Watch ENB’s Emerging Dancer Competition Live
Jeanette Kakereka competing for last year’s Emerging Dancer Award. Photo by ASH via ENB.
It’s one thing to receive a nod of approval from your boss, but imagine how special it must feel to be validated by your fellow company members. Tomorrow, six English National Ballet dancers—Isabelle Brouwers, Jeanette Kakereka, Rina Kanehara, Erik Woolhouse, Daniele Silingardi and Cesar Corrales—will compete for the company’s seventh annual Emerging Dancer Award. And for the first time, we won’t have to await news from attendees across the pond. We can watch the action firsthand from the comfort of our own homes (slash coffee shops, office cubicles and cafeterias) when the event is live streamed Tuesday, May 17.
The Emerging Dancer Competition is a unique opportunity for young ENB dancers, chosen by their colleagues, to take center stage. Unsurprisingly, several past awardees have eventually become principals or soloists. Five of this year’s competitors are artists of the company (the equivalent of corps de ballets dancers); Cesar Corrales is a junior soloist. The men and women will each perform a solo and a pas de deux with one of their fellow competitors, with repertoire ranging from classical staples to new contemporary works.
The seven-person judging panel includes ENB artistic director Tamara Rojo, former Royal Ballet ballerina Viviana Durante and innovative British dance maker Sir Matthew Bourne. Additionally, all ENB dancers excluding principals are up for the People’s Choice Award, voted by the public throughout the season. Winners will be announced during the live stream.
2016 Emerging Dancer Award competitors. Photo by Laurent Liotardo and Nik Patte via ENB.
In addition to the performances, tomorrow’s event promises the kind of backstage, behind-the-scenes footage we can’t get enough of. Make sure to account for time zones: 7:30pm in London means 2:30pm for East Coasters, 11:30 Pacific Time. Head to ENB’s special webpage to tune in.
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