Maya Plisetskaya & Tamara Rojo Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts 2005

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2005 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, made up of D. José Luis Álvarez, D. Fernando Argenta, D. Inocencio Arias, D. Juan Cruz, D.ª Rosa Cullell, D. Fernando Delgado, D. Jorge Fernández Bustillo, D. Álvaro Fernández-Villaverde y de Silva, D. José Luis Garci, D. Jordi García Candau, D.ª Rosina Gómez-Baeza, D. Juan Carlos Laviana, D. Carlos Madera, D. Miguel Muñiz, D.ª Beatriz Pecker, D. Benigno Pendás García, D. Juan Ramón Pérez Las Clotas, D.ª Amelia Valcárcel, D. José Velasco, D. Miguel Zugaza Miranda, chaired by D. José Lladó Fernández-Urrutia and with D. José Antonio Caicoya as secretary has unanimously decided to bestow the 2005 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts on ballerina and choreographer Maya Plisetskaya and on ballerina Tamara Rojo for their exceptional careers in the world of dance, where they are acknowledged as representing the pinnacle of expressionism in their respective generations.

Maya Plisetskaya has made dance into a form of poetry in motion by combining exquisite technical quality with an artistic sensitivity, teaching and exercising her influence on young and acclaimed artists alike from around the world.

Tamara Rojo, for her part, offers a combination of the best in classical tradition and the need to seek out new challenges that is unequalled at this point in time, demonstrating a maturity of interpretative skills that sets her in a class of her own on the great international stages.

Oviedo, 29th June 2005