May 21, 2019, Bolshoi Theatre
On May 21, the Bolshoi Theatre's Historic Stage saw the announcement of the 27th Benois de la Danse winners.This year 6 choreographic works were nominated for the Prize and on the evening of May 21 the jury announced that the award for “Best Choreography” goes to Fredrik Benke Rydman (Duet with an Industrial Robot, Stockholm City Theatre) and Christian Spuck (Winterreise, Zurich Ballet).
Soloists of 11 leading dance troupes from around the world competed for the title of Benois laureate. The award for “Best Female Dancer“ went to Ashley Bouder (Swanilda, Coppelia, New York City Ballet) and Elisa Carrillo Cabrera (Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, State Ballet Berlin). Vadim Muntagirov (Prince Siegfried, Swan Lake, Royal Ballet London) was named “Best Male Dancer”.
Scenographer John Macfarlane (Swan Lake, Royal Ballet London) was also awarded the Benois Prize.
This year the Lifetime Achievement Award” went to Jiří Kylián, an outstanding choreographer and
The Jury of Benois-2019: Yuri Grigorovich, Dirk Badenhorst, Ted Brandsen, Svetlana Zakharova, Ana Laguna, Agnès Letestu, Vladimir Malakhov and Rachel Moore.
The second half of the evening was in no way less entertaining, as it included the gala concert of 2019 laureates, who performed the works of Juanjo Arques, Spetime Webre, Christian Spuck. Manuel Legris presented a duet from his version of Leo Delibes' “Sylvia” and Swedish choreographer Fredrik Rydman presented a miniature, that was created specially for the gala. Ashley Bauder from the NYC Ballet performed the wedding pas de deux from George Balanchine’s “Coppelia” with Seth Orza. Elisa Carrillo Cabrera and Ivan Zaytsev performed a duet from Nacho Duato’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Yuan Yuan Tan from the San Francisco Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet’s Kaho Yanagisawa along with their respective partners presented the choreography of Christopher Wheeldon and William Forsythe. Cuban dancer and choreographer from the Malpaso Dance Company Abel Rojo performed his miniature to the music of Erik Satie’s “Gnossienne”. Daniel Camargo and Elisa Badenes presented the immortal pas de deux from “Don Quixote” and the pas de deux from “La Sylphide” was performed by the premieres of the Washington Ballet Andile Ndlovu and Maki Onuki. Representing the Bolshoi Theatre was Viacheslav Lopatin, who danced a fragment from the ballet “NUREYEV” choreographed by Y.Posokhova, and Amadine Albisson participated in the gala on behalf of the Paris Opera Ballet.