Northern Ballet Sketches 2023 rehearsal | photo: Emily Nuttall
The London Ballet Circle’s Choreographic Award was established in 2022 and thanks to the generosity of our members we are now able to offer this as a biennial event. Thank you all.
Dance schools and companies in England and Wales were invited to make submissions for the 2024 Award.
- Schools were invited to apply for support for projects of classical ballet works which were either designed to develop their student’s choreographic talents or to enable an emerging young choreographer to develop a piece with a student group for later public performance.
- Companies were invited to apply for support for projects which would help develop their in-house emerging classical choreographic talent for live or digital public performance.
The LBC invitation explained we would consider sponsoring a whole initiative or making a contribution towards something larger scale. Entrants were asked to provide a costed description of their proposed endeavour with details as to the specific use to which a charitable donation from the LBC would be put.
The LBC was honoured that our President, Dame Monica Mason generously agreed to lead the panel for the second time. She was joined by Christopher Marney (choreographer, teacher and director of London City Ballet), Deborah Weiss (dance writer and critic) and Elena Glurjidze (co-founder and artistic director of Masters of Ballet Academy).
The panel members were impressed by the range and number of submissions and were faced with tough decisions. After careful consideration the expert panel recommended that the Trustees make the following awards:
Northern Ballet has been awarded £3,000 for their project ‘Sketches’ designed to support eight early-career choreographers both within Northern Ballet and the wider Leeds dance sector;
English National Ballet School (ENBS) has been awarded £3,000 to support their Young Choreographic Initiative which will include pieces of choreography from their 3rd year students’ dissertations;
Birmingham Royal Ballet has been awarded £2,000 to support a choreographic project offering BRB dancers the opportunity to create a short piece for their fellow dancers
New English Ballet Theatre (NEBT) has been awarded £1,000 towards the production of a new commission by Matthew Ball, emerging choreographer and Principal of the Royal Ballet;
Let’s All Dance Ballet Company has been awarded £1,000 towards a new production ‘Puss in Boots’ designed to engage younger audiences through performances in theatres, festivals, schools, libraries, and parks.
The London Ballet Circle thanks all the schools and companies who submitted applications, and for their interest in our project. It was asked that recipients of the award would invite LBC members to observe the choreographic process, or a rehearsal, and we look forward to these in due course.
If you wish to contribute to the next Choreographic Award please click here.