Mabel Ryan Awards 2024

The awards commemorate Mabel Ryan, a much loved and respected Cecchetti ballet teacher who was herself a pupil of Enrico Cecchetti. As a teacher, she ran her London school in partnership with Margaret Craske.

The Cecchetti Mabel Ryan Awards has four sections:

Lower Junior (up to 12 years old having passed Grade 2 or G3 with at least 70%))
Junior (up to 12 years old having passed G4 or higher)
Middle (13 or 14 years old having passed G5 or higher)
Senior (15-17 years old having passed G6 or higher)

In each section there are 4 or 5 pre-prepared exercises and a dance, except for Seniors who have a combination of set and unset exercises presented and taught onstage (in 2024 the teacher was Anna Zammit-Lupi).

Dancers show their work on stage in groups of 8-10 and perform the dance in twos, except for the Seniors who perform the dance solo.

There are two awards in each section – a medal for the overall winner and a shield for the Vacani award for a dancer demonstrating an exceptional love of dance and joy in performance – for this reason there are two adjudicators.  There are also runners-up for each award and special commendations.  Every dancer receives a certificate of participation.

Report from Event Organiser, Lisa Hunter

How wonderful to see these young dancers taking their first steps into competition with confidence, ably supported by the brilliant team of Sarah Wells as presenter and Osman Tack on the piano, together with our fantastic volunteer team of chaperones and stage managers who carefully and expertly guided the children through the experience.  

Our adjudicators, David Yow, Linda Isaacs and Mary Stassinopoulos, gave some really useful feedback to the dancers during adjudication, and we hope that everyone will come back and compete again next year!  For the first time we welcomed Scholars Committee members Gillian Toogood and Judith Wilson plus Jo Hurst for Central School of Ballet who were there to assess the talent on stage and award various scholarships. 

It was a pleasure to see some lovely Cecchetti qualities being demonstrated by the dancers who had been prepared so meticulously by their teachers.

It only remains to say that it has been my honour to be responsible for such an important event in the Cecchetti calendar and I am confident that the Awards will thrive in Holly’s Unnuk’s extremely capable hands. 

- Mabel Ryan Awards Organiser, Lisa Hunter

Lower Junior

Mabel Ryan Prize Winners	Competitor
Mabel Ryan Winner	Winnie Moore
Mabel Ryan Runner-Up	Chloe Murphy
Cecchetti Associates Performance Award Winner	Elsie Elder Jones
Cecchetti Associates Performance Award Runner-Up	Thea Green
Commendations	Amelie Wan
	Betsy Moffett
	Eleonora Colista
	Ella Haddock
	Olivia Skorupa

Lower Junior award winners, runners-up and commendations

Lower Junior Mabel Ryan Award winner and runner-up

Junior

Mabel Ryan Prize Winners	Competitor
Mabel Ryan Winner	Tilly Rose Wylie
Mabel Ryan Runner-Up	Emma Xiaozhou Jiang
Vacani Winner	Savannah Hemmings
Vacani Runner-up	Ivy Jones
Commendations	Alexandra Mutasa
	Charlotte Spencer
	Evie Olivia Redman
	Margot Boyd
	Veronica Vystavkina

Junior Mabel Ryan Award winner and runner-up

Junior Vaccani Award winner and runner-up

Middle

Mabel Ryan Prize Winners	Competitor
Mabel Ryan Winner	Mia Zoe Csernus
Mabel Ryan Runner-Up	Darcy Rose Darnton
Vacani Winner	Athena Karamanou
Vacani Runner-up	Bethany McEwen
Commendations	Hafsa Lewis
	Maddison Coleman
	Sophie Leeson
	Summer Lewis

Middle award winners, runners-up and commendations

Middle Mabel Ryan Award winner and runner-up

Middle Vacani award winner and runner-up

Senior

Mabel Ryan Prize Winners	Competitor
Mabel Ryan Winner	Philippa Robertson-Kellie
Mabel Ryan Runner-Up	Ciara Gay
Vacani Winner	Melody Chan
Vacani Runner-up	Ellie Rae

Senior award winners, runners-up and commendations

Senior Mabel Ryan Award Winner and Runner-up

Senior Vacani Award Winner and Runner-up

For more upcoming events, visit our events and courses page.