Terpsichore Titles: Company of the Year

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As Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner, David Dawson and Cristiano Principato were my choreographers of 2016 and Artur Shesterikov and Daniel Silva my outstanding male dancers it will come as no surprise that the Dutch National Ballet is my company of the year. How could it be otherwise?  I have seen three outstanding full-length ballets at the Music Theatre - Mata Hari in February, La Bayadere in November and Coppelia earlier this month - as well as a dazzling gala and the magnificent Junior Company at the Meervaart in February.  I congratulate everyone in the company and wish them all a happy and prosperous New Year.

Although the Dutch National Ballet is regarded as one of the world's top five ballet companies the above video shows that it is also a relatively new company.  It was founded in 1961 which was four years after the Royal Ballet received its royal charter, 20 years after the famous wartime tour of the Royal Ballet (then known as Sadler's Wells Ballet) to the Netherlands and 30 years after the formation of the company. It is also younger than English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet which started in Bristol as Western Theatre Ballet and, of course, the Birmingham Royal Ballet which is the Royal Ballet's sister company. Compared to the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, the Dutch National Ballet is a mere stripling. To have achieved so much is so short a time is not far short of miraculous.

The complete list of Terpsichore Titles is as follows:

Company of the Year      Dutch National Ballet

Contemporary Company of the Year  Phoenix Dance Theatre

Choreographers of the Year   

- Full Length Works  Ted Brandsen
- Short Works Ernst Meisner
- Best New Work in the UK  David Dawson
- Young Choreographer  Cristiano Principato 

Ballet of the Year     Bolshoi's The Taming of the Shrew

Ballerina of the Year   Lauren Cuthbertson, Royal Ballet

Premier Danseur Noble of the Year    Artur Shesterivov, Dutch National Ballet

Outstanding Male Dancer (Smaller companies) Damien Johnson, Ballet Black

Outstanding Young Dancers

- Male   Daniel Silva, Dutch National Ballet

- Female  Gwenllian Davies, Ballet Cymru

This has been a tremendous year for Terpsichore, particularly this last month.  We have already received 25,369 page hits in December which is almost double the number of page hits we received in November which was itself a record month, and there is still the rest of the day to run. Our growth reflects a growing interest in adult dance (and particularly adult ballet) throughout the UK and indeed the rest of the world, We plan to do more to help those who want to dance to access classes, workshops and performances next year.

As this is my last post for 2016 I wish all my readers a happy New Year.