Salavisa European Dance Award finalists announced
Five finalists have been selected for the Salavisa European Dance Award which recognises artists from around the world for their talent and unique qualities in the field of dance.
Chiara Bersani from Italy, Dan Daw from Australia, Jefta van Dinther from the Netherlands, Lukas Avendaño from Mexico and Mamela Nyamza from South Africa were selected by a Nomination Committee composed of one representative chosen by each of the nine European institutions that make up SEDA – Dansehallerne (Denmark), Fondazione Fabbrica Europa per le arti contemporanee ETS (Italy), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal), Joint Adventures (Germany), KVS (Belgium), Maison de la Danse/Biennale de la Danse (France), Mercat de les Flors (Spain), Sadler’s Wells (United Kingdom) and Tanzquartier Wien (Austria).
Performing artist, activist and choreographer Chiara Bersani works on the accessibility of disabled artists in the performing arts scene, exploring the politics of the body and how the images we create interact with society’s narratives. She was one of the co-founders of Al.Di.Qua.Artists. Chiara Bersani’s choreographic practice is defined by radical precision, conceptual depth and political urgency. Her work proposes a profound reformulation of the relationship between body, time, vision and power, challenging the dominant aesthetics of virtuosity, speed and productivity, proposing instead a practice anchored in duration, attention and radical presence.
Artist and producer Dan Daw began working as a performer with Restless Dance Theatre (AUS) in 2002. Throughout his career, he has worked with several international choreographers and companies and is currently a Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist. Curator and co-curator of several festivals, he is the founder of Dan Daw Creative Projects, UK-based company disabled led company, leading the way in creating accessible international touring work that blurs the lines between theatre, dance and activism, alongside creating systemic change in institutions and the sector for d/Deaf and disabled artists and audiences through long-term partnerships and residencies.
Choreographer, dancer and teacher, Jefta van Dinther’s work questions what it means to be human, examined through its relation to society, community and environment but also to other forms of life. Equally central in his current work is a deepening commitment to accessibility and diversity within the field of contemporary dance. Jefta van Dinther is considered one of the most visionary choreographers of his generation. His work addresses profound and universal questions – such as what it means to be human in relation to others, history and the world – and reveals how bodies are shaped by social, cultural and atmospheric forces. His work REMACHINE will be presented at Sadler’s Wells East this May.
Lukas Avendaño is a performing artist, choreographer, anthropologist, and writer. Having trained in Dance and Anthropology, his practice fuses dance, ritual, ethnography, and activism. His work draws on muxeidad – the Zapotec social and gender system that unsettles the colonial male/female binary and that has existed since before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas –, to stage charged explorations of sexuality, indigeneity, and power. He has presented work widely in Mexico and abroad. As an activist he addresses one of the most urgent crises in the Americas: the disappearance and murder of people, among whom his own brother.
Mamela Nyamza is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and activist. Rejected by her classical Ballet Teachers because of her natural body structure, she was inevitably drawn to the politics of the body. She graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology with a National Diploma in Ballet, and continued her training at the Alvin Ailey International School for Dance in New York. Winner of several awards, she created a non-profit company MAMELAS ARTISTIC MOVEMENT, which provides a creative home for those unemployed dance artists who have been marginalised due to body politics.
The work of the five finalists will now be evaluated by an independent jury, composed of three renowned dance experts – Ilgaz Gurur Ertem, La Ribot and River Lin. The winner of this year’s award will be announced in November during a ceremony at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
This European dance award, worth €150,000, is granted every two years and hopes to establish itself as an incentive for artists with artistic maturity who do not fall within a strict age category and are still little known on the European circuit due to their artistic discourse or their social and cultural background.
Created in 2023 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and other European cultural institutions to honour the legacy of Portuguese dancer, teacher and artistic director Jorge Salavisa (1939-2020), the Salavisa European Dance Award (SEDA) is awarded to artists from across the world who demonstrate talent or unique qualities worthy of international recognition.
Learn more about SEDA here.
Image supplied by Salavisa European Dance Award