The winners of the 2025 National Dance Awards were announced at London’s Coronet Theatre this afternoon at a ceremony marking the awards' 26th anniversary. Voted for by members of the Critics’ Circle’s Dance Section, the awards recognise performances seen in the UK during the 2025 calendar year.
Scottish dance emerged as one of the year's major success stories. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Scottish Dance Theatre received the award for Best Mid-Scale Company for the first time, while Scottish Ballet's Mary, Queen of Scots won two awards: choreographer Sophie Laplane was recognised for Best Classical Choreography, and Roseanna Leney won Outstanding Female Classical Performance for her portrayal of the ill-fated monarch.
International recognition went to the National Ballet of Japan, whose visit to the Royal Opera House in August 2025 earned it the Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company. The award was presented to artistic director, Miyako Yoshida, by the Ambassador of Japan to the UK, Hiroshi Suzuki. Japanese ballet's strong showing was further underlined by Ryoichi Hirano of The Royal Ballet, who won Outstanding Male Classical Performance for his interpretation of the title role in Onegin.
The Royal Ballet enjoyed another successful year overall, with William Bracewell and Lauren Cuthbertson receiving the awards for Best Male Dancer and Best Female Dancer, respectively, each collecting a third National Dance Award. La Fée Électricité, featuring Viola Pantuso dancing through the streets of Paris, won Best Short Film. Wayne McGregor's immersive film experience, On the Other Earth, was named Best Dance Film.
Elsewhere, the highest honour, the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement, was presented to Russell Maliphant in recognition of a career that has helped shape British contemporary dance over more than three decades, while London City Ballet continued its recent resurgence by winning the Best Independent Company award for the second consecutive year.
Among the awards for choreographers, Kim Brandstrup received Best Modern Choreography for Breaking Bach, his second National Dance Award in the category following Transfigured Night in 2016. Dancer Liam Francis was recognised with the Emerging Artist award for his work in choreography.
Performance awards for Modern Performance went to Cordelia Braithwaite for her portrayal of Victoria Page in Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes and to Paris Fitzpatrick for his role as Jimmy in Quadrophenia. English National Ballet's music director Maria Seletskaja received the Outstanding Creative Contribution award.
The winners were selected from 75 nominations drawn from a record 379 recommendations submitted by the UK’s dance critics, reflecting what National Dance Awards chair Graham Watts described as “a wonderful year for dance in the UK”.
Photo credits L-R:
Dancers of London City Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition © ASH
William Bracewell (Knave of Hearts), Anna Rose O'Sullivan (Alice) in Alice in Wonderland © 2025 RBO | Photo by Andrej Uspenski
Paris Fitzpatrick as Jimmy in Quadrophenia – A Mod Ballet © Johan Persson
Roseanna Leney as Mary in Scottish Ballet’s Mary, Queen of Scots © Andy Ross
Maria Seletskaja © Maria-Helena Buckley
Cordelia Braithwaite as Victoria Page in Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes © Johan Persson
Liam Francis in his own Lyre Liar © Lee Baxter
Scottish Dance Theatre - The Flock & Moving Cloud © Ian Georgeson
National Ballet of Japan © Yumiko Inoue
Breaking Bach at Edinburgh International Festival © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Lauren Cuthbertson and Ryoichi Hirano in Serenade, The Royal Ballet © 2025 Foteini Christofilopoulou
