Jury report Alexandra Radius Prize 2024
As the jury of the Alexandra Radius Prize, we can look back on an impressive ballet season, in which the dancers of Dutch National Ballet gave outstanding and regularly even astounding performances. They did so in the classical repertoire, like Rachel Beaujean’s hit productions of Giselle and Raymonda, as well as in the contemporary repertoire, including highlights like Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida, Jiří Kylián’s Wings of Wax, David Dawson’s ANIMA ANIMUS, Hans van Manen’s Frank Bridge Variations and Concertante, and Alexei Ratmansky’s Stravinsky Fairy Tales double bill.
Many names were therefore put forward in the jury’s meetings about the Alexandra Radius Prize 2024, including those of well-known principals and rising stars. In the end, we chose a female dancer who has not only distinguished herself in both classical and contemporary ballets in an exceptional, often poignant way, but whose extraordinary courage we also want to acknowledge with the Alexandra Radius Prize.
In March 2022, the Russian prima ballerina Olga Smirnova – because that is who we are talking about – left hearth and home. Straight after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she resolutely opposed Putin’s declaration of war, which meant she could no longer hold her star position with the Bolshoi Ballet, in Moscow, and neither did she want to. Of all the leading companies she could then have joined, she chose Dutch National Ballet, largely because of the repertoire of Hans van Manen. Since then, she has rapidly grown to become one of the company’s best-loved principal dancers, due to her remarkable talent, extreme dedication, great interest in new choreographic works and dance styles, and, last but not least, her warm and modest personality.
Last season, Smirnova excelled not only on stage in the big classics – Giselle and Raymonda – but also in cinemas all over the world as Giselle, with Jacopo Tissi at her side. Her classical purity, clean lines and great musicality were even more apparent on screen, and particularly in the second act of the ballet her fragile appearance was deeply moving.
But however strongly Smirnova is rooted in the Russian classical tradition – she trained at the famous Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersburg –, she also drew all eyes to her last season for her interpretations of the international, contemporary repertoire For instance, she performed ballets by Hans van Manen (Frank Bridge Variations and Concertante) and Jiří Kylián (Wings of Wax) as if she had been doing them all her life. Whilst totally opening up to the specific style of both grand masters, she also gave an unmistakeably personal, magical interpretation of their ballets. And there was certainly also magic at the Gala with which Dutch National Ballet closed its season. Smirnova gave an enchanting performance of the ‘black duet’ from Postscript, once again with Tissi at her side, in which she poignantly conveyed the great loss to the Netherlands of the remarkable work by León and Lightfoot (now it is no longer performed by Nederlands Dans Theater).
We jury members view Smirnova as a valuable asset to dance in the Netherlands, and her enormous dedication, drive and interest in other dance forms that are new to her make her a role model for all dancers in the Netherlands and further afield. It therefore gives us great pride to award her – by unanimous consent – the Alexandra Radius Prize 2024, in the fervent hope that Dutch ballet audiences, and we ourselves, will be able to enjoy her exceptional qualities for many years to come.
Jury Alexandra Radius Prize 2024
This year’s Alexandra Radius Prize jury comprised: namesake Alexandra Radius (former principal with Dutch National Ballet), Alexander Zhembrovskyy (former principal with Dutch National Ballet and owner of the dance and fitness studio named after him), Astrid van Leeuwen (dance journalist and publicist), Frederik Redelé (board member of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet Fund), Bram Posma (Friend of Dutch National Ballet) and Rutger Steens (Young Patron of Dutch National Ballet).