The Telstra Ballet Dancer Award has been made annually since 2003, in support of the aspirations of The Australian Ballet's elite young dancers. The winner receives a cash prize of $20,000. This is the biggest prize available specifically to a dancer in Australia.
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Nominees are selected by The Australian Ballet and previous award winners. A judging panel composed of representatives from The Australian Ballet, Telstra and the media selects the winner based on "the artistic quality of their work, the strength of a written submission, their personal development, and future potential."
History of the awards
The awards are announced in early December in the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House.
The 2010 announcement of both Award winners was made on the opening night of The Nutcracker on 3 December 2010. For the first time since the inauguration of the awards, the judging panel was unable to separate two dancers for the main award, and each received $20,000.
The 2011 awards were announced on the opening night of Romeo & Juliet (choreography by Graeme Murphy) on 2 December.
The 2012 Award winners were announced on the Sydney opening night of Stephen Baynes' Swan Lake on 30 November.
The 2013 awards were announced on the opening night of Cinderella (choreography by Alexei Ratmansky) on 29 November.
The 2014 awards were announced after a dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker on 27 November 2014.
The 2015 awards were announced on opening night of The Sleeping Beauty on 3 December 2015.
The 2016 awards were announced on the opening night of Coppélia on 2 December 2016.
Telstra People's Choice Award
In addition, the Telstra People's Choice Award, with a cash prize of $5,000, is made to the most popular of the nominees in that year, as determined by internet and SMS votes from the public. Since 2010, competitors report on their activities via an individual Twitter account as part of the competition, and in 2013 competitors began using Instagram as a publicity tool. Amber Scott was the first dancer to win both awards (in 2004) and Stephanie Williams the second (in 2009); Chengwu Guo the first male dancer to win both. Amy Harris and Danielle Rowe have each won the People's Choice Award twice.
Nominees
The nominees for these awards were, until 2015, announced in the first three months of the year.
The 2016 nominees were announced on 18 August 2016 at the Australian Ballet Centre. Second-timers Jarryd Madden and Jade Wood were joined by Nicola Curry, Brodie James, Callum Linnane and Jill Ogai in the first evenly-distributed set of nominations.
The 2015 nominees were announced on 10 July 2015 at the Australian Ballet Centre in Southbank. Previous People's Choice winner Benedicte Bemet joined Ako Kondo in celebrating a second nomination, while Robyn Hendricks was nominated for a fourth time. The first-time nominees joining them were Marcus Morelli, Amanda McGuigan, and Jasmin Durham.
The 2014 nominees were announced on 7 March 2014 at a free performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and were Dimity Azoury, Imogen Chapman, Ingrid Gow, Cristiano Martino, Rina Nemoto, and Jade Wood.
The 2013 nominees were announced on 13 February 2013 and were Benedicte Bemet, Cameron Hunter, Natasha Kusen, Christopher Rodgers-Wilson, Sharni Spencer, and Valerie Tereshchenko.
The 2012 nominees were Dimity Azoury, Calvin Hannaford, Amy Harris, Ako Kondo, Jarryd Madden and Jake Mangakahia.
The 2011 nominees were announced at a full meeting of The Australian Ballet's company and artistic staff on 15 February. They were Brett Chynoweth, Chengwu Guo, Rudy Hawkes, Robyn Hendricks, Luke Marchant and Karen Nanasca.
The 2010 nominees were Amy Harris, Ty King-Wall, Miwako Kubota, Natasha Kusen, Dana Stephensen, and Vivienne Wong.
The 2009 nominees were Juliet Burnett (now with Royal Ballet of Flanders), Robyn Hendricks (current principal artist), Andrew Killian (current principal artist), Leanne Stojmenov, Laura Tong (retired) and Stephanie Williams (corps de ballet, American Ballet Theatre).
The 2008 nominees were Tzu-Chao Chou (first soloist, Birmingham Royal Ballet), Amy Harris (current senior artist), Reiko Hombo (retired senior artist), Kevin Jackson, Ty King-Wall (current principal artist) and Andrew Wright (current soloist).
The 2007 nominees were Jane Casson, Daniel Gaudiello (left in 2016), Rudy Hawkes (left in 2016), Robyn Hendricks, Luke Ingham (principal artist, San Francisco Ballet), and Leanne Stojmenov.
The 2006 nominees were Adam Bull, Annabel Bronner Reid (retired), Andrew Killian (current principal artist), Gina Brescianini (retired), Kevin Jackson (current principal artist), and Madeleine Eastoe.
The 2005 nominees were Marc Cassidy (retired), Gaylene Cummerfield (retired principal artist, Birmingham Royal Ballet), Lana Jones (current principal artist), Paul Knobloch, Danielle Rowe, and Leanne Stojmenov (current principal artist).
The 2004 nominees were Adam Bull (current principal artist), Jane Casson (Principal Teacher, City Adult Ballet), Craig Cathcart (company manager, Queensland Ballet), Miwako Kubota (retired senior artist), Rachel Rawlins (retired principal artist), and Amber Scott (current principal artist).
The inaugural nominees, in 2003, were Olivia Bell (retired principal artist), Annabel Bronner Reid, Madeleine Eastoe (retired principal artist), Tim Harbour (retired, now choreographer), Matthew Lawrence (retired, former principal artist Queensland Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet), and Danielle Rowe (Nederlands Dans Theater, former principal artist The Australian Ballet, Houston Ballet).