The fourth winner of The Place Prize for dance sponsored by Bloomberg, announced on Sat 16 April 2011, is Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer for their work It Needs Horses.
The winner was chosen after deliberation by a panel of judges which included gallery director Hannah Barry, performance poet and musician Zena Edwards, theatre director Rupert Goold, Streetwise Opera CEO Matthew Peacock and director of Dublin Dance Festival, Laurie Uprichard. As winners, Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer receive £25,000. The work also won nine out of ten nightly audience votes for the best work of the Finals, collecting an additional £9,000.
Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer, who work together as Lost Dog, were the recipients of a Bonnie Bird New Choreographers Award in 2005 and the Robin Howard Foundation Commission in 2007. From the outset their work has been in demand, and has been toured by Phoenix Dance Theatre, From Here to Maturity, Transitions Dance Company, EDge and Scottish Dance Theatre.
It Needs Horses is about the nature of live entertainment and features a memorably down at heel ringmaster, his glamorously bedraggled assistant and their increasingly extreme measures to draw the crowds. The duet was performed by Chris Evans and Anna Finkel, with lighting by Jackie Shemesh, costumes by Holly Waddington and sound design by Stephen Dobbie.
Eddie Nixon, Director of Theatre and Artist Development at The Place and Chair of The Place Prize judges, said:
“It Needs Horses is both funny and serious, accessible and challenging. Lost Dog have been making works of this calibre and intelligence for a few years now, and I hope that this prize will help them continue. I'm delighted for Ben and Raquel.
“The judges have ultimately selected the work that has also proved to be the audience's favourite in their nightly votes. Yet, just as It Needs Horses did not win over 50% of the overall audience vote, it was similarly extremely difficult for the judges to chose their winner. That's a testament to the quality of all the finalists, and I'm sure that, as in previous years, all the works and artists will go on to further success.
“I want to thank all the artists involved for giving so much to the competition; the judges for bringing their experience and insight to out deliberations; our audience, who year-round support new dance and emerging artists at The Place; and Bloomberg, whose sponsorship of The Place Prize is model of philanthropy which enables artistic creation and risk.”
The Place Prize has changed the contemporary dance landscape in Britain. Created in 2004 as a biennial competition to support the creation of new work, it is the biggest single source of commissions for Britain’s independent choreographers. By the conclusion of this fourth edition, The Place Prize will have enabled the creation of 76 works and invested over £1 million in new dance.
The four finalists of The Place Prize were Eva Recacha (Begin to Begin: a piece about dead ends), Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer (It Needs Horses), Riccardo Buscarini and Antonio de la Fe Guedes (Cameo) and Freddie Opoku-Addaie & Frauke Requardt (Fidelity Project). They were selected last September from 170 entries, and 16 commissioned works. It Needs Horses was the winner of the audience's vote for their favourite work; the remaining finalists were selected by a group of panellists that included choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, dance journalist Sanjoy Roy, choreographer Janet Smith, Alistair Spalding from Sadler’s Wells and Laurie Uprichard from Dublin Dance Festival.
The Place Prize has served as a launch pad for many choreographic careers. The competition has brought leading artists including Rafael Bonachela, Hofesh Shechter and Bawren Tavaziva, among many others, to national and international attention.
Main image: It Needs Horses
Above: Raquel Meseguer and Ben Duke