June 17, 2025, The Bolshoi Theatre
On June, 17th in Moscow on the Historical stage of the Bolshoi theatre of Russia the names of the winners of the Benois de la Danse were announced for the 33d time. The Chairman of the Jury and Artistic Director of the Program is world ballet star Svetlana Zakharova. The project is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
In profound tribute to the Program’s founder — the legendary choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, this year’s Festival is dedicated to his memory. He was posthumously awarded the Benois de la Danse Lifetime Achievement award.
“Last night, during the voting, we felt the unseen presence of the Prize’s founder, the outstanding choreographer Yuri Nikolaevich Grigorovich. And we parted ways with the understanding that we had made the right choice,” Svetlana Zakharova shared.
This year for the Benois Prize the works of six choreographers were nominated. On the evening of June 17th, the jury announced Mthuthuzeli November (Chapter Two, Peter Johnson. Cape Ballet Africa, South Africa) as the winner in the nomination “Best Choreographic Work”.
This year, principal dancers from eight of the world’s leading dance companies competed for the title of laureate. The Benois Prize for “Best Female Dancer” was awarded to Renata Shakirova (Swanilda, Coppélia, Léo Delibes / Alexander Sergeev. Mariinsky Ballet, St. Petersburg, Russia).
In the second part of the program, this year’s the nominees took to the historic stage to perform their new works. The evening featured no fewer than five Russian and Moscow premieres.
The company’s principal dancer and Benois-2025 nominee Sundet Sultanov performed a fragment from a recent work called December Rain by Slovak-German choreographer (and John Neumeier’s student) Kristina Paulin (music by F. Chopin/D. Giacomello).
The Carmen Suite choreographed by Benois-2025 nominee Andrey Merkuriev (music by G. Bizet/R. Shchedrin) performed by artists of the Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Komi Republic (a Moscow premiere!).
Benois-2025 nominee Renata Shakirova performed an excerpt from one of the Mariinsky Theatre’s most spectacular premieres — the new version of Coppélia by Leo Delibes choreographed by Benois-2025 nominee Alexander Sergeev.
Other nominees — Angelina Vorontsova, Viktoria Dankovtseva, Alexey Putintsev, Nikita Chetverikov and Dmitry Smilevski — performed their nominated pieces.
