The Winners of the 2024 National Dance Awards were announced on June 9 at a ceremony at The Barbican Centre, London.
Diversity of dance genre was the big winner in this year’s awards with the Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer being jointly awarded to a hip-hop performer (Tommy Franzén) and a kathak dancer (Aakash Odedra). It was the first time that this award has been won by a dancer in either discipline.
Photo Angela Grabowska
Franzén also won the award for Outstanding Male Modern Performance; and Odedra won the Outstanding Male Classical Performance Award (‘Classical’ covering any classical dance genre, not only ballet), the first time in 25 years that this award has been won by a dancer outside of ballet!
The premier ‘lifetime’ award, the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement, was presented to Dame Siobhan Davies, one of the leading contemporary choreographers in the UK and the founder and director of Siobhan Davies Dance and the Siobhan Davies Studios in South London.
winner of Best Classical Choreography
Photo Karolina Kuras, courtesy The National Ballet of Canada
The choreography awards both went to North America. Kyle Abraham won the Best Modern Choreography for the second successive year for his Love Letter (on shuffle) performed by New York City Ballet; and Canadian choreographer, Crystal Pite won her fourth National Dance Award for Angel’s Atlas, performed by National Ballet of Canada. Both performances were at London’s Sadler’s Wells. The lighting designer for Angel’s Atlas, Tom Visser, won the Outstanding Creative Contribution Award.
It has been a long wait for The Royal Ballet. Having won the award for Outstanding Company in 2004 and 2005, it had been nominated in every succeeding year without winning, until now! “It’s been a long time coming,” said the Chair, Graham Watts, in presenting the award to artistic director, Kevin O’Hare. Caspar Lench of The Royal Ballet won the Emerging Artist Award and The Principles of Classical Dance, a co-production between The BalletBoyz and The Royal Ballet, won the Marquee TV Award for Best Dance Film.
for Lise in La Fille mal gardée
Photo Riku Ito
Other British Ballet companies picked up an award. Erina Takahashi, lead principal at English National Ballet won the Best Female Dancer Award and Beatrice Parma, principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet, won the Outstanding Female Classical Performance Award. Ballet Black, through its BBonFilm brand, won the Best Short Dance Film for Mthuthuzeli November’s Burn From the Inside.
Acosta Danza won the Best Mid-Scale Company award, and London City Ballet won the Best Independent Company Award after only its first season. Hannah Shepherd won the Outstanding Female Modern Performance Award for Ruination by Ben Duke for Lost Dog.
The National Dance Awards are voted upon by the 60 dance critics who are members of the Critics’ Circle. The 2024 awards are for performances seen in the UK in that calendar year.
Hannah Shepherd as Medea (with Liam Francis as Jason) in Lost Dog’s Ruination
Photo Camilla Greenwell
The winners came from a list of 88 nominations covering every dance genre and the nominees came from a record list of almost 400 recommendations from the dance critics.
Announcing the awards, which were hosted by broadcaster and journalist, Samira Ahmed, the Chair of the National Dance Awards, Graham Watts, said, “It was a very strong year with great nominations from across the wide spectrum of dance. Every critic’s recommendation was good enough to be a nomination; and every nominee would have been a deserving winner!”
as Giselle in Akram Khan’s Giselle
Photo Camilla Greenwell
The winners in full:
De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement
Dame Siobhan Davies
Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer
Tommy Franzen, Aakash Odedra (joint winners)
Best Female Dancer
Erina Takahashi
Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company
The Royal Ballet
Best Mid-scale Company
Acosta Danza
Best Independent Company
London City Ballet
Best Classical Choreography
Crystal Pite for Angels’ Atlas
Best Modern Choreography
Kyle Abraham for Love Letter (on shuffle)
Emerging Artist Award
Caspar Lench
Outstanding Female Modern Performance
Hannah Shepherd in Ruination
Outstanding Male Modern Performance
Tommy Franzen in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party & Minotaur
Outstanding Female Classical Performance
Beatrice Parma in La Fille mal gardée
Outstanding Male Classical Performance
Aakash Odedra in Mehek
Outstanding Creative Contribution
Tom Visser
Best Dance Film
The Principles of Classical Ballet
Best Short Dance Film
Burn from the Inside