MOSCOW: The world's major ballet troupes left one of the most prestigious dance contests in the world empty-handed this week. The jury at the 19th annual “Benois de La Dance” gave awards to pieces by a Belgian couple and a Finnish choreographer, but awarded no prizes to ballets from the Bolshoi, the Paris Opera Ballet or the American Ballet Theatre at the contest in Moscow this week. “I can say that the classical ballets, of which Russia has the most, put up this year, were not of good enough quality to represent classical ballet today,” jury member Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director, told Reuters. The prestigious Russian-led award, founded by the International Dance Association in 1991 and held under UNESCO's patronage, attracts the world's best dancers and choreographers and has earned a reputation for having an unusually liberal approach to dance.
