Laureates of the Theater Awards
The laureates of the Estonian Theatre Awards have been announced!
The jury: Lemme Saarma (chair), Margarita Dombrovskaja, Külli Reinkubjas, Aleksander Krjukov, and Galina Rohumaa.
The Ballet Award has been given to Marina Kesler for the ballet “Sisalik” (“The Lizard”)! (Estonian National Ballet)
“You know, it’s the third eye—you might think that my third eye has opened, and that’s true of course, but I also have a third ‘Teodor’s eye’: ‘Libahunt’, ‘Anna Karenina’, and ‘Sisalik’,” she said, thanking the jury. “It is a great honor to hold the third eye in my hands. My wonderful team—what would I have done without you?” she emphasized, adding that working with the National Ballet was also a great pleasure.
“With ‘Sisalik’, it happened that Lepo Sumera once wrote wonderful music, but for various reasons it ended up lying in a drawer—it would probably still be there if one person hadn’t come along and said that we must create ‘Sisalik’. I am very grateful that this decision fell on my shoulders. Arvo Volmer, I thank you for making that decision,” Kesler said.
“I would also like to thank a very important person, Mai Murdmaa, who has always been an incredible role model for me—you have set the bar so high that we are constantly striving to reach it,” she added.
Phillipa McCann received the Kristallkingake (“Crystal Shoe”) Award!
A rapid rise from the corps de ballet to a charismatic and technically impressive soloist: the Woman in Green in “Pulcinella” (Opéra Comique and Estonian National Opera); one of the four little swans and part of the pas de trois in “Swan Lake”; Snow White in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”; Mari and the most beautiful woman of the bison tribe in “Sisalik”; Kitty in “Anna Karenina”; Gulnare, Birbanto’s companion, and an Odalisque in “Le Corsaire”; as well as Isabelle in “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” and the Artist in “30.75” (both in the ballet evening “Forsythe & Looris”; all with the Estonian National Ballet).