Celebrating 10 years, English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer competition, hosted by former Principal of The Royal Ballet Adam Cooper, will return to Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday 7 May 2019 and will be live streamed worldwide.
Through this annual event, English National Ballet recognises the excellence of its artists. Selected by their peers, six of the company’s most promising dancers perform in front of an eminent panel of expert judges, before one receives the 2019 Emerging Dancer Award.
Also revealed on the night will be the recipients of the People’s Choice Award as selected by members of the public, and the Corps de Ballet Award, acknowledging the work on and off-stage of a member of the company’s Corps de Ballet.
Joining Tamara Rojo CBE, Artistic Director of English National Ballet, on the judging panel this year is Guest Character Artist at English National Ballet and former Principal of The Royal Ballet Michael Coleman; dance writer Gerald Dowler; performer, choreographer and director Carrie-Anne Ingrouille; founder of mavinkhooDance and rehearsal director to Akram Khan Company Mavin Khoo; and former Principal of The Royal Ballet Sarah Wildor.
Each finalist will first perform a classical pas de deux, followed by a contemporary solo. This year will see Rhys Antoni Yeomans and Emilia Cadorin dance a pas de deux from Coppelia, Shale Wagman and Alice Bellini will perform the Grand Pas Classique and Rentaro Nakaaki and Julia Conway present Flames of Paris.
Rhys Antoni Yeomans will then dance a solo from William Forsythe‘s In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Rentaro Nakaaki will dance Own created by choreographer Nuno Campos and Shale Wagman will perform Peculiar Mind choreographed by Nürnberg Ballet dancer Sofie Vervaecke.
Alice Bellini performs Danish choreographer Sebastian Kloborg’s CLAN B, Julia Conway has worked with Rambert dancer Miguel Altunaga who has created a piece for Julia’s solo, Untitled Code, and Emilia Cadorin will dance BAM! choreographed by English National Ballet First Soloist Fabian Reimair, who has also composed the music to accompany the piece.
The evening will also see a special performance from last year’s Emerging Dancer Award winner Daniel McCormick, who will perform a pas de deux from Don Quixote with First Artist Francesca Velicu.
As is tradition, this year’s finalists have been mentored by their peers in the Company. Pedro Lapetra has worked with Julia Conway and Rentaro Nakaaki; Julia has also worked with Shiori Kase during the process. Alice Bellini has been supported by Junor Souza and Fernanda Oliveira, as well as Jeffrey Cirio for her solo; Erina Takahashi and Adela Ramírez have coached Emilia Cadorin; Shale Wagman has been mentored by Fernando Bufalá and Rhys Antonio Yeomans has been working with James Forbat and Barry Drummond.
The evening will be live streamed via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Emerging Dancer LIVE follows the success of last year’s live stream which achieved over 100,000 views worldwide.
The 2019 Emerging Dancer finalists:
Alice Bellini
Bellini trained at La Scala Ballet School and Royal Ballet Upper School before joining English National Ballet as an Artist of the Company in 2017. Her career highlights to date include dancing the pas de deux in Aszure Barton’s Fantastic Beings and The Novice in The Cage. Bellini was voted the 2018 People’s Choice Award winner at last year’s Emerging Dancer competition.
Emilia Cadorin
Cadorin has been an Artist of the Company since 2015. She trained at Il Balletto, Castelfranco Veneto and Boston Ballet Trainee. Highlights of this season have included dancing Dust by Akram Khan, Lead Snowflake in Wayne Eagling’s Nutcracker and cygnet in Derek Deane’s Swan Lake.
Julia Conway
London born Conway originally trained with Olga Semenova and Young Dancers Academy before further training with Magaly Suárez, Ayako Yamada, Isabelle Guérin and Royal Ballet Upper School, ahead of joining English National Ballet as an Artist of the Company in 2017. She came first place at the World Ballet Competition in 2014 and first place in Classical and Contemporary at the Youth American Grand Prix Paris in 2015. Highlights from this season include dancing in the Pas de Trois in Derek Deane’s Swan Lake and the roles of Louise, Lead Flower and Lead Snowflake in Wayne Eagling’s Nutcracker.
Rentaro Nakaaki
Nakaaki graduated from English National Ballet School in 2018 and joined as an Artist of the Company. Prior to his training in England, he attended Sadamatsu Hamada Ballet School in Japan. Nakaaki was awarded first place at English National Ballet School’s 2018 Choreographic competition and second place at the Youth America Grand Prix 2015 in Japan.
Shale Wagman
Canadian Wagman won 1st prize and the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation Prize for excellent artistry at the 2018 Prix de Lausanne, before joining English National Ballet as an Artist of the Company. This season his roles have included the Beggar Chief in Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and the Pas de Trois and Neapolitan in Derek Deane’s Swan Lake. Wagman trained in Toronto, Canada at Vlad’s Dance Company and Stepanova Ballet Company, followed by Princess Grace Academy in Monte Carlo.
Rhys Antoni Yeomans
Yeomans joined as an Artist of the Company in 2017, after training with Centre Pointe, Manchester and English National Ballet School. At 12 years old he played Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical in the West End and in 2017 he was named the winner of the BBC Young Dancer Competition (Classical Ballet section). This season his roles have included the Neapolitan dance in Derek Deane’s Swan Lake.
The Judging Panel for Emerging Dancer 2019:
Michael Coleman
Born in London, Michael trained at the Royal Ballet School before joining The Royal Ballet touring company and then The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. Michael first danced with English National Ballet as a Guest Artist in 1995 and has regularly appeared as Dr Coppelius in Ronald Hynd’s Coppélia; The Tutor and Master of Ceremonies in Derek Deane’s productions of Swan Lake and Swan Lake in-the-round and as Friar Lawrence and Escalus, Prince of Verona, in Nureyev’s Romeo & Juliet and most recently Deane’s in-the-round production at the Royal Albert Hall. He is currently a Guest Character Artist at English National Ballet.
Gerald Dowler
Gerald Dowler has reviewed and written on dance for several publications and websites including the Financial Times, The Dancing Times, Ballet 2000 (English/French/Italian editions), Ballet Review (New York) and www.classicalsource.com. He is also a presiding magistrate and teaches at the City of London School.
Carrie-Anne Ingrouille
Carrie-Anne Ingrouille is a performer, choreographer and director and was recently nominated for an Olivier award for SIX The Musical. She has been a core member of the award-winning ZooNation Dance Company (who specialise in narrative hip hop theatre) since 2005. Carrie wears many different hats within ZooNation and her various roles include associate director, resident director, choreographer, performer and teacher.
Carrie-Anne’s other performing and choreography theatre credits include: Blaze, The Street Dance Sensation (Peacock Theatre and European tour), Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Duke of York’s and UK tour), The Suicide (NT), I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical (London Palladium), The International Olympic Committee Heads of State Performance 2012 (Royal Opera House), The Realness and Polatrix (Hackney Down Studios), R&D (Hampstead Theatre), Back to the Lab, Sum of Parts and Breakin’ Convention (Sadler’s Wells), The Catherine Tate Show Live (UK tour) and Whydentity (Royal Festival Hall).
Carrie also engages in work in the commercial industry and has choreographed various music videos/live performances, corporate engagements and campaigns such as, Change4Life Summer Campaign 2015, StreetDance 3D (Vertigo Films), Sony ‘Dance Star Party’ (Playstation 3 Games), Esmee Denters T4 On the Beach (live performance), Elderbrook ‘Good Times’ music video, Google ‘Engage EMEA’ Corporate Dublin, F&F Children’s Autumn Campaign 2015 (internet advertisement), Sassoon at Salon International (gala dinner and presentation).
As well as performing and choreographing, Carrie-Anne is extremely passionate about training and education and teaches at some of the UK’s leading dance establishments. She regularly tutors at the ZooNation Academy of Dance – and works closely with ZooNation Youth Company and other companies such as Boadicea and Woodside Dance Retreat. Carrie is also a regular adjudicator both nationally and internationally at various dance festivals and competitions around the world.
Carrie is currently resident choreographer on Hamilton, London.
Mavin Khoo
Mavin Khoo is internationally recognised as a dance artist, teacher, choreographer and artist scholar. His initial training was at the Temple of Fine Arts, Sutra Dance Theatre and Sri Wilayah Ballet School in Malaysia. He the pursued his training in Bharata Natyam intensively under the legendary dance maestro, Padma Shri Adyar K.Lakshman in India, Cunningham technique at the Cunningham studios in New York and Classical Ballet under Marian St. Claire, Michael Beare, Nancy Kilgour, Paul Lewis, Ayumi Hikasa, Raymond Chai and Tory Jestyn. As a contemporary dance artist he has worked with Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan, Shobana Jeyasingh and many others. His commissioned works include creations for the Venice Biennale and Canada Dance Festival to name a few. ‘Images in Varnam’ (2001) was commissioned by the Royal Ballet Artists Development Initiative and was followed by another ROH2 commission ‘Let me…with’ Royal Ballet dancer Kristen McNally.
Khoo is considered one of the few Bharata Natyam male soloists to have carved a niche for himself as an international touring solo artist, whilst still regularly dancing at all major venues in India, including the Music Academy and Kalakshetra in Chennai.
Sarah Wildor
Sarah Wildor studied at the Royal Ballet School, She joined the Royal Ballet Company and rose through the ranks to become a Principal dancer. Roles included Juliet, Giselle, Manon, Anastasia, Cinderella, Sugar Plum Fairy, Ondine, Swanhilda (Coppelia), Titania (The Dream), Lise (La Fille Mal Gardée), Ballerina (The Concert), Chloe (Daphnis and Chloe), Desdemona (Othello), Push comes to shove, The Invitation, Enigma variations, Rhapsody, Symphonic Variations, Vera (A month in the Country),Young Girl (Two Pigeons), Irina (Winter Dreams) Gloria and Jeux. She created the Tightrope Walker (Sawdust and Tinsel) and roles in Fanfare, Dream of Angels, The Crucible and Mr Worldly Wise. She represented the Company at the Erik Bruhn Competition.
Sarah also created the title role in Matthew Bourne’s production of Cinderella, which she has performed during sell out seasons in London’s West End and Los Angeles. Sarah starred in Susan Stroman’s Contact at the Queens Theatre London for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She also starred in On Your Toes at the Royal Festival Hall London and on tour in Japan. Other acting roles include Elizabeth in Frankenstein, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peg in Wallflowering and Essie in You Can’t Take It with You.
Other dancing roles include creating the role of Madame de Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses which she performed on tour in Japan and at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London, starring in A Tribute to Sir Kenneth MacMillan for Star Dancers in Japan and the Exeter Festival and starring in Shall We Dance at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London.
TV and Film work includes Jonathan Toomey directed by Bill Clark for 7 Productions, The Da Vinci Code directed by Ron Howard for Sony Pictures and Holby for BBC.
Sarah is also a qualified Pilates instructor and has attained The Royal Ballet School PDTC Diploma and Trinity Laban’s Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning.