Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance

The Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.

Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Awarded for	Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First awarded	1977
Currently held by	Isabela Coracy for performing in NINA: By Whatever Means (2024)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

This award was first presented in 1977, as Outstanding Achievement of the Year in Ballet, then was retitled to Outstanding Individual Performance of the Year in a New Dance Production in 1983, before settling on the current title in 1986. With the exception of 1983–1985, when the criteria focused only on an individual dancer, this award`s criteria covers the breadth of a commingled group of specialties, including: dancers, choreographers, designers (individual or combination of costume, visual, set, lighting – in dance, as opposed to the individual Olivier awards for designer categories, which also exist), and artistic directors.

Winners and nominees

1970s

Year	Nominee	Category	Production
1977
	London Festival Ballet	Dance company	Romeo and Juliet
	Maurice Béjart	Choreographer/director	Ballet of the 20th Century
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	The Sleeping Beauty
	Rudolf Nureyev	Dancer/director	Nureyev and Friends
1978
	Robert Cohan	Artistic director	London Contemporary Dance Theatre
	Christopher Bruce	Choreographer	Ballet Rambert
	Siobhan Davies	Dancer	Harmonica Breakdown
	Lynn Seymour	Dancer	A Month in the Country
1979
	Peter Schaufuss	Choreographer	La Sylphide
	Kenneth MacMillan	Choreographer	Playground
	Ballet Rambert	Dance company	The Tempest

1980s

Year	Nominee	Category	Production
1980
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Gloria
	Ballet of the 20th Century	Dance company	Gaîté Parisienne
	London Festival Ballet	Dance company	Sphinx
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Rhapsody
1981
	Stuttgart Ballet	Dance company	Forgotten Land
	London Contemporary Dance Theatre	Dance company	Death and the Maiden
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Dances of Albion
	Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet	Dance company	Night Moves
1982
	Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris	Dance company	Le songe d'une nuit d'été
	Ballet Rambert	Dance company	Ghost Dances
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Illuminations
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	L'Invitation Au Voyage
1983
	Alessandra Ferri	Dancer, The Royal Ballet	Valley of Shadows
	Patrick Armand	Dancer, Ballet Théâtre Français	Songs of a Wayfarer
	Natalia Makarova	Dancer, The Royal Opera	The Nightingale
	Koen Onzia	Dancer, London Festival Ballet	The Seasons
1984
	David Bintley	Dancer, Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet	Petrushka
	Wayne Eagling	Dancer, The Royal Ballet	Different Drummer
	Patricia Ruanne	Dancer, London Festival Ballet	Onegin
1985
	Yoko Morishita	Dancer, Matsuyama Ballet Company	Giselle
	Stephen Jefferies	Dancer, The Royal Ballet	The Sons of Horus
	Roland Price	Dancer, Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet	The Sleeping Beauty
	Bryony Brind	Dancer, The Royal Ballet	Young Apollo
1986
	Ballet Rambert	Dance company	60th Anniversary Season
	Bolshoi Ballet	Dance company	Performances at the London Coliseum
	Michael Clark	Dancer	Individual Impact and Contribution
	Irek Mukhamedov	Dancer	Bolshoi Ballet
	Jerome Robbins	Choreographer	Range of Work
	Jorge Salavisa	Artistic director	The Ballet Gulbenkian
1987
	Trisha Brown	Dancer/choreographer	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre
	London Contemporary Dance Theatre	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre
	Richard Alston	Choreographer	Pulcinella and Dutiful Ducks
	Merce Cunningham Company	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre
	Ichikawa Ennosuke III	Kabuki performer	The Thousand Cherries of Yoshitsune
1988
	Kirov Ballet	Dance company	Season in London
	London Festival Ballet with special mention to Christopher Bruce for his choreography and Koen Onzia for his performances	Dance company	Swansong and Cruel Garden
	Cumbre Flamenca	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre
	Hayden Griffin	Designer	Still Life at the Penguin Café
	London Contemporary Dance Theatre	Dance company	Arden Court and Shift
	Second Stride	Dance company	Weighing the Heart
1989/90
	London Contemporary Dance Theatre	Dance company	Kim Brandstrup's Orfeo
	Nina Ananiashvili and Irek Mukhamedov	Dancers	Bolshoi Ballet
	David Bintley	Choreographer	Hobson's Choice
	Siobhan Davies	Choreographer	Embarque
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	The Prince of the Pagodas
	Paul Taylor Dance Company	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre

1990s

Year	Nominee	Category	Production
1991
	Twyla Tharp and Jennifer Tipton	Choreographer and lighting designer	In the Upper Room
	Siobhan Davies and Dancers	Choreographer and dancers	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre
	Darcey Bussell	Dancer	Winter Dreams and Stravinsky Violin Concerto
	Kenneth MacMillan	Choreographer	Winter Dreams
	Mark Morris	Choreographer	Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
	The Phoenix Dance Company	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells Theatre
1992
	William Forsythe and The Royal Ballet	Choreographer and performance	In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated
	Adventures in Motion Pictures most promising small dance company to present a West End season	Dance company	Season at the Royal Court Theatre
	Stephen Jefferies	Dancer	Cyrano
	Philippe Genty	Director and concept	Driftings
	Graham Lustig and Henk Schut	Choreographer and designer	Inscape
	Northern Ballet Theatre	Dance company	Romeo and Juliet
1993
	Siobhan Davies	Choreographer	Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues
	David Bintley	Choreographer	Tombeaux
	Lez Brotherston	Scenery and costume designer	Northern Ballet Theatre's Season at the Royalty Theatre
	Joseph Cipolla	Dancer	The Green Table
1994
	London Contemporary Dance Theatre	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Darcey Bussell	Dancer	Ballet Imperial and La Ronde
	Sylvie Guillem	Dancer	Herman Schmerman
	Marion Tait	Dancer	Romeo and Juliet
1995
	Peter Mumford	Lighting designer	Fearful Symmetries and The Glass Blew In
	Thomas Edur	Dancer	The Sleeping Beauty
	John MacFarlane	Designer	The Nutcracker
	Nuria Moreno	Dancer	Cinderella
1996
	Siobhan Davies	Choreographer	The Art of Touch
	Deborah Bull	Dancer	Steptext
	Sylvie Guillem	Dancer	Episodes
	Marion Tait	Dancer	Pillar of Fire
1997
	Rambert Dance Company	Dance company	Season at the London Coliseum
	Sue Blane	Designer	Alice in Wonderland
	Viviana Durante	Dancer	Anastasia and ...Now Langourous, Now Wild...
	Thomas Edur	Dancer	Alice in Wonderland and Giselle
1998
	Lez Brotherston	Set design and costume	Cinderella
	Altynai Asylmuratova	Dancer	Swan Lake
	Mark Morris	Choreographer	L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
1999
	William Forsythe and Ballett Frankfurt	Choreographer/artistic director and dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Trisha Brown	Choreographer	L'Orfeo
	Bill T. Jones and company	Choreographer/dancer and dancers	We Set Out Early...Visibility Was Poor
	Twyla Tharp and company	Choreographer/dancer and dancers	Season at the Barbican Theatre

2000s

Year	Nominee	Category	Production
2000
	Jirí Kylián	Choreographer/director	NDT I's season at Sadler's Wells
	Nina Ananiashvili	Dancer	Don Quixote
	Pina Bausch and company	Concept and production	Viktor
	David Bintley and creative team	Choreographer, designers, music	Edward II
2001
	Deborah Colker	Choreographer	Mix
	Matthew Bourne	Concept and dramatisation	The Car Man
	Robert Parker	Dancer	Shakespeare Suite
	Michael Revie	Dancer	Mozartina
2002
	Mark Morris	Choreographer/director	Mark Morris Dance Group's season at Sadler's Wells
	Ushio Amagatsu	Concept, direction, choreography and performance	Hibiki
	Dana Caspersen	Dancer	Artifact and Eidos:Telos
	William Forsythe	Choreographer	Artifact and Eidos:Telos
2003
	Robyn Orlin	Choreographer	Daddy, I've Seen This Piece Six Times and I Still Don't Know Why They're Hurting Each Other
	Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal	Dance company	Kontakthof
	Chiaki Nagao	Dancer	Madame Butterfly
	Christopher Wheeldon	Choreographer	Tryst and Polyphonia
2004
	Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks	Dancers	2 Human
	Carlos Acosta	Dancer and choreographer	Tocororo - A Cuban Tale
	Javier de Frutos	Choreographer	Elsa Canasta
	Rambert Dance Company	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells
2005
	San Francisco Ballet	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Julien Macdonald	Costume designer	Shimmer
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Sylvia
	Rambert Dance Company	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells
2006
	Pina Bausch	Choreographer	Nelken and Palermo, Palermo
	Ballet Nacional de Cuba	Corps de ballet (dancers) specifically	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Johan Kobborg	Dancer and director	The Lesson and La Sylphide
	Russell Maliphant	Choreographer/dancer	PUSH
2007
	Carlos Acosta	Dancer and producer	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Steven McRae	Dancer	Homage to the Queen and Chroma
	Marianela Núñez	Dancer	DGV, The Sleeping Beauty, Acosta season at Sadler's Wells
	Wayne McGregor	Choreographer	Chroma
2008
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Jewels
	Savion Glover	Dancer	Live for London
	Jonathan Goddard	Dancer	Performances with Richard Alston Dance Company
	Wendy Whelan	Dancer	Fool's Paradise
2009
	Royal Ballet of Flanders	Dance company	Impressing the Czar
	The Royal Ballet	Dance company	Infra
	Savion Glover, Marshall Davis, Jr. and Maurice Chestnut	Dancers	Bare Soundz

2010s

Year	Nominee	Category	Production
2010
	Rambert Dance Company	Dance company	Outstanding Year of New Work
	Colin Dunne	Dancer	Out of Time
	Michael Hulls	Lighting designer	Two:Four:Ten, Afterlight, Ex Machina and Eonnagata
2011
	Antony Gormley	Visual designer	Babel (Words)
	John MacFarlane	Designer	Asphodel Meadows
	Yoshie Sunahata (Kodo)	Drummer	Gnosis
2012
	Edward Watson	Dancer	The Metamorphosis
	The Design Team	Set, costume, lighting, visual projections	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
	Tommy Franzen	Dancer	Some Like It Hip Hop
	Sylvie Guillem	Dancer	6000 Miles Away
2013
	Marianela Núñez	Dancer	Aeternum, Diana and Acteon and Viscera
	ILL-Abilities	Dance company	Breakin' Convention
	Lez Brotherston	Set and costume designer	The Sleeping Beauty
2014
	Michael Hulls	Lighting designer	Body of work including Ballet Boyz: The Talent
	Mark Morris	Dancer and choreographer	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Arthur Pita	Choreographer	Ballet Black: A Dream Within a Midsummer Night's Dream
	Clemmie Sveaas	Dancer	Witch-Hunt
2015
	Crystal Pite	Choreographer	A Picture of You Falling, The Tempest Replica and Polaris
	Rocío Molina	Dancer	Bosque Ardora
	The Elders Project	Dance group	Elixir Festival
	Christopher Wheeldon	Choreographer	The Winter's Tale
2016
	Alessandra Ferri	Dancer	Chéri and Woolf Works
	Javier de Frutos	Choreographer	Anatomy of a Passing Cloud
	Sasha Waltz	Choreographer	Sacre
2017
	English National Ballet	Dance company	Akram Khan's Giselle and She Said
	Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater	Dance company	Season at Sadler's Wells
	Luke Ahmet	Dancer	The Creation
2018
	Francesca Velicu	Dancer	Pina Bausch's Le Sacre Du Printemps
	Rocío Molina	Dancer	Fallen from Heaven (Caída del Cielo)
	Zenaida Yanowsky	Dancer	Liam Scarlett's Symphonic Dances
2019
	Akram Khan	Dancer	Xenos
	John MacFarlane	Designer	Swan Lake
	Dimitris Papaioannou	Choreographer	The Great Tamer

2020s

Year	Nominee	Category	Production
2020
	Sara Baras	Choreographer and Dancer	Ballet Flamenco Sobras
	Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker	Dancer	Mitten wir im Leben sind/Bach6Cellosuiten
	Gisèle Vienne	Choreographer	Crowd and Dance Umbrella
2021	Not presented due to extended closing of theatre productions during COVID-19 pandemic[A]
2022[A]
	Arielle Smith	Choreographer	Jolly Folly in Reunion
	Acosta Danza	Dance company	De Punta A Cabo in 100% Cuban
	NDT2 Dancers	Dancers	NDT2 Tour
	Edward Watson	Dancer	Wayne McGregor's The Dante Project
2023
	Dickson Mbi	Choreographer	Enowate
	Manuel Liñán	Choreographer	¡VIVA!
	Raquel Meseguer Zafe	Dramaturg	Ruination by Lost Dog
	Catrina Nisbett	Dancer	Family Honour by Spoken Movement
2024
	Isabela Coracy	Dancer	NINA: By Whatever Means, part of :Ballet Black:Pioneers
	Jonzi D	Artistic Director	Breakin' Convention 2023 International Festival of Hip Hop Dance Theatre
	Rhiannon Faith	Concept	Lay Down Your Burdens

1. Due to late March 2020^[1] to late July 2021^[2] closing of London theatre productions during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, the 2022 awards recognise productions that launched anytime from February 2020 to February 2022^[3]

References

1. Johnson, The Rt Hon Boris, MP (23 March 2020). Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 23 March 2020 [transcript] (Speech). Prime Minister's Televised Speech to the United Kingdom. www.gov.uk. London, UK. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2022. From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home.{{cite speech}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. McPhee, Ryan (14 June 2021). "U.K. Postpones Reopening Roadmap; West End Theatres Will No Longer Reopen in Full in June". Playbill. Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2022. Step 4 of the roadmap will allow productions to play without capacity restrictions. June 21 was the goal; now, the government is eyeing July 19.
3. Thomas, Sophie (8 March 2022). "Everything you need to know about the Olivier Awards". londontheatre.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022. Any new production that opened between 19 Feb. 2020 to 22 Feb. 2022 are eligible for categories in the 2022 Olivier Awards. With two years worth of shows set for honours in one year's ceremony, the 2022 Olivier Awards will prove tougher competition than before.

• London Theatre Guide (2008). "The Laurence Olivier Awards: Full List of Winners, 1976-2008" (.PDF). 1976-2008. The Society of London Theatre. p. 20. Retrieved 30 August 2008.

External links

• Official website