The winner of Emerging Dancer 2018 is Daniel McCormick

Having performed a classical pas de deux from Le Corsaire with partner and fellow finalist Francesca Velicu, and Leatherwing Bat, a contemporary solo by Trey McIntyre, Daniel was announced as the winner on stage at the London Coliseum by our Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo. The thrilling evening of dance was livestreamed to audiences across the world last night.

On winning, Daniel McCormick said:

“Winning this award was completely unexpected, my colleagues on stage with me tonight are so immensely talented. It’s a dream to perform on the stage of the London Coliseum – a place with such history and beauty – and it’s an honour to come to London and perform for this fantastic audience. I’m now ready to work harder than ever to prove why I won this prize.”

See a few of the audience comments on Daniel’s performance:

Terrific #ENBemerging dancer competition tonight. Loved @nancypoop's contemporary piece Toccata for @frenchtoast1658 (loved @frenchtoast1658 ) but Daniel McCormick was a very clear winner. Turning faster than Steven McRae, he'll break hearts and stun audiences!

— Lee McLernon (@bangorballetboy) June 11, 2018

Brilliant dancing tonight at #ENBEmerging – all six finalists did fantastically well and the choices of choreography were strong. But Daniel McCormick was just excellent. The Corsaire pas de deux is a high bar and he did extremely well. His modern piece was also superb. 👌

— Henry Newman (@HenryNewman) June 11, 2018

Just saw Daniel McCormick win the ENB emerging dancer 2018 title at the Coliseum. He danced Ali in the pas de deux from Act 2 of Corsaire. I’ve seen many Corsaires, but I’ve never seen that part danced so well. Brilliant. #ENBEmerging

— Roger Helmer (@RogerHelmerMEP) June 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/hoveringlife/status/1006274471928483841

Update: my favourite won! That Corsaire solo. Wow. Congrats Daniel McCormick. All the finalists were excellent but Precious Adams is clearly going to be one to watch too. #ENBEmerging https://t.co/SfZTJVXEGN

— Verity Wilde (@WildeV) June 11, 2018

The evening also saw Georgia Bould named as the recipient of the Corps de Ballet Award, acknowledging her exceptional work over the last year, while Alice Bellini was awarded the People’s Choice Award, as voted for by members of the public.

Daniel McCormick was selected as this year’s winner by a respected panel of judges: joining our Artistic Director Tamara Rojo was Julio Bocca, Lauren Cuthbertson, Johan Kobborg and Kerry Nicholls. On the decision, Tamara Rojo said:

“It’s wonderful to have Emerging Dancer as a platform to celebrate the talent of English National Ballet’s young dancers. The standard we saw on stage tonight has been extraordinary. It was incredibly hard to pick a winner but the judges felt that Daniel had that little bit extra. He’s special, he has a hunger to continue to learn, an openness to all the different styles English National Ballet has, and such courage as a young dancer to put himself out there.”

The other finalists this year were Precious Adams, Fernando Carratalá Coloma, Francesca Velicu, Connie Vowles and Giorgio Garrett, who all gave outstanding performances too. Congratulations to them all for their hard work and talent!

Audiences were cheering them all on:

https://twitter.com/hannah14bateman/status/1006256943944622080

Francesca Velicu’s speed and beauty has almost crashed my stream, wonderful #ENBEmerging

— Abigail H 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏳️‍🌈 (@AbsHSE22) June 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/Flower_girl_36/status/1006265888809603073

Bravo to all the talented finalists at the #ENBEmerging tonight. Each one strong and unforgettable in different ways!

— Marina Sofia (@MarinaSofia8) June 11, 2018

Bravo Fernando!!!!!!!!!!

Ana Noya (on Facebook)

Well done Giorgio fantastic!

Lynda Shaw (on Facebook)

Take a look at some of the production images below:

The evening also saw last year’s winner of the People’s Choice Award, Georgia Bould, perform extracts from La Sylphide, while the joint winners of Emerging Dancer 2017, Aitor Arrieta and Rina Kanehara, performed the Act III pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty.

You can still view Emerging Dancer live stream on catch-up today (until approximately 10pm BST). English National Ballet continue performances of The Sleeping Beauty at the London Coliseum this week until 16 June – book your tickets.