Adam Cooper honoured with award for the Outstanding Individual Performance in Ballet

Adam Cooper, who led the dynamic and innovative gender-swapping Swan Lake (pictured above), was yesterday honoured with an award for the Outstanding Individual Performance in Ballet, writes David Lister.

The former Royal Ballet dancer announced recently that he was leaving the company to take the Swan Lake production, put on by the contemporary dance troupe Adventures In Motion Pictures, to Broadway and Los Angeles. Cooper was described as alternating in the production between "a bare- chested swan in white feathers and a salacious gigolo in black leathers". The audacity of the production allied to Cooper's mesmerising performance gave the production a West End run, a television spot at Christmas and requests to tour abroad. It also brought Cooper a stardom rarely realised by classical ballet dancers. His award yesterday was given at the Evening Standard Ballet, Opera and Classical Music Awards.

A special award was also made at the London ceremony to the conductor Valery Gergiev for the outstanding quality of his London concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Mariinsky orchestras. Photograph: Laurie Lewis