The Jury

Jonas Kåge – Chairman

Former Artistic Director of Malmö Ballet, of Ballet West, Utah and Prix du Nord.

Jonas Kåge received his ballet training at the Royal Swedish Opera’s Ballet School. He then joined the Royal Swedish Ballet where he danced for five years before beginning his international career.

From 1971 – 1988 Jonas was Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet, Geneva Ballet, Zürich Ballet and English National Ballet as well as guesting with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, Münich Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre and Aterbaletto, Italy.

He was awarded the Talia prize in 1993 for his production of Swan Lake in Malmö and the Carina Ari medal in 1994. Jonas has been Artistic Director of the Nordic Baltic Ballet Competition since 2011.

Peter Bo Bendixen

Artistic Director of the Tivoli Ballet Theatre Denmark

Education: The Royal Danish Ballet School.

Dancer with The Royal Danish Ballet 1983-2005, and as Principal since 1993. 1986-89 dancer in Hamburg Ballett. 1997-2007 Artistic director of ”Principals and Soloists of The Royal Danish Ballet” and danced all over the world, as an ambassador for The Royal Danish Ballet.

In 2006 appointed Ballet Director in Tivoli, Copenhagen, with responsibilities for Tivoli Ballet Theatre and International ballet performances in Tivoli Concert Hall. Has directed different ballets by the Danish choreographer August Bournonville at The Pantomime Theatre in Tivoli. In 2012 debut as choreographer with The Nutcracker in Tivoli Concert Hall

Johanna Björnson

Artistic Board Member of the Carina Ari Foundation

Educated at the Royal Swedish Ballet School. Employed at Royal Swedish Ballet 1978.
Danced the lead role in all the major classical ballets and the modern repertoire.
Toured in many countries and also choreographed several pieces. 1995 she was honored with the title Dancer of the Royal Court

During her career, Björnson danced all the major leading roles in classical ballet both in Sweden and internationally. As a dance teacher, she has taught at the Ballet Academy (Stockholm), Ballet de Nice, the Monte Carlo Ballet, the Hong Kong Ballet and the National Theater Ballet in Prague, among others.

Monique Loudières

Étoile, Paris Opera Ballet
Freelance Ballet Teacher and Ballet Master
Classical coach, Prix de Lausanne 1999 – 2024

Monique Loudières was chosen by Rudolph Nureyev in 1981, to interpret Kitri in his production of Don Quixote. Rosella Hightower, who was its Artistic Director at the time, named her Étoile in 1982. Thereafter, she danced most of the classical and neoclassical repertory. She had a predilection for dramatic heroines from the following ballets: Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Manon, Notre-Dame de Paris and Eugene Onegin.

She has performed the works of the greatest choreographers: J.Robbins, A. Ailey, G. Balanchine, M. Béjart ,R.Petit, J. Neumeier, S. Lifar, J. Kylian, P. Taylor, K. MacMillan, M. Graham, T. Tharp, W. Forsythe and Giselle by Mats Ek. And she also addresses the contemporary repertoire with D. Larrieu, C. Bastin, J. Bouvier, R. Obadia, N. Christie, B.Li…

She was also invited as a guest artist in many great companies: Boston Ballet, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Stuttgart Ballet, Staatsoper Berlin, Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Havana Dance Festival…

In 1993, the Ministry of Culture awarded her the Grand Prix National de la Danse and named her Commander of Arts and Letters in 1996.

Richard Wherlock

Artistic Director and choreographer

Born in Bristol (GB). After studying at London’s prestigious Ballet Rambert School, he joined their company as a dancer. Wherlock was Ballet Director at Hagen Theatre in Germany from 1991 to 1996, then spending three seasons as director of the Lucerne Ballet before moving to Komische Oper Berlin as artistic director and choreographer of BerlinBallett. He has been director and head choreographer of Ballett Basel since the 2001/2002 season, and artistic director of the renowned festival «basel tanzt» from 2004to 2009.
He worked as choreographer with, among others, the following companies: New English Contemporary Ballet, Tanzforum Köln, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Finnish Dance Theatre Helsinki, Ballett Staatstheater Braunschweig, Romanian National Ballet, The Icelandic Ballet, Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de l’Opéra de Nice, aalto ballett theater essen, Europa Danse (UNESCO), Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballett der Vereinigten Bühnen Graz, Introdans in Arnheim/Holland, Ballett des Badischen Staatstheaters Karlsruhe, Phoenix Dance Theatre Leeds and Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Martín/Argentina. Wherlock also created a full-length ballet for Les Étoiles de l’Opéra National de Paris. At the International Music Festival in Lucerne he developed choreographies for operas by Monteverdi and Debussy.
His film and TV work includes the choreography for Claude Lelouch’s cinema production «Hasards ou Coïncidences», presented in 1998 at the Venice Biennale and at the Montréal and Chicago festivals. In 2000, Wherlock received the Prix Italia for the award-winning dance film «Passengers», produced by the Swiss broadcasting company DRS, RM Associates and 3SAT. His most recent film success «One bullet left» – also produced by Swiss broadcasting company DRS – was awarded the Golden Rose of Montreux in 2003. In 1999 he was nominated for the international dance award «Benois de la Danse».
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