Czech Dance Platform knows its winners

Pli (Viktor Černický). Photo Tanec Praha.

The anniversary 25^th Czech Dance Platform culminated traditionally in the final presentation of awards. Czech Dance Platform Awards were presented to Tereza Ondrová for her outstanding performance in SAME SAME and to the young creator and performer Viktor Černický for the production of PLI that also brought him the renewed Audience Award. This year, the organisers hosted nearly 120 experts from all around the world over the course of four days. The programme of the platform offered a brand-new discussion format, too.

The international jury decided to change the character of the awards. “The original Dancer of the Year and Dance Production of the Year awards were united under one category this year – Czech Dance Platform Awards - and are more about reflection on the field than about competition. The international jury could therefore reward individual artists (performer, choreographer, director) or a piece in all its complexity. The number of awards was not limited beforehand. The jury had to justify every single decision,” explains the manager of the platform, Zuzana Hájková.

Tereza Ondrová was awarded for her outstanding performance and perfect portrayal of a difficult role in the production of SAME SAME, directed by Karine Ponties: The international jury rewarded the complexity of the work and balanced performances of both protagonists by a “special mention”. The jury praised Tereza’s “embodiment of knowledge, transformation on stage, high quality of movement and generosity towards the audience and the work.” Along with the award she also received a week-long stay from the Czech Centres in a European country of her own choice. The Main Award of Czech Dance Platform was presented to Viktor Černický for his work PLI, his original choreographic approach and extraordinary stage presence. The jury commented on Viktor Černický’s recognition: “The young author and performer Viktor Černický has employed objects of daily use to create a brilliant movement performance, a metaphor of the human desire to reach the sky.”

“PLI is an exceptional piece, dazzling with ingenious simplicity and perfect harmony of all its elements. I believe it belongs among the best aspiring theatre events of this season, the author has set the level really high.” – citation from the review by Josef Bartoš published on our portal (you can read the full text here)

“These two nominations received unanimous support of all jury members, so my warmest congratulations to Tereza Ondrová who is an exceptional talent shining bright on our dance scene since the first years of the platform, and also to Viktor Černický, who is a relatively new talent in the field of physical theatre and he has already reached the consensus of both experts and audience, since besides the main award he also received the Audience Award voted on after each performance of the platform,” explains Yvona Kreuzmannová, the founder of the platform and director or the organising institution Tanec Praha.

Viktor Černický. Photo Vojtěch Brtnický.

The international jury also agreed on “special mentions” for four productions this year:  LeŤ (Fly!) by Markéta Stránská was rewarded for the protagonist’s exceptional energy and redefinition of beauty and excellence in contemporary dance; Nepřestávej (Don’t Stop) by Tereza Hradílková who has achieved brilliant stage presence thanks to intensive movement research and at the same time succeeded in creating an intimate and fascinating atmosphere. Special mention also went to Medúza of the tYhle company, choreographed by Marie Gourdain. In this case the jury praised excellent team work and innovative creative process allowing to grasp the difficult concept. The company is to be thanked for the courage to take risks, for artistic integrity and creative approach to scenography. In SAME SAME created by the French choreographer based in Belgium, Karine Ponties, in collaboration with Petra Tejnorová and Tereza Ondrová, the jury highlighted humour, complex approach and strong individuality of both female performers.

“The new way of presenting CDP awards allowed more space for viewing the artist, the jury was interested in the quality of all components of each production and could specify what they recognized in each performance, and took full advantage of this possibility,” explains Kreuzmannová and continues: “This year’s edition had an incredibly friendly and open atmosphere, international guests enjoyed the programme and organisation of the festival. I dare say the anniversary edition offered the best programme in the history of the festival, largely thanks to Czech artists.”

This year, the Institute of Light Design has presented the Best Light Design award for the eleventh time in a row - it went to Jiří Šmirk for his work on the Spitfire Company’s CONSTELLATIONS II: Time for Sharing. The jury decided not to present the Manager of the Year award, as it sees the profession and role of a dance manager as underdeveloped and underrated in the field of Czech contemporary dance. Therefore, it decided to approach this category differently. This step is supposed to encourage general interest in dance management. For this reason, the jury has announced an open call for students, graduates and other people engaged in cultural management to submit their dance projects which are already in progress or to be realized by March 2020. The 10.000 CZK prize will be awarded to the manager of the winning project.

During the final ceremony Czech artists received several invitations from abroad – the particular outputs of the festival and the evaluation of foreign critics will go public in the upcoming weeks. From personal statements of top international experts, who participated in the event for the first time, it is clear the platform was a nice surprise for them and a chance to the discover the specific dance culture in this part of Europe. Those returning to the platform regularly appreciated the high level and diversity of this year’s programme and also the excellent organising team.

Tereza Ondrová. Photo Vojtěch Brtnický.

2019 Festival jury:

International jury:
Roberto Casarotto (IT), Centro per la Scena Contemporanea di Bassano del Grappa (CSC) and Operaestate Festival Veneto, director for dance projects
Dieter Jaenicke (DE), international tanzmesse nrw, director
Linda Kapetanea (GR), Kalamata International Dance Festival, artistic director
Elena Slobodchikova (RU) - Tsentr sovremennoy khoreografii Krasnojarsk, pedagogue, choreographer, artistic director
Sven Till (DE), Fabrik Potsdam,

Programming Council
Lucie Hayashi – founder and editor of the Czech dance news magazine Taneční aktuality, secretary of the Dance Department of HAMU, dedicated to the role of dance in society
Lucia Kašiarová – director of the non-profit organization ALT@RT, founder of the Studio ALTA cultural centre and the HAYBAJ HO festival of Slovak contemporary dance, artist
Yvona Kreuzmannová – founder and director of Tanec Praha (shares a joint vote with Markéta Perroud in the Programming Council)
Pierre Nadaud – head of the Physical Theatre Atelier at DIFA JAMU, philosopher, clown, dancer, choreographer-director and teacher
Markéta Perroud – artistic co-director of Tanec Praha (shares a joint vote with Yvona Kreuzmannová in the Programming Council)
Nina Vangeli – dance publicist

Source: Tanec Praha z.ú.