviously pleased a lot of people. Second was Chroma, with the rest of the votes being spread thinly over many different productions.
Best home company: The Royal Ballet won this category again.
It always has, in all the years we've asked this question; this time English National Ballet easily came second, ahead of the Birmingham Royal Ballet in third place.
Best visiting company: The Bolshoi Ballet
Normal service is restored, with the year's big Russian visitor coming miles ahead in this category. The surprise was that the Kirov-Maryinsky, despite dreadful reviews, did well enough to come joint second with the National Ballet of Cuba, last year's winner.
Best male dancer: Carlos Acosta
Back to normal here also: part from last year, when Thomas Lund of the Royal Danish Ballet won, Acosta and Johan Kobborg have now swapped this title between them for six years. This time it was Kobborg's turn to come second; third was Federico Bonelli, also of the Royal Ballet.
Best female dancer: Marianela Nunez of the Royal Ballet
Not surprising, given the roll she's been on for the last couple of seasons. Alina Cojocaru came second, and third was someone who's been drawing a lot of praise recently: Elena Glurdjidze of English National Ballet.
Best partnership: Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg for the fourth time running...
...despite Kobborg's long absence through injury. Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta came next, followed by Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares.
Most promising male dancer: Steven McRae of the Royal Ballet, again.
It will be interesting to see how long it is before MacRae stops featuring in the 'promising' category and moves up to the next stage! Eric Underwood, new to the Royal Ballet this season, has already attracted enough support to come in second place to MacRae.
Most promising female dancer: Lauren Cuthbertson of the
Royal Ballet this time...
...with English National Ballet's Maria Kochetkova coming second, as she
did last year, in a tie with Natalia Osipova of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Worst production: Darcey Bussell and Igor Zelensky at Sadler's Wells
A runaway 'victory', I'm afraid, leaving all the other nominations out of sight.
Comments
A year of contrasts and surprises
Who would have ever thought, this time last year, that a programme of new work by the Royal Ballet would come out as the hit of the year? And who would have expected to see the Bolshoi come out so far ahead of the Kirov? The only certainties left to us are that the Royal Ballet will win the Best Home Company category and that Cojocaur and Kobborg will be the most popular partnership.
If we had a category for Most Salutary Lesson it would surely have been the one delivered to the promoters of the Bussell/Zelensky show at Sadler's Wells, which got perhaps the most comprehensive thumbs-down vote we've ever had. Compare and contrast the enthusiasm for Carlos Acosta's show in the same theatre.
Ballet Hoo!
The Birmingham Royal Ballet's Ballet Hoo! project deserves a special mention - although it didn't fit into any of the regular categories, the comments sections were full of praise both for the whole experience and for Desmond Kelly and Marion Tait in particular.
The Prize
This year's prize goes to the long and enthusiastic entry by Paul N. Please contact Bruce, Paul!
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