The Place

The artists commissioned to create new works for The Place Prize for dance, sponsored by Bloomberg, have been announced. Each will each receive between £5,000 and £7,000 and free studio time and support to create the works, which will be premiered at The Place in September 2010.

After those performances, four finalists will be selected to compete in April 2011 for £35,000 in prize money and the most prestigious prize in British dance.

The commissioned artists are:

• Riccardo Buscarini & Antonio de la Fe Guedes
• Conor Doyle
• Ben Duke & Raquel Meseguer (Lost Dog)
• Darren Ellis
• Simon Ellis
• Robby Graham (Bad Taste Cru)
• Henrietta Hale
• Saju Hari
• Dane Hurst
• Vangelis Legakis
• Deborah Light
• Rachel Lopez de la Nieta
• Drew McOnie
• Freddie Opoku Addaie & Frauke Requardt
• Eva Recacha
• Vera Tussing

The Place Prize is open to all UK-based dance artists creating work in a contemporary idiom. Over 170 applied for this year’s commissions, which were selected by a panel chaired by Eddie Nixon, Director of Theatre and Artist Development at The Place. Those commissioned include:

• Former Place Prize finalists Simon Ellis (2008) and Freddie Opoku Addaie (2006) – the latter in a new partnership with Frauke Requardt, choreographer of the recent Pictures from an Exhibition and the forthcoming Electric Hotel at Sadler’s Wells
  
• Robby Graham and his b-boy collective Bad Taste Cru – originally from Omagh, Northern Ireland and now based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Drew McOnie, who has performed extensively with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and who was a leading contestant in the hit BBC1 show So You Think You Can Dance.
• Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer, who together make work as Lost Dog
• Saju Hari, a kalaripayattu-based contemporary dancer/choreographer originally from India, who has performed with Shobana Jeyasingh and Akram Khan
• Dane Hurst, a leading dancer with Rambert Dance Company
• Henrietta Hale and Rachel Lopez de la Nieta, who have both twice previously been commissioned by The Place Prize.
  

The 16 works will be premiered at The Place in a series of semi-final performances from 18 – 25 September 2010. The most popular work as voted for by the semi-final audiences will go forward to the finals in April 2011, along with three works selected by an independent panel of judges. The finalists will compete for £10,000 of audience voted prizes, and the overall winner’s prize of £25,000.

Eddie Nixon said today: “The list of Place Prize commissioned artists reflects the diversity and vibrancy of the British contemporary dance scene today. Thanks to Bloomberg’s continued support, we are privileged to be able to help these artists bring their vision to life. I can’t wait to see all of this new work on our stage.”

The Place Prize is the biggest single source of commissions for new short works in British dance. In three editions to date it has enabled the creation of 60 new works, most of which have remained in artists’ repertoires, and which have been seen in theatres throughout the UK and around the world. The competition has brought leading artists including Rafael Bonachela, Hofesh Shechter and Bawren Tavaziva, amongst others to national and international attention. By the completion of this fourth edition, The Place Prize will have invested over £1 million in new British dance.

For further information, contact Tim Wood, Director of Communications at The Place on 020 7121 1021 or

EDITORS’ NOTES

The Place Prize for dance, sponsored by Bloomberg, is the leading competition for UK-based choreographers. Uniquely, it is a competition for commissioned works, and competing choreographers are given funds, free studio time and technical support to create their work. The competition was launched in 2004 and runs biennially.

The Place Prize commissions will have preview performances at The Place from 9-16 September 2010 and semi-final performances from 18-25 September 2010. Tickets for these performances go on sale on Tuesday 1 June.

The Place Prize finals will be from 6-16 April 2011, and the winner announced on Saturday 16 April 2011.