The Royal Ballet honoured at the National Dance Awards 2017

Zenaida Yanowsky in Will Tuckett's Elizabeth © ROH, 2016. Photographed by Andrej Uspenski

The winners of the National Dance Awards 2017 have been announced.

Principal of The Royal Ballet Francesca Hayward won the Grishko Award for Best Female Dancer, just two years after winning the Emerging Artist Award.

Fellow Principal Zenaida Yanowsky, who will retire at the end of this Season, collected the award for Outstanding Female Performance (Classical) for her performance in the title role of Will Tuckett's Elizabeth.

Scottish dancer Reece Clarke won the Emerging Artist Award – the third time in a row that the honour has been bestowed on a member of The Royal Ballet.

Another notable winner was Dame Beryl Grey, who was awarded the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement. Grey entered Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1941 when she was just 14 years old and remarkably danced the iconic role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake just a year later.

The ceremony is held annually by The Critics' Circle and are the only awards chosen by a body of professional dance critics. Each award, with artwork designed by Deborah MacMillan, celebrate the range of talent in Britain’s thriving dance culture.

Full list of National Dance Awards winners and nominees:

Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer: 

• Tobias Batley (Northern Ballet)
• Alexander Campbell (The Royal Ballet)
• Chase Johnsey (Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo)
• Vadim Muntagirov (The Royal Ballet)
• Liam Riddick (Richard Alston Dance Company)

Grishko Award For Best Female Dancer:

• Francesca Hayward (The Royal Ballet)
• Ekaterina Krysanova (Bolshoi Ballet)
• Laura Morera (The Royal Ballet)
• Tamara Rojo (English National Ballet)
• Zenaida Yanowsky (The Royal Ballet)

Stef Stefanou Award For Outstanding Company:

• Bolshoi Ballet
• English National Ballet
• Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
• Northern Ballet
• Scottish Ballet

Best Independent Company:

• Ballet Cymru
• Denada Dance Theatre
• Gary Clarke Company
• Protein Dance
• Sweetshop Revolution

Best Classical Choreography:

• Anabelle Lopez Ochoa (Broken Wings, English National Ballet)
• Jean-Christophe Maillot (Taming Of The Shrew, Bolshoi Ballet)
• Cathy Marston (Jane Eyre, Northern Ballet)
• Will Tuckett (Elizabeth, The Royal Ballet)
• Jonathan Watkins (1984, Northern Ballet)

Best Modern Choreography:

• Kim Brandstrup, (Transfigured Night, Rambert)
• Javier De Frutos (Anatomy Of A Passing Cloud, Royal New Zealand Ballet)
• Akram Khan (Until The Lions, Akram Khan Company)
• Russell Maliphant (Spiral Pass, Bayerisches Staatsballett Munich)
• Crystal Pite (Betroffenheit, Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre)

Emerging Artist Award:

• Reece Clarke (First Artist, The Royal Ballet)
• Julie Cunningham (Freelance Choreographer)
• Tierney Heap (Soloist, The Royal Ballet)
• Katja Khaniukova (Junior Soloist, English National Ballet)
• Vidya Patel (Guest Artist, Richard Alston Dance Company)

Outstanding Female Performance (Modern):

• Winner: Ching-Ying Chien (Until The Lions, Akram Khan Company)
• Marivi Da Silva (Young Man, Denada Dance Theatre)
• Christine Joy Ritter (Until The Lions, Akram Khan Company)
• Hannah Kidd (The Odyssey,  Mark Bruce Company)
• Vidya Patel (An Italian In Madrid, Richard Alston Dance Company)

Outstanding Male Performance (Modern):

• Miguel Altunaga (Transfigured Night, Rambert)
• Daniel Collins (Jekyll & Hyde, The McOnie Company/The Old Vic)
• Akram Khan (Until The Lions, Akram Khan Company)
• Liam Riddick (An Italian In Madrid, Richard Alston Dance Company)
• Jonathon Young (Betroffenheit, Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre)

Outstanding Female Performance (Classical):

• Francesca Hayward (Rhapsody, The Royal Ballet)
• Ekaterina Krysanova (Taming Of The Shrew, Bolshoi Ballet)
• Martha Leebolt (1984, Northern Ballet)
• Tamara Rojo (Broken Wings, English National Ballet)
• Zenaida Yanowsky (Elizabeth, The Royal Ballet)

Outstanding Male Performance (Classical)  

• Tobias Batley (1984, Northern Ballet)
• Cesar Corrales (Le Corsaire, English National Ballet)
• Chase Johnsey (Paquita, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo)
• Vladislav Lantratov (Taming Of The Shrew, Bolshoi Ballet)
• Irek Mukhamedov (Broken Wings, English National Ballet)

De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement:

Dame Beryl Grey