For a small profession, relatively speaking, the dance world has an awful lot of awards ceremonies going on all the time, with the emphasis on the word “awful”!
This time it’s the Olivier Awards, named for Laurence Olivier the well know thesp and all-round ham. Although they are not specifically for dance they do have dance awards in them for reasons past understanding.
The big winner on the night was The Royal Ballet who won both Best New Dance Production and the Outstanding Achievement in Dance for ‘Jewels’. Now this would be rather unremarkable apart from the fact that Jewels is 40 years old and was made by George Balanchine (now deceased) in 1967 for the New York City Ballet.
A more appropriate title for the award might well be Best New Dance Production That’s 40 Years Old You Robbing B*stards! The awards website says the gong was given to; “The Royal Ballet for its revival of George Balanchine’s three-part ballet Jewels at the Royal Opera House”.
Quick note: if something is a “revival” then it’s not “new” it’s old, it’s been done before and I’ll wager it’s probably been done better.
If you’re wondering why nothing outside of London ever wins one of these things it’s because the people who vote for these awards are hundreds of years old, delusional, and under the misguided impression that London is the centre of the universe, allegedly!
Londondance.com, the capitals stenographers in chief, have worked themselves into a complete state because a lot of the award nominees, not the winners, put their shows on at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, where LD.com is based. To Londondance the words “Sadler’s Wells”, “award” and “press release” all in the same sentence are like the proverbial moth to a flame or a prostitution ring to the Governor of New York.
Of course, just being nominated is an honour and you can still put it in a “news” story and mention “Sadler’s Wells” five hundred times for no apparent reason!
If you care, full list of winners at the link below.