Tag Archive: Mthuthuzeli November

Prix Benois Laureates 2025

18. June 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 17, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Y.Grigorovich, Prix Benois Award Ceremony, Bolshoi Theatre 2025 © B.AnnadurdyevYesterday evening, the Prix Benois laureates were announced on the Bolshoi Theatre’s historic stage for the 33rd time.

Mthuthuzeli November won the prize for best choreography in absentia for Chapter Two, a creation for Cape Ballet Africa in South Africa. The Mariinsky Ballet’s Renata Shakirova won the best female dancer prize for her performance as Swanilda in Alexander Sergeev’s new Coppélia. Like last year, the prize for the best male dancer was awarded twice. Joshua Williams received the Prix Benois for his performance in November’s Chapter Two; Dmitry Smilevsky (Bolshoi Ballet) was awarded for his performances as Mercutio in Leonid Lavrovsky’s version of Romeo and Juliet and Prince Désiré in Yuri Grigorovich’s version of The Sleeping Beauty. (more…)

Choreographer Nominees for the Prix Benois 2025

13. June 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Mukaram Avakhri, Wang Ge, Thomas Lebrun, Andrey Merkuriev, Mthuthuzeli November, Alexander Sergeev
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Bolshoi Theatre © Bolshoi Theatre/D.Yusupov2. Statuette of the Prix Benois de la Danse, design by I.Ustinov © Benois Center On June 17th, the Bolshoi Theatre’s Historic Stage will host the annual Prix Benois charity gala and awards ceremony. Traditionally, laureates of previous years have performed in a gala concert on the following evening. Prizes will be awarded for the best choreographer, female dancer, and male dancer. This year’s festival will pay tribute to Yuri Grigorovich, who passed away on May 19th. Grigorovich founded the Prix Benois competition in 1991 and served as chairman of the jury, artistic director, and president.
Below is an overview of the six nominated choreographers. A report of the dancer nominees will follow. (more…)

Spoiled

24. January 2024

“Timekeepers” (“For Hedy”/”Rhapsodies”/”Les Noces”)
Ballet Zurich
Opernhaus Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
January 20, 2024

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

1. S.Williams, “For Hedy” by M.Tankard, Ballet Zurich 2024 © G.BatardonThe Ballet Zurich’s new triple bill Timekeepers is a testament to a wind of change that has swept through the company since Cathy Marston took the reins as artistic director last August. Twenty new faces joined the company, and many others left to follow the previous artistic director, Christian Spuck, to the State Ballet Berlin. I was told that, despite initial hesitation, the Ballet attracts large audiences to its performances. The premiere of Timekeepers was indeed very well attended. Its program combined two world premieres – Meryl Tankard’s For Hedy and Mthuthuzeli November’s Rhapsodies – with Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces (1923). Each of the three pieces comprises music that premiered almost exactly one-hundred years ago.

The Australian Tankard took on the challenge to choreograph George Antheil’s composition Ballet Mécanique, a medley of noises made by mechanical instruments, such as electric bells, propellers, a siren, and sixteen self-playing pianos (or pianolas). It couldn’t be realized in 1926, as synchronizing so many pianolas turned out to be impossible back then. (more…)