by Article19
There may well be awards that give you a shiny gong or two and you may get to sit in a grand place eating fine food and become slightly tipsy on the house wine but damn-it our awards come from the heart so read, appreciate and don't cry too hard if you didn't win anything!
Lofty Achievement in Dance Award.
Wired Aerial Dance Theatre for 'Handmade/Manmade': The dancers may well be attached at the hip by a length of rope and a bungie cord but the didn't stop this intrepid trio from pulling off some highly original movement in the years stand out dance work that made a rainy trip to London/GothamCity worthwhile to say nothing of the £50 parking ticket we picked up in the process!
Lofty Achievement in Dance Award. Special Mention.
Scottish Dance Theatre and 'No Stronger Than A Flower': As Scotland's only mid-scale contemporary dance company - don't believe the hype about Scottish Ballet - SDT have grown into one of the strongest companies in Europe from very humble beginnings. Superb dancers and strong creative leadership from Janet Smith have seen to that.
Lofty Achievement in Performance Award.
Lise Manavit of Dance Theatre Ireland: for her performance in 'Exodus'. A tough choice in a year filled with many great performances. The young French dancer exhibits tremendous skill and flair, we only hope this addled profession can hold on to talent like this!
Lofty Achievement in Performance Award. Special Mention.
Omar Gordon, John Thompson, Neb Abbott, Andrew Cowan and River Carmalt of Bare Bones: One of the world's few, all male, contemporary dance companies, or any other type of dance company for that matter. Superb handling of a diverse range of work from Liam Steel(e), David Massingham and Arthur Pitta makes them worthy of special mention.
Lofty Achievement in Blogging Award.
The Winger: The US based blog comprises images and writing from, mostly, ballet dancers around the world in a unique look behind the scenes of the classical world of dance. Run by Kristin Sloan of New York City Ballet it provides an excellent blue print for dance bloggers the world over on how to set up a collaborative writing platform and tell the good folks about what you do!
The Tony Blair WMD's Exist Useless Document Award.
Dance UK for the 'Dancer's Manifesto': perhaps the biggest waste of paper pushed by dance since the last time any arts body published anything to do with dance. A document produced by and for the weak willed and stupid, never before have we encountered a document that promised so much yet delivered absolutely nothing!
The George W. Bush No Diplomacy Is Better Than No Diplomacy Award.
Dance Europe: for their utterly ridiculous, contemptible, unethical, unprofessional behaviour towards any Israeli dance maker that wouldn't denounce their government. If any evidence were needed as to just how misguided and useless most of the 'old school' arts press is then look no further than this nonsense.
The HM Customs and Revenue 'Giving It and Taking It Back' Award.
Dance City: for putting a resource facility in their new building comprised of a library, videos, computers and all manner of things and then never opening the thing for people to use. Despite all of the staff in the new building apparently nobody was available to make sure the hordes of criminally minded dancers didn't make off with the goods!
The 109th Congress 'Can't Be Arsed' Award.
Dance City's press flacks: for completely ignoring some very simple instructions on how to credit an Article19 image when used on their website. To be fair they don't credit any images on their website which means they should probably win a third award - a feat achieved only by Judith Mackrell - but the year is young so we'll see!
The Judith Mackrell 'Can't Write For Love Nor Money' Award.
Emma John: of the Guardian who wrote the crassest exploitation piece on ballet dancers yet seen in the national press. The work covered dancers injuries, particularly from pointe shoes, and comprised absolutely no follow up from the 'journalist' in question on just why ballet companies subject their dancers to such harsh treatment. Our own Evil Imp called the piece 'sadistic voyeurism' need we say more?
The Simon Cowell 'Flogging a Dead Concept' Award.
The Place for 'The Place Prize': Nina Rajarani's revelation that her winning work cost as much money to make than the prize money she actually won makes you wonder why The Place bothers with it at all. The meager press coverage doesn't justify the expense and the shameless exploitation of dancers is nothing short of outrageous, for shame we say!
