On 31 July 2016 the awardees of this year’s prestigious prize, selected by a jury made up of some of the world’s best-known dance critics and specialists, all of whom contributors to BALLET2000, will be presented to the public and the world of dance at the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals, Cannes.
Principal dancers and soloists from leading companies will dance at a Gala performance – under the artistic direction of Irma Nioradze, étoile of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet of St Petersburg – this year commemorating Maya Plisetskaya, the great Russian ballerina who was already a living legend when she passed away last year and who now shines on in ballet history.
One of the last occasions on which Maya Plisetskaya danced on stage was in 2004 when she received BALLET2000’s “Lifetime Achievement Prize” during the first edition of the Prix at the Palais des Festivals, Cannes.
After Maya Plisetskaya, other stars of the dance who have received the “Lifetime Achievement Prize” (destined to celebrities who have enjoyed outstanding careers in dance) are Alicia Alonso, Rosella Hightower, Violette Verdy and Vladimir Vasiliev. The announcement of this year’s awardee is eagerly awaited. Two other “Maya prizes” are being awarded this year to the “Best Female Dancer of the Year” and “Best Male Dancer of the Year” who will dance at the Palais des Festivals alongside other dancers nominated by the jury for having shone with world’s leading troupes in recent seasons. They will perform a programme of pas de deux and solos during a gala performance which will climax in the prize-giving ceremony.
This event is organized in collaboration with Askaneli Art, VisualClassics and the Palais des Festivals de Cannes.
Member of the 2016 jury:
Erik Aschengreen, Leonetta Bentivoglio, Valeria Crippa, Clement Crisp, Gerald Dowler, Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino, Marc Haegeman, Anna Kisselgoff, Kevin Ng, Jean Pierre Pastori, Emmanuèle Rüegger, Roger Salas, Sonia Schoonejans, René Sirvin Coordinator of the jury: Alfio Agostini (Editor of BALLET2000)
Past awardee dancers:
Alicia Amatriain, Silvia Azzoni, Breno Bittencourt, Federico Bonelli, Alessio Carbone, Beatrice Carbone, Joel Carreño, Céline Cassone, Gabriele Corrado, Jennifer DePalo, Giovanni Di Palma, Olga Esina, Julien Favreau, Lorna Feijóo, Mathilde Froustey, Susanne Grinder, Dorothée Gilbert, Mathias Heimann, Enada Hoxha, Oxana Kitchenko, Daria Klimentova, Miteki Kudo, Anton Korsakov, Vaclav Kunes, Gil Isoart, Nelson Madrigal, Benjamin Millepied, Maurizio Nardi, Simona Noja, Marianela Núñez, Maiko Oishi, Natalia Osipova, Benjamin Pech, Joseph Phillips, Giuseppe Picone, Ivan Popov, Laetitia Pujol, Ana Quaresma, Gustavo Ramírez, Alexandre Riabko, Kristoffer Sakurai, Aki Saito, Leonid Sarafanov, Rihoko Sato, Dirk Segers, Polina Semionova, Kateryna Shalkina, Vladimir Shishov, Daniil Simkin, Thiago Soares, Alina Somova, Iñaki Urlezaga, Viengsay Valdés, Wim Vanlessen, Shen Wei, Jan-Erik Wilkström, Ivan Vasiliev, Zenaida Yanowsky, Mario Zambrano.