The Critics’ Circle announces 25th National Dance Awards nominations

The Dance Section of the UK’s Critics’ Circle has announced the short-list of nominations for its annual National Dance Awards.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Monday 9 June 2025 in London.

To qualify for the awards, performances had to take place from 1 January to 31 December 2024.

In total there were 365 companies, choreographers, performers and other creative artists nominated in 2024.

Two of the categories, Best Dance Film and Best Short Dance Film, are now calling out for entries, with a deadline of midnight on 27th April 2025. The films must have been made or first shown in 2024, and the nominees will be announced in May.

This year’s awards see a wide spread of companies nominated. The Royal Ballet once again tops the list with a total of 12 nominations, followed by English National Ballet (7) and Aakash Odedra Company & Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company with 4 nominations for their joint production of Mehek.

Announcing the nominations, the Chair of the National Dance Awards, Graham Watts OBE, said: “As the National Dance Awards reach their quarter-century, 2024 was a year dominated by nominations from UK-based companies with just five nominees coming from visiting companies to the UK (The National Ballet of Canada, Sarasota Ballet and New York City Ballet from North America with flamenco artists Rocío Molina and Eve Yerbabuena from Spain). From within the UK, I’m especially pleased to see half-a-dozen nominations for South Asian dance.”

The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle brings together over 60 dance writers and critics. See below for a list of the members.

Also see: Dance & Opera now booking in London

National Dance Awards 2025 – Nominations

BEST MALE DANCER
Tommy Franzén
Francesco Gabriele Frola
Aakash Odedra
Marcelino Sambé
Joseph Sissens

BEST FEMALE DANCER
Rebecca Bassett-Graham
Francesca Hayward
Sangeun Lee
Erina Takahashi
Eva Yerbabuena

STEF STEFANOU AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMPANY
Birmingham Royal Ballet
National Ballet of Canada
Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures
The Royal Ballet
Sarasota Ballet

BEST MID-SCALE COMPANY
Acosta Danza
Ballet Black
Boy Blue
Gandini Juggling
Scottish Dance Theatre

BEST INDEPENDENT COMPANY
Mark Bruce Company
London City Ballet
Lost Dog
Pagrav Dance
Yorke Dance Project

BEST CLASSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY
Joshua Junker for Never Known
Akram Khan and Others for Gigensis
Crystal Pite for Angel’s Atlas
Aakash Odedra and Aditi Mangaldas for Mehek
Pam Tanowitz for For Evermore

BEST MODERN CHOREOGRAPHY
Kyle Abraham for Love Letter (on Shuffle)
Kim Brandstrup for the Greek Mythology choreographies
Marc Brew and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for An Accident/A Life
Susan Kempster for Mother
Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young for Assembly Hall

EMERGING ARTIST AWARD
Ivana Bueno (dancer)
Daichi Ikarashi (dancer)
Caspar Lench (dancer)
Kennedy Junior Muntanga (dancer & choreographer)
James Pett & Travis Clausen-Knight (as choreographers)

OUTSTANDING FEMALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Rebecca Bassett-Graham in Autobiography
Isabela Coracy in The Waiting Game
Kristen McNally in The Statement
Aishwarya Raut in Analogue
Hannah Shepherd in Ruination

OUTSTANDING MALE MODERN PERFORMANCE
Isaac Baptiste (Turbo) as the Mad Hatter in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Marc Brew in An Accident/A Life
Harrison Dowzell as the Swan in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Tommy Franzén in Minotaur & as Ernest in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Jonathan Goddard as Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankenstein

OUTSTANDING FEMALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
Marge Hendrick as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire
Aditi Mangaldas in Mehek
Rocío Molina in Al Fondo Riela
Beatrice Parma as Lise in La Fille mal gardée
Erina Takahashi as Giselle in Akram Khan’s Giselle

OUTSTANDING MALE CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE
William Bracewell as Des Grieux in Manon
Francesco Gabriele Frola as Albrecht in Giselle
Johan Kobborg as Il Matto in La Strada
Aakash Odedra in Mehek
Marcelino Sambé in Different Drummer

OUTSTANDING CREATIVE CONTRIBUTION
Sam Amidon (Singer/Songwriter, Nobodaddy)
Dick Bird (Design, Nutcracker)
Maria Seletskaja (Conductor)
Joseph Sissens for The Legacy Project
Tom Visser (Lighting Design)

BEST DANCE FILM
Category open for nominee submissions

BEST SHORT DANCE FILM
Category open for nominee submissions

DE VALOIS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
To be announced at the ceremony

The Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle – Members

MEMBERS

Zoë Anderson, Fiona Baile, Ka Bradley, Ian Bramley, Mark Brown, Laura Cappelle, Rupert Christiansen, Debra Craine, Sarah Crompton, Patricia Daly, Mike Dixon, Louise Doughty, Gerald Dowler, Rachel Elderkin, Stephanie Ferguson, Judith Flanders, Maggie Foyer, Sarah Frater, Jenny Gilbert, David Gillard, Jonathan Gray, Elena Grillo, Lynette Halewood, Donald Hutera, Amanda Jennings, Josephine Leask, Stefan Kyriazis, Vera Liber, Alastair Macaulay, Judith Mackrell, Bruce Marriott, Emily May, Brendan McCarthy, David Mead, Nadine Meisner, Mark Monahan, Siobhan Murphy, Barbara Newman, Fatima Nollen, Neil Norman, Ian Palmer, Jann Parry, Robert Penman, Mark Pullinger, Allen Robertson, Sanjoy Roy, Joy Sable, Stuart Sweeney, Edward Thorpe, Sara Veale, Vikki Jane Vile, Keith Watson, Graham Watts, Deborah Weiss, Margaret Willis, Lyndsey Winship, Hans-Theodore Wohlfahrt, Ian Woodward.

HONORARY MEMBERS

David Gillard

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Main photo: National Dance Awards - Critics' Circle