Swiss Dance Awards - 2013 winners announced

Bern, 20.09.2013 - The Federal Office of Culture honoured the first ever winners of the Swiss Dance Awards today in a ceremony at the Equilibre theatre attended by Federal Councillor Alain Berset. Alongside the main award winners, previously announced as Martin Schläpfer and the Théâtre Sévelin 36, Yen Han was named Outstanding Female Dancer and Foofwa d’Imobilité Outstanding Male Dancer. The Federal Dance Jury selected four works from the Current Dance Works competition, and the June Johnson Dance Prize was also awarded.

The Federal Office of Culture has given the Swiss Dance Award to Martin Schläpfer in recognition of the artistic career of this personality who has played a substantial part in raising the profile of Swiss dance both nationally and internationally. The Special Dance Award went to the Théâtre Sévelin 36 in Lausanne. This award honours an outstanding contribution to dance in terms of promotion, documentation or cultural policy, for example. Both winners receive CHF 40,000.

Outstanding Female/Male Dancer awards
The Swiss Dance Awards also includes the categories of Outstanding Female Dancer and Outstanding Male Dancer. Winner of the female award was Yen Han, a member of the Ballet Zurich since 1994 who has shown as a soloist under three different directors there. The male award went to Foofwa d’Imobilité, a leading dancer at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York for many years and known since 2000 as one of the most technically accomplished performers on the Swiss contemporary dance scene. Both winners receive CHF 25,000

Four awards in the national Current Dance Works competition
The Federal Dance Jury selected four outstanding pieces from the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons as part of the national Current Dance Works competition: "Sideways Rain", choreographed by Guilherme Botelho for Geneva’s Alias Cie; "Disabled Theater" by French choreographer Jérôme Bel, staged by Theater HORA in Zurich; "From B to B", a production by the Brussel-based group ZOO under Thomas Hauert of Solothurn in conjunction with Àngels Margarit; and "Diffraction" by Cindy Van Acker and her Cie Greffe from Geneva. Each of the four winners receives CHF 25,000. 

June Johnson Dance Prize
The June Johnson Dance Prize, recognising young and innovative dance works, was awarded for the first time by competition in conjunction with the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation. The prize went to the Asphalt Piloten. Headed by Swiss choreographer Anna Anderegg, who divides her time between Berlin and Biel, the group create performances for public spaces. They received the CHF 25,000 prize for their project "Dark Side of the Moon".

Call for submissions for 2015
The new forms for submissions to the national Current Dance Works competition covering the seasons from 2013 to 2015 and the Dance as Cultural Heritage award will be posted online from 5 September to 5 November 2013. Detailed information (in German, French and Italian) can be found at www.bak.admin.ch under "Themen > Aktuelle Ausschreibungen".

Detailed information and images
Additional information on all the winners accompanies this press release.

The Federal Office of Culture will make images of the awards ceremony available for download free of charge from 10.30 p.m. Please use the following link:http://adrianmoser.photoshelter.com/gallery/Schweizer-Tanzpreis/G0000XgvYYj6Hst0/C00005YuCBoR_JCQ
password: fribourg

High-resolution images of the winners and information on the Swiss Dance Awards can be found on the new website www.danceawards.ch.
Press release dated 5 September announcing the winners of the Swiss Dance Award (Martin Schläpfer) and the Special Dance Award (Théâtre Sévelin 36): http://www.news.admin.ch/message/index.html?lang=en&msg-id=50140


Address for enquiries

Contact

Claudia Rosiny, Dance Promotion, Cultural Creativity Section, Federal Office of Culture, claudia.rosiny@bak.admin.ch, +41 (0)31 325 39 19

Sarah Schwerzmann, Press officer, Cultural Creativity Section, Federal Office of Culture, sarah.schwerzmann@bak.admin.ch, +41 (0)31 325 39 20



Publisher

Federal Office of Cultural Affairs
http://www.bak.admin.ch

https://www.schweizerkulturpreise.ch/content/awards/en/home/allgemeine-informationen/nsb-news.msg-id-50337.html