kids encyclopedia robot

Prix Benois de la Danse facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The Benois de la Danse is a famous ballet competition held every year in Moscow, Russia. It was started in 1991 by the International Dance Association. This special event happens around April 29th each year. A group of top ballet experts, called a jury, judges the competition. The people on the jury change every year.

Winners receive cool statuettes and a cash prize. The awards are given in different categories. These include awards for dancers (both ballerinas and danseurs), choreographers (who create dances), composers (who write music for ballet), and designers (who create costumes and sets). There's also a special award for people who have achieved a lot in ballet over their lifetime.

History of the Benois de la Danse

The idea for the Benois de la Danse started in Moscow. In 1992, the founders got support from UNESCO, a big international organization. The competition is held at the end of April to celebrate the birthday of a famous artist named Alexandre Benois (1870–1960). The award is named after him.

A French artist named Igor Ustinov designed the award statuette in 1992. He is the son of the well-known actor Peter Ustinov. Igor is also a great-nephew of Alexandre Benois, which makes the award even more special.

What the Competition Aims To Do

The Benois de la Danse competition has a few important goals:

  • To show the audience the very best ballet performances. These performances come from different artists and styles.
  • To bring together the best dancers and creators from all over the world. They represent many different dance styles and schools.
  • To help ballet veterans (older dancers who have contributed a lot) financially. This support comes from special gala concerts.

Famous Judges of the Benois de la Danse

See also (related category): Prix Benois de la Danse jurors

Many famous ballet stars have been part of the Benois de la Danse jury. Here are some of them:

Award Winners

Many talented people have won awards at the Benois de la Danse. Here are some of the winners in different categories:

Composers

These are some of the composers who won for their music in ballet:

Designers

These designers won for their amazing work on ballet sets and costumes:

Lifetime Achievement Award

This award celebrates people who have had a huge impact on ballet throughout their careers.

Name Year Country
Alicia Alonso 2000  Cuba
Mikhail Baryshnikov 2003  United States
Maurice Béjart 2003  France
Marina Semyonova 2003  Russia
Hans van Manen 2005  Netherlands
Laurent Hilaire 2007  France
John Neumeier 2013  Germany
Sylvie Guillem 2015  United Kingdom
Marcia Haydée 2017  Brazil
Natalia Makarova 2018  Russia
Jiří Kylián 2019  Czech Republic

Ballerinas

Here are some of the incredible female dancers who have won the Benois de la Danse award:

Name Year Country
Nadezhda Gracheva 1992  Russia
Sylvie Guillem 1994  United Kingdom
Diana Vishneva 1996  Russia
Ulyana Lopatkina 1997  Russia
Alessandra Ferri 2000  Italy
Aurélie Dupont 2002  France
Alina Cojocaru 2004  United Kingdom
Svetlana Zakharova 2005  Russia
Tamara Rojo 2008  United Kingdom
Natalia Osipova 2009  Russia
Olga Smirnova 2013  Russia
Alicia Amatriain 2016  Germany
Sae Eun Park 2018  France
Elisa Carrillo Cabrera 2019 Flag of Mexico.svg Mexico
Ashley Bouder 2019  United States
Amandine Albisson 2021  France
Ekaterina Krysanova 2021  Russia
Misun Kang 2023  South Korea

Danseurs

These are some of the amazing male dancers who have received the award:

Name Year Country
Julio Bocca 1992  Argentina
Nicolas Le Riche 1995  France
Irek Mukhamedov 1996  United Kingdom
Farukh Ruzimatov 1997  Russia
Vladimir Malakhov 1998  Germany
Nikolay Tsiskaridze 1999  Russia
Ángel Corella 2000  United States
Laurent Hilaire 2004  France
Mathieu Ganio 2005  France
Marcelo Gomes 2008  United States
Carlos Acosta 2008  United Kingdom
Ivan Vasiliev 2009  Russia
David Hallberg 2010  United States
Mathias Heymann 2012  France
Vadim Muntagirov 2013  United Kingdom
Herman Cornejo 2014  United States
Edward Watson 2015  United Kingdom
Kim Kimin 2016  Russia
Hugo Marchand 2017  France
Isaac Hernández 2018  United Kingdom
Vladislav Lantratov 2018  Russia
Vadim Muntagirov 2019  United Kingdom
Jesus Carmona 2021  Spain
Hugo Marchand 2023  France

Choreographers

These are some of the talented choreographers who won for creating new and exciting ballets:

Name Year Country
John Neumeier 1992  Germany
Jiří Kylián 1993  Netherlands
Roland Petit 1994  France
Angelin Preljocaj 1995  France
Carolyn Carlson 1998  France
Nacho Duato 2000  Spain
David Dawson 2003  United Kingdom
Alexei Ratmansky 2005  Russia
Boris Eifman 2006  Russia
Jean-Christophe Maillot 2008  Monaco
Wayne McGregor 2009  United Kingdom
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui 2011  Belgium
Lar Lubovitch 2012  United States
Hans van Manen 2013  Netherlands
Christopher Wheeldon 2013  United Kingdom
Alexei Ratmansky 2014  United States
Crystal Pite 2017  Canada
Deborah Colker 2018  Brazil
Yuri Possokhov 2018  Russia

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Premio Benois de la Danse para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Prix Benois de la Danse Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.