Czech Dance Platform Handed out Awards, Collective Loss of Memory by DOT504 Dance Company Chosen as the Production of the Year
UpdatedToday the 21st year of the festival Czech Dance Platform has officially ended. During the final evening audiences watched the last year's production of the year Korekce by company VerTeDance, who thus symbolically passed the baton to this year's winners, DOT504 Dance Company and their piece Collective Loss of Memory, choreographed by Josef Fruček and Linda Kapetanea. This production has also won the Audience Award as well. Lighting design Award, granted under the patronage of the Institute of Lighting Design went to Ann Van den Broek and Adam Uzelac for their lighting design of the production Phrasing the Pain by 420PEOPLE. Dancer of the Year Award went to Martina Hajdyla Lacová, whom the audiences got to see perform in Korekce as well as SuperNaturals, the production she had been nominated for. A new award, Prize for Dance Management, has been anounced too; next year it will be awarded for the first time.
The festival of Czech contemporary dance and movement theatre has marked the third decade of its existence this year. It started on Thursday, April 9th and culminated on Sunday, April 12th with the award ceremony. This year the participation of foreign guests has even surpassed the last year's anniversary year. "It gives a clear indication that interest in Czech dance is permanent and that international guests do not take part in special anniversaries only. Once again, there was ample space for networking between artists and promoters. We hope that these meetings will lead to a number of interesting collaborations," commented on the 21st year of the platform its director and founder Yvona Kreuzmannová. The four-day programme, composed of the most interesting productions that had been created in the Czech Republic over the past year attracted more than 80 guests from 17 countries of the European Union, but also from China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Dramaturges, festival organizers, theater directors and journalists could see on five stages a total of ten performances of the main programme, accompanied by lectures, discussions and site-specific projects. Most performances had been sold out even before the festival began.
Jury of five domestic and six foreign experts, who arrived from Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Great Britain and Slovenia, have awarded prizes in the categories of Male/Female dancer and Dance Production of the Year. The latter award went to Collective Loss of Memory by company DOT504, choreographed by Josef Fruček and Linda Kapetanea (RootlessRoot Company (SK/GR)). For this project, the choreographers chose five dancers from more than five hundred performers that had entered the international auditions. This work has also won the Audience Award, which is a rare feat. All paying visitors and foreign guests were allowed to vote, using their ballots to evaluate each production after the performance was over.
The International jury appreciated the fact that the award-winning piece deals with social and political events around us and very subtly manipulates the audience so that it is not until the very last scene that they realize where everything comes from. Strong male figures on the stage provoke each other both verbally and physically, perform some extremely acrobatic movements and overpower one another with force that readily transforms into a pointless, even extreme violence. The work is a powerful reflection of a society that is very individualistic, egocentric, homophobic, even discriminatory.
Dancer of the Year Award went to Martina Hajdyla Lacová for her performance in the production SuperNaturals she had created together with Stano Dobák. Martina impressed the jury with her incredibly precise movement and great variety of expression. She breaks the boundaries of the imaginable with her energy and the sheer power of her personality and it should be noted that she won by a significant point margin. The Lighting design Award, bestowed by a three-member jury (this year headed by the Polish lighting designer Katarzyna Łuszczyk) went to Adam Uzelac for the piece Phrasing the Pain by 420PEOPLE, for which he created the lighting design together with choreographer Ann Van den Broek. The prize is awarded under the patronage of the Institute of Lighting Design.
Starting next year, one more prize will be awarded. It will be known as a Prize for Dance Management, but it certainly deserves its announced subtitle as well: the Czech Diaghi-LEV. It will be awarded under the patronage of Jiří Opěla to managers, who contribute in a significant, innovative way to the staging of a new production or repertoire as well as to the success of an artistic ensemble, theatre, festival or other project in the field of dance, and significantly improve the conditions for Czech professional dance and its credit abroad. The winner will receive 10 000 CZK and a trophy designed by the famous Czech artist Bořek Šípek.
Prizes for winners in the categories Male/Female dancer of the Year, Dance Production of the Year and the Audience Award were designed and made by the artistic group Posedlí. Statuette for the prize-winning lighting designer was designed by Eva Nováková.
The festival jury:
Foreign members of the jury:
John Ashford (UK), Director of Aerowaves
Birgit Berndt (SWE) - Artistic Director of the NorrlandsOperan Umeå dance section
Suzy Blok (NL) - Artistic Director of the Dutch production house Dansmakers
Roberto Cesarotto (IT) - Director of dance projects at Centro per la Scena Contemporanea di Bassano del Grappa (CSC) and the Operaestate Veneto Festival
Bush Hartshorn (DK) - independent producer/curator, dramaturge and mentor focusing on work with young artists
Katja Somrak (SLV) - Deputy Director and member of the artistic council of the Dance Theatre Ljubljana (Plesni Teatr Ljubljana)
Czech members of the jury:
Petra Hauerová - choreographer, dancer and dance instructor
Yvona Kreuzmannová – Director of TANEC PRAHA festival
Ewan McLaren – Artistic Director of Alfred ve dvoře theatre
Markéta Perroud - Co-director of TANEC PRAHA festival
Nina Vangeli - dance journalist
Lighting design jury:
Katarzyna Luszczyk (PL)
Ján Ptačin (SK)
Patrik Sedlák (CZ/SK)
Source: Tanec Praha
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species