Dance floored

This year’s ‘achievement in dance’ award managed to pass without a single dancer being honoured. Why does dance put up with playing the Cinderella among art forms? Do prizes matter? After the past two months, it’s easy to think that the bloated system of Oscars, Globes, Baftas and so on is more about frocks, marketing and gossip than rewarding genuine talent and creativity. But the most hardened cynic may spare a moment’s sympathy for the slight that was delivered to the dance profession at this year’s Olivier awards , which were awarded last Sunday. Dance has always been a postscript to this event: like opera, it gets just two dedicated prizes. And usually the profession is happy to tag along to what’s essentially a party for theatrical types. But feathers were ruffled this year when, in contrast to the three singers who made it onto the shortlist for outstanding achievement in opera, the shortlist for outstanding achievement in dance contained not a single dancer. Instead there were two designers and a drummer: artist Antony Gormley for his design for Babel at Sadler’s Wells, John MacFarlane for his design for Asphodel Meadows at the Royal Ballet and Yoshie Sunahata for her drumming in Gnosis (Sunahata did move with incredible power, to be sure, but she was cited, specifically, for her drumming). In defence of this odd – albeit very tactless – decision, the awards’ criteria for eligibility does excludes much of the dance that appears in London, and according to one of the judges an unusual number of productions that were up for consideration this year were collaborative creations, for which music and design deserved unusual credit. But anyone who spent any time at Sadler’s Wells, the Opera House and the Coliseum last year, along with the other participating venues, would feel there was no shortage of fine dancing that came within the rules. And you could surely argue that Tamara Rojo made just as outstanding a contribution to Asphodel Meadows as MacFarlane did, and that Akram Khan ‘s dancing was even more key to Gnosis than Sunahata’s drumming. Another good reason for prioritising those contributions is that dancers in general are hardly snowed under by honours and prizes from other sources. In Britain there is little for them beyond the Critic’s Circle awards (hugs and certificates given to the year’s best dancers, choreographers and companies), and the Place prize (which offers money and a platform to new choreography). Within the world of performing arts dancers have, on average, the worst pay, the most arduous hours and the most cruelly short careers. You’d think the Oliviers could have offered just one of them a prize to take home. Would that have been too much to ask? Dance Awards and prizes Akram Khan Antony Gormley Judith Mackrell guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.