
Dance Umbrella, Big Pulse Dance Alliance Artist Marco Da Silva Ferreira nominated for Rose Prize
Marco da Silva Ferreira’s CARCAÇA has been nominated for this year’s inaugural Rose International Dance Prize. Ferreira was formerly a part of The Big Pulse’s Scaling Up programme and was featured in Dance Umbrella.
Big Pulse Dance Alliance was a 4-year partnership (2021- 2024) of 12 European dance festivals and institutions united by their passion to promote, strengthen and broaden the reach of the contemporary dance sector. Dance Umbrella’s involvement was initiated by its then Artistic Director Emma Gladstone, just before Brexit. With the support of EU Creative Europe co-funding, Big Pulse’s aim was to diversify dance programming and audiences and support artist development through mentorship, travel and workshop programmes. The project’s long-term vision is to establish a lively network of European dance festivals who work collaboratively and sustainably to further the life-changing impact of dance. The Big Pulse Dance Alliance partners are listed here
The Big Pulse Scaling Up programme aimed to bring contemporary dance to the big stages of Europe. This series of co-productions focused on supporting dance artists to transition from producing work for small and medium-sized stages to creating large-scale productions.
Artists that were part of the Scaling Up programme created new works which were co-produced by and toured to several partner festivals including Dance Umbrella in London.
The Upscale Programme artists featured in Dance Umbrella were: Oona Doherty Navy Blue (2022); Sonya Lindfors One Drop (2023); POCKETART’s Fairy Tales (2024) and Marco da Silva Ferreira’s CARCAÇA which is nominated for the first ever Rose International Dance Prize, and was the last project Emma Gladstone worked on before she sadly passed away in February this year.
The Rose International Dance Prize is a brand-new biennial prize for original dance creations in any style from across the globe. A jury of five judges (Professor Christopher Bannerman (Chair), PJ Harvey, Karthika Naïr, Dame Arlene Phillips and Dr Samuel Ross MBE) will announce the Rose Prize winner with a £40,000 prize.
Marco da Silva Ferreira’s CARCAÇA features a cast of over ten dancers, drawing from European folk dance footwork to urban dance styles in search of a rebellious and carnival-like collective body. It is co-presented by Dance Umbrella and Big Pulse at Sadler’s Wells on 1 & 2 February. The winner of the inaugural Rose International Dance Prize will be announced on 8 February.
To learn more about The Rose International Dance Prize and this year’s nominees, visit https://www.sadlerswells.com/the-rose-prize-2025/
Marco Da Silva Ferreira’s CARCAÇA, photo credit Jose Caldeira