Announced for 2013 Benois de la Danse Awards in Moscow

Jury Announced for 2013 Benois de la Danse Awards in Moscow; Italian Gala Revealed.

The jurors for the 21st annual Benois de la Danse international ballet prizes were announced in Moscow recently. Helgi Tomasson, artistic director and chief choreographer of the San Francisco ballet will be among the eight jurors.

The others will be Yuri Grigorovich, the legendary Bolshoi Ballet choreographer as jury president; Ted Brandsen, director and resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet; David Dawson, a British freelance choreographer; Nicholas Hübbe, artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet, Marina Kondratieva, a former Bolshoi Ballet star and now its ballet mistress and teacher; Ivan Liška, artistic director of the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, and Tamara Rojo, prima ballerina and artistic director of the English National Ballet. Dawson and Rojo are previous winner of Benois awards.

The announcement was made by Regina Nikiforova, general director of the Centre Benois along with Madame Kondratieva and Galina Stepanenko, the retired ballerina and acting artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Mrs. Nikiforova also said the nominees for this year’s prizes in dance and choreography will be announced in April. The award ceremony and gala by this year’s nominees will be held on May 21 at the Bolshoi Theater. The following evening there will be a gala titled “Stars of the Benois de la Danse” featuring prizewinners from previous years.

The prizes are awarded each year for the best new, innovative and exciting work in the previous year by dancers and choreographers, and also by composers, libretto authors and set designers. There have been awards for lifetime achievement in several years. The awards have come known as the Oscars of the international ballet world. Some of the proceeds of the galas are used to support needed retired dancers of several ballet and dance companies. The Ministry of Culture of Russia in partnership with the Bolshoi Theater supports the project.

Mrs. Nikiforova also revealed the activities of the Benois would be expanded this year. On Feb. 8 the Center Benois will stage a gala in Legnago, Italy of «Future Stars of the Benois de la Danse — the Youth of the Bolshoi Ballet.» Young and talented dancers performing will be Julia Grebenschikova, Daria Khokhlova, Artem Ovarchenko, Denis Rodkin, Anna Tikhomirova and Angelina Vorontsova as well as Karim Abdullin, Andrei Bolotun and Pavel Dmitrichenko.

©2013 Danza Ballet