Mexican ballerina Elisa Carrillo receives Marius Petipa Award

Last Friday, ballerina Elisa Carrillo Cabrera received the Marius Petipa Award in Slovakia’s National Theater , which is granted to distinguish the work of several figures of the ballet world by the institution that safeguards, investigates, and promotes the legacy of the great French-Russian Marius Petipa (1818-1910).

This new recognition, the third international award received by the Mexican ballerina this year, “The Soul of the Dance” Award in Russia, and the Benois de la Danse , was granted to her due to her skills in this art, besides promoting and keeping the choreographic tradition of Petipa’s ballets.

Last May, the 38-years-old Mexican received the Benois de la Danse Prize in Russia, the most important recognition in ballet, due to her role as protagonist in “Romeo and Juliet” by Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato and debuted in May 2018 in Berlin.

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She also received The Soul of the Dance and the St. Petersburg International Dance Festival awards, another two of the most outstanding awards.

Currently, Carrillo is co-director of Mexico’s National Dance Company and Mexico’s Culture Ambassador

In 2012, she created the Elisa Carrillo Cabrera Foundation , recognized by UNESCO’s International Dance Council , that wants to promote new talents in Mexico.

“After this new recognition, I can only say that I feel blessed and grateful. I want to dedicate it to Mexico’s artistic and cultural community, for their effort and dedication, for their fight and for working every day,” expressed Carrillo Cabrera before the ceremony, according to a release by her foundation.

And she added: “each prize moves me to work harder to give back to dance and my country a bit of what I have received, especially to children and young people to have more opportunities.”

The ceremony was preceded by a gala of “Don Quixote,” one of Petipa’s most famous works, by Slovakia’s National Ballet .

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Besides the Mexican artist, Slovakia’s National Ballet will also award other international dance figures like Carrillo’s husband, Russian Mikhail Kaniskin ; French Manuel Legris , artistic director of the Wiener Staatsballett ; Slovakia’s National Ballet , and Czech former ballerina and ballet critic Jana Hoskova.

Marius Petipa

, whose name is carried by the prize received by Carrillo, was a legendary French ballet dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue born in 1818 and died in 1910 in Russia.

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