The Stage

Launch of £100,000 Place Prize for dance

Published Tuesday 27 January 2004 at 15:05 by Sally Bramley

John Ashford, theatre director of London dance centre The Place, has joined forces with ROH2 artistic director Deborah Bull and choreographer Akram Khan to launch a new £100,000 choreography competition, which aims to help develop new British talent.

The biennial Place Prize, which is sponsored by media and financial company Bloomberg, will offer a shortlist of 20 choreographers £3,000 each to develop a piece of new work and the winner a £25,000 no-strings attached prize - allowing them to spend the money however they want.

In addition, the five finalists will be able to contend for ten £1,000 audience awards. These will be handed out to the favourite piece each night, during a ten-day period in which all five projects will be performed every evening. The judges will also be able to make discretionary awards of up to £5,000.

Tim Wood, spokesman for The Place, said: “As far as we are aware this is the largest dance competition in Europe and we hope to make it attractive to people who are just making their way in the industry.

“Dance activity in the UK is reaching a critical mass but there is not a mechanism which brings it to the attention of a wider public. We want to thrust contemporary dance into the public eye. Hopefully, over time, it will become a marker of quality and help some of the finalists with their careers. There is room in the UK for there to be more top choreographers.”

Applicants will need to send a three-minute video presenting a proposal for their idea in any way they deem appropriate. Twenty will be picked by the end of April and given a £3,000 commission to develop the work, which may be up to 15 minutes long and can involve any number of dancers.

Shortlisted candidates will be offered a mentor and will get six hours of technical preparation before the semi-finals in September, where the pieces will be performed once over four nights at The Place. Audiences will be given the chance to vote for a favourite and the piece with the most votes will go through to the final along with four picked by the judges, who are yet to be named.

The finalists will then perform over ten nights - and be able to pick up the £1,000 audience choice prizes - before the winner is picked by the judges.

Wood added: “A lot of dance prizes that call themselves awards are grants, which fit in with funding from other bodies. This is simply an award. I imagine many will want to invest in their work but there is no obligation.

“Through the prize, we hope to open up UK dance to a broader audience and get an exciting chance to make a difference to the lives of so many talented artists.”