Looking at the nominations for the 19th National Dance Awards I am struck by a number of things.
Firstly - and this is far from a new observation as regular readers will note - is how utterly irrelevant Manchester is in terms of the national dance picture.
Obviously there are no nominations for Manchester artists and only a relatively short list of independents who would ever be in a position to be nominated.
But I am also struck by how little of this work and how few of these companies have even shown in Manchester in the past year.
Obviously nominations for dancers for English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert and Northern Ballet may have appeared in Manchester as all three have visited.
But apart from Ballet Black - who have nominations for dancer José Alves and choreographer Cathy Marston for The Suit - and Lost Dog, who have a couple of nominations - and Ashley Shaw for Matthew Bourne's Cinderella, I don't believe any of the other companies or productions have even visited the city.
The other thing that strikes me is how much of the work I truly admire and have seen this year has been overlooked.
Nothing for Hofesh Shechter Company and his incredible dancers for either Grand Finale or SHOW.
Nothing for Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar of L-E-V, who have shown two pieces in the UK this year (OCD Love and Love Chapter 2, created a new work for the National Youth Dance Company, had a piece in the programme for Ballet BC - who presented a marvellous triple bill (including the remarkable Crystal Pite, who was nominated last year) and for Rambert 2 (Killer Pig).
Nothing for Clod Ensemble. Or DeNada Dance Company.
It might also be worth noting the persistent classical bias. The category for Best Male and Female dancer favours classical dancers over modern. Three out of five Emerging Artist nominations are classical. Outstanding Company is overwhelmingly classical. Independent is entirely modern. Which makes it clear where the power and money and financial stability lies.
I just looked at the nominations for last year and it appears to be somewhat more diverse (so maybe this year is what it is) but a lot of the same names reappear: Ashley Shaw, Miguel Altunaga, Brandon Lawrence, Alina Cojocaru...
Firstly - and this is far from a new observation as regular readers will note - is how utterly irrelevant Manchester is in terms of the national dance picture.
Obviously there are no nominations for Manchester artists and only a relatively short list of independents who would ever be in a position to be nominated.
But I am also struck by how little of this work and how few of these companies have even shown in Manchester in the past year.
Obviously nominations for dancers for English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert and Northern Ballet may have appeared in Manchester as all three have visited.
But apart from Ballet Black - who have nominations for dancer José Alves and choreographer Cathy Marston for The Suit - and Lost Dog, who have a couple of nominations - and Ashley Shaw for Matthew Bourne's Cinderella, I don't believe any of the other companies or productions have even visited the city.
The other thing that strikes me is how much of the work I truly admire and have seen this year has been overlooked.
Nothing for Hofesh Shechter Company and his incredible dancers for either Grand Finale or SHOW.
Nothing for Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar of L-E-V, who have shown two pieces in the UK this year (OCD Love and Love Chapter 2, created a new work for the National Youth Dance Company, had a piece in the programme for Ballet BC - who presented a marvellous triple bill (including the remarkable Crystal Pite, who was nominated last year) and for Rambert 2 (Killer Pig).
Nothing for Clod Ensemble. Or DeNada Dance Company.
It might also be worth noting the persistent classical bias. The category for Best Male and Female dancer favours classical dancers over modern. Three out of five Emerging Artist nominations are classical. Outstanding Company is overwhelmingly classical. Independent is entirely modern. Which makes it clear where the power and money and financial stability lies.
I just looked at the nominations for last year and it appears to be somewhat more diverse (so maybe this year is what it is) but a lot of the same names reappear: Ashley Shaw, Miguel Altunaga, Brandon Lawrence, Alina Cojocaru...