Yonah Acosta was presented with English National Ballet’s 2012 Emerging Dancer Award last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s Southbank. Cuban-born Acosta, Dancing Times’ Dancer of the Month in November 2011, competed against five of his ENB colleagues to take the prize, and appeared in solos from Diana and Actaeon and Don Quixote with dazzling authority and confidence.

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter has selected 20 dancers for the U.Dance Ensemble, a new UK-wide youth dance company. Shechter, the young company’s artistic director, chose the dancers from a national audition in December. All the dancers are aged between 16 and 21.

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter has selected 20 dancers for the U.Dance Ensemble, a new UK-wide youth dance company. Shechter, the young company’s artistic director, chose the dancers from a national audition in December. All the dancers are aged between 16 and 21.

The Southbank Centre’s celebration of 1951 and the Festival of Britain continues throughout August, from retro delights to ways of looking forward.

For the first time ever the Street Dance XXL UK Championships Finals will be held at Royal Festival Hall on July 17 as part of Southbank Centre’s weekend of hip hop culture. The competition is at the forefront of the street dance explosion in the UK and has, for 15 years, provided a launching pad for dance troupes such as Diversity and Flawless.

If you’re hoping to fill your May bank holiday weekend with dance, look no further than this year’s Breakin’ Convention (April 30–May 2), the hip hop dance festival at Sadler’s Wells that has everything from pioneering footwork to dancing robots.

Husband and wife duo Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée and Victoria Chaplin are, on the face of it, an odd pairing. He is your archetypal barmy old man with a head of unruly white curls, bulging eyes and a grin so wide it looks as though it’s been drawn on; she is the silent, ageless beauty with long, floating black hair and a face that remains set in a state of wide-eyed wonderment throughout Le Cirque Invisible. It’s these stark contrasts that form the backbone of this two-hour show. The format is simple: in an alternating series of short appearances the two take turns to entertain, Thiérrée with his own brand of madcap magic, Chaplin with a transformative art that’s less easily defined.