Tag Archive: Mthuthuzeli November

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

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Yesterday 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.
A video paid tribute to the late Grigorovich without whom the Prix Benois would have never been established. As snapshots of past award presentations scrolled on a huge screen on stage, Grigorovich’s presence could be strongly felt.

The jury consisted of Svetlana Zakharova (artistic director of the Benois de la Danse Program, chairwoman of the jury, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre, and rector of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography), Erlan Andagulov (dancer, founder, and artistic director of the International Dance Festival, “Ballet Globe International Dance Festival,” in Kazakhstan), Jean Guizerix (dancer, teacher, choreographer, and etoilé of the Paris Opera), Lili Xin (ballerina, teacher, choreographer, and artistic director of the Shanghai Ballet and chairwoman of the Shanghai Dance Association in China), Esther Nasser (dancer, teacher, choreographer, creator, and artistic director of dance and ballet groups in South Africa and chairwoman of the Dance Council of Johannesburg in South Africa), Farukh Ruzimatov (dancer, teacher, choreographer, principal, and assistant artistic director of the Mariinsky Ballet in St.Petersburg), and Andrian Fadeyev (dancer, principal of the Mariinsky Ballet, teacher, choreographer, and artistic director of the Mariinsky Ballet and the St. Petersburg State Academic Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre).

During the second half of the ceremony, the audience had the chance to watch excerpts of the nominated choreographies as well as some of the dancer nominees’ performances. Joshua Williams and Mia Coomber (Cape Ballet Africa) were the first South Africans to perform in Russia, dancing an excerpt of November’s Chapter Two. Sundet Sultanov (Astana Ballet, Kazakhstan) presented a fragment of December Rain by Kristina Paulin. Other members of the Astana Ballet danced an excerpt of Sacred Dances, the piece for which Mukaram Avakhri was nominated.
Artists from the Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Komi Republic, Russia, presented a fragment of Carmen Suite by Prix Benois nominee, Andrey Merkuriev. Renata Shakirova danced the wedding pas de deux from her role as Swanilda, her Frantz was the Mariinsky’s Philipp Stepin; Angelina Vorontsova danced as Esmeralda from Notre-Dame de Paris alongside Nikita Chetverikov’s Frollo; Viktoria Dankovtseva took to the stage as Odile; Alexei Putintsev danced as Ferdinand from The Tempest; Dmitry Smilevsky flew across the stage as Mercutio

The Prix Benois program will conclude with a gala concert tonight.