FOUR DANCERS WIN THE FIRST NIJINSKY AWARDS.

Who was the world's best male dancer in 1999? According to the presenters of the brand-new Nijinsky Awards, he was Manuel Legris--at 36, one of the Pads Opera Ballet's oldest etoiles and preferred partner to such dancers as Sylvie Guillem and Isabelle Guerin--who beat out such superstars as Julio Bocca and Vladimir Malakhov at the presentation ceremony in Monaco on December 16.

Three other dance figures were honored at the first Nijinskys. The Royal Ballet's Guillem was named best female dancer. Merce Cunningham was given the Jury's Special Nijinsky Award. And Jiri Kilian was triply honored: He was named best choreographer; his Nederlands Dans Theater was chosen as best dance company; and his ballet One of a Kind was named best choreographic spectacle. (See Kickoff on page 16.)

The awards presentation was part of the Monaco Danses Dances Forum, a congress dedicated to reflecting the "wealth of choreographic methods and practices in conjunction with other artistic and technical fields." In an effort to celebrate dance as a whole, the Nijinskys honored the best dancers and choreographers overall, regardless of their style of dance. "Only dance and every individual's or each group's own style are deemed relevant," according to the award's creators.

Candidates for each category were selected by 150 dance journalists from 40 countries. Then "more than a hundred personalities of the dance world" selected the winners. The public was also encouraged to vote for their favorites on the Internet, but the public vote was weighted less heavily than that of the dance personalities.

Nijinsky winners were given trophies styled after Auguste Rodin's unfinished sculpture of Vaslav Nijinsky in the first public performances of L'Apres-midi d'un Faune. The ballet premiered in Monte Carlo in 1912. The Awards also carried a cash prize of 15,000 euros (at press time, about $13,900).

In addition to the four top prizewinners, Maurice Bejart (the man who, according to the organizers, "democratized dance of the twentieth century") and musical theater star Cyd Charisse were each honored with a special homage.

The other nominees for the best male dancer were Julio Bocca of ABT and Ballet Argentino, ABT's Jose Manuel Carreno and Vladimir Malakhov, Nicholas Le Riche of the Paris Opera Ballet, and Faruk Ruzimatov of the Kirov Ballet. Bernice Coppieters of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Aurelie Dupont, just named etoile at Paris Opera Ballet, Paloma Herrera of ABT, the San Francisco Ballet's Lucia Lacarra, and Uliana Lopatkina of the Kirov Ballet were considered for best female dancer. Best choreographer runner-ups were Pina Bausch, director of Tanztheater Wuppertal; Mats Ek, previously director of the Cullberg Ballet Company in Stockholm; and William Forsythe, Frankfurt Ballet director. Paris Opera Ballet, Monaco's Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the Frankfurt Ballet and the Kirov Ballet were nominated for best company. In the best choreographic spectacle category, Biped by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, In Spite of Wishing and Wanting by the Ultima Vez Company, Salt by La La La Human Steps and the Kirov Ballet's staging of The Sleeping Beauty were nominated. And Alicia Alonso, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Maurice Bejart and Riverdance were the finalists for the Jury's Special Nijinsky Award.

The next Nijinsky Awards are expected to take place in 2002.