Australian dancer Paul White has won the Dancers Pro Award for Outstanding Modern Performance (Male) at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for 2013, for his performance in Meryl Tankard’s The Oracle.
The Oracle is a solo work created for White by Tankard, with choreography credited to both artists. Set to Stravinsky’s seminal 1913 work, The Rite of Spring, The Oracle explores the conflicting forces of nature and man, masculinity and femininity, violence and nurturing, strength and vulnerability.
White has received international critical acclaim for his role in the work. Judith Mackrell of The Guardian (London) writes, “…in his final, lung-bursting, convulsive leap, we can almost believe White is channelling Nijinsky's performances of Petrushka, a tormented soul poised between death and transfiguration. Few dancers should pit themselves against a legend, but White is one of them.” (2 June 2013, Review: The Oracle).
Australian-born Leanne Benjamin won one of two De Valois Awards for Outstanding Achievement. Benjamin was a principal artist with the Royal Ballet for 20 years and retired in July 2013. During her extensive career Benjamin danced with Sadler’s Wells, English National Ballet and Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as appearing as a guest with the likes of the Australian Ballet and Dresden Ballet. Benjamin is especially renowned for her interpretations of Kenneth Macmillan’s roles and names MacMillan as a mentor.
Dance Australia extends warmest congratulations to Leanne Benjamin and Paul White.
More info about the Critics' Circle Awards: www.criticscircle.org.uk