RAD Fonteyn Competition Review

And the winner is… not quite yet, all in good time. Let’s consider first the context in which 12 young dance students found themselves on the stage of London’s His Majesty Theatre competing for medals that may well play a determining role in their future employment prospects.

The Fonteyn, previously known as The Genée, is the Royal Academy of Dance's flagship event: an international competition open to students who have been trained in the RAD syllabus, the paradigm for ballet teaching in many schools the world over. Recently renamed after the best loved of all British ballerinas, Margot Fonteyn, who was the RAD's longest serving president, it was founded in 1931, which makes it one of the oldest and most prestigious international ballet competitions.

This year’s competition attracted 64 entrants from 14 countries. Over a week of work with choreographers and coaching staff they were whittled down to 12 to compete for Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, all in the gift of an eminent four-person panel of judges, and an audience award voted for on the night.

All performed three times: in an especially commissioned piece by choreographer Andrew McNicol; then each dancer’s own choreography; and finally a classical variation.

The judges were looking for technical proficiency alongside musicality and expressive interpretation; and most finalists lived up to those requirements, but not necessarily consistently across all three pieces.

In the end the Gold Medal was fairly awarded to 18-year Scottish dancer Antonia Maria Cramb (pictured top), who showed remarkable consistency throughout her three pieces, imbuing the McNicol work with her own sunny interpretation and mastering the considerable technical demands of the classical 2nd Odalisque variation from Le Corsaire with aplomb.She has a winning smile and lovely stage presence, and I daresay she will go far.

Lydia Hough hit the jackpot twice, winning Silver Medal and the audience award.

The Fonteyn - Lydia Hough. Photo: Martin Bell
The 18-year-old British student of English National Ballet School excelled in the 2nd Odalisque Variation from Le Corsaire; her own choreography was an energetic number involving much floor work; and she was able to instil her own interpretation into the McNicol piece.

Bronze was awarded to two men: the 17-year-old Australian Ernesto Young (the winner also of a Choreographic Award) and the British 18-year-old Alfie-Lee Hall, a student of Elmhurst School.

The Fonteyn - Ernesto Young and Alfie-Lee Hall. Photo: Martin Bell
Enjoyable as the evening was there were a few worrying aspects: a couple of the finalists were disturbingly thin. Girls by far outnumbered boys. And despite the huge national and ethnic variety of the 64 original entrants, there was a striking uniformity to the 12 finalists, all but one white, blondish anglo-saxons, the majority from the UK with a sprinkling of antipodeans.

I’m not sure what this means, but I thought it worth pointing out.

To crown the evening, Northern Ballet guests Harris Beattie, himself a former Gold Medal winner, and lead soloist Saeka Shirai danced the impassioned balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, in the version by Christopher Gable and Massimo Morricone.

Watching from the wings surely all finalists hoped one day that might be them …