The Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for 2015 were presented on 25 January 2016 at a ceremony in London, hosted by Arlene Phillips CBE.
The judges decided to give two De Valois Awards for Outstanding Achievement in 2015 to Sylvie Guillem CBE, who ended her 30-year dance career with the year-long Life in Progress tour and Caroline Miller who, over her ten-year tenure as the Chief Executive of Dance UK, gave dance a political voice and brought together four major dance organisations in a merger that has produced One Dance UK.
Miller’s award was presented by the internationally-renowned ballerina, Tamara Rojo CBE, artistic director of English National Ballet.
Choreographer, Wayne McGregor picked up his fourth award for Best Classical Choreography for Woolf Works, his triptych of one act ballets based on the life and work of Virginia Woolf for The Royal Ballet. The 52 year-old Italian ballerina, Alessandra Ferri, formerly a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, returned to Covent Garden as a guest artist to star in Woolf Works, for which she has won the Grishko Award for Best Female Dancer, the first dancer over the age of fifty to do so.
Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures won the Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company for the first time and New Adventures dancer Zizi Strallen won the award for Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) for her portrayal of Lana in The Car Man.
Best Modern Choreography went to Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite for her work Polaris for Sadler’s Wells and the award for Outstanding Male Performance (Modern) was won by Lost Dog’s Ben Duke for his one-man show, Paradise Lost [lies unopened beside me]. This year’s Best Independent Company was the Midlands-based Rosie Kay Dance Company. Kay was also nominated for Best Modern Choreography for her work 5 Soldiers.
For the second successive year, a young dancer from The Royal Ballet won the Emerging Artist Award which this year went to Matthew Ball who was also nominated for the Outstanding Male Classical performance for his role as Lensky in Onegin.
In a record year for The Royal Ballet, Vadim Muntagirov won the Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer and Laura Morera won the award for Outstanding Female Performance (Classical) for her portrayal of Lise in La Fille mal gardée. William Bracewell of Birmingham Royal Ballet won the award for Outstanding Male Performance (Classical) for his performance as Le Roi Soleil in David Bintley’s The King Dances.
The NDA Committee awarded a high commendation for exceptional artistry to two contemporary flamenco artists, Israel Galván and Rocío Molina and the Dance UK Industry Award, determined by a separate panel of judges chosen by Dance UK, went to Tamara McLorg, dance educator and choreographer. Her citation was read by the choreographer Royston Maldoom.
With the exception of the Dance UK award, the National Dance Awards are decided by the 50+ members of the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle after an extensive round of nominations and voting. To be eligible, performances had to be given in the UK between 1st September 2014 and 31st August 2015.
The Chairman of the Awards committee, Graham Watts OBE, said, "over 400 dancers, choreographers and companies were deemed of such high quality by critics to be recommended for an award this year. A new record that surpasses the one set last year. It has clearly been a bumper year with nominees coming from a range of genres and companies. These awards celebrate excellence across a rich diversity of dance forms that have both entertained and challenged us over the past year."