Along with Paris Opera Ballet and Hamburg Ballet, Northern Ballet has been nominated for Best Company at the Taglioni European Ballet Awards with additional recognition for one of its Premier Dancers, Kenneth Tindall, who has been nominated for Best Young Choreographer.
The winners of the awards, which recognise the work of the top ballet companies, choreographers, dancers, designers and conductors from across Europe, will be chosen by an expert jury of specialist journalists in Berlin on 27 September 2014.
The Taglioni European Ballet Awards, named after one of history’s most famous ballerinas, Marie Taglioni, are organised by the Malakhov Foundation, which was established in 2014 by international ballet star Vladimir Malakhov, founder and former Director of the State Ballet Berlin.
The non-profit organisation aims to support ballet dancers in areas of need such as grants for education, further training, medical needs and maintenance grants. The awards are one of the first major projects of the foundation to recognise extraordinary achievements within ballet.
The Leeds-based Company specialises in creating and touring full-length narrative ballets which in recent years have included Cinderella, The Great Gatsby and Beauty & the Beast.
As the widest touring ballet Company in the UK Northern Ballet reaches more people than any other and also recently enjoyed its first visit to Covent Garden with sell-out performances of a Mixed Programme at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre.
In addition, Northern Ballet pioneers the creation and touring of ballets especially for young children including Ugly Duckling, Three Little Pigs and the latest instalment, Elves & the Shoemaker, which will première in September.
British Premier Dancer Kenneth Tindall has been nominated alongside Jean Philippe Dury and Natalia Horecna for Best Young Choreographer.
Tindall, who has been dancing with Northern Ballet since 2003, has had his work performed internationally and also created three short pieces for Northern Ballet including: Project #1, Luminous Junc·ture and The Architect, which premièred in June 2014 and can next be seen during Northern Ballet’s Mixed Programme at the Linbury Studio Theatre in 2015.
Kenneth Tindall has also been nominated as one of Dance UK’s twenty future leaders to take part in their Dancers’ Mentoring Scheme, which provides each dancer with a paid mentor to discuss and develop their future in addition to and beyond their performing careers.