Erik Bruhn Ballet Competition Contestants announced

Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, today announced that Corps de Ballet members Emma Hawes and Brendan Saye will represent the company at The Tenth International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 7:30 pm at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Principal Dancer Guillaume Côté will compete for the Choreographic Prize, creating a new contemporary work commissioned by the National Ballet.

Emma Hawes was born in Delaware, Ohio. She trained at the BalletMet's Dance Academy in Columbus, Ohio and Canada’s National Ballet School and  became a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2011.

Brendan Saye was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He trained at Canada’s National Ballet School and in 2008, became a YOU dance Apprentice. Brendan joined The National Ballet of Canada in 2009.

Recently, he danced the role of Romeo in the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet by Alexei Ratmansky and Horatio in the North American premiere of Hamlet by Kevin O’Day. He also made his debut as an Icicle in The Nutcracker. While a student at Canada’s National Ballet School, he was the recipient of both the Peter Dwyer Award and Christopher Ondaatje Prize.
 

The companies participating in this year’s competition are: American Ballet Theatre, The Hamburg Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, The Royal Ballet and The Royal Danish Ballet. Each company will send two dancers and one choreographer to the competition.

The competitors for The Erik Bruhn Prize are Devon Teuscher and Calvin Royal III from American Ballet Theatre, Xue Lin and Aleix Martinez from The Hamburg Ballet, Francesca Hayward and James Hay from The Royal Ballet and Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas from The Royal Danish Ballet.

Judging the competition will be Artistic Directors Karen Kain, Kevin McKenzie (American Ballet Theatre), John Neumeier (The Hamburg Ballet), Kevin O’Hare (The Royal Ballet) and Nikolaj Hübbe (The Royal Danish Ballet).

The evening will be hosted by Principal Dancer Sonia Rodriguez and Artist-in-Residence Rex Harrington.

 If you would like to see the Royal Ballet live, plus 3 other English ballet companies, all in one week, with a treat for Jane Austen fans thrown in, please check out my  ballet trip to London, booking now (deadline November 3) by clicking here.