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The international jury decided to change the character of the award ceremony. “What was once the Dance of the Year and Dance Production of the Year has now acquired the new name of Czech Dance Platform Awards and moved towards a bigger emphasis on the depiction of the discipline and sidelining the character of the competition. The international jury had the option to award an individual (performer, choreographer, director…) or an artwork in its complexity. The number of awards was not limited, and the jury had to justify each decision,” explains Zuzana Hájková, the platform manager.
Tereza Ondrová was awarded as an outstanding performer, who is able to perfectly portray the difficult role in SAME SAME under Karine Ponties; the international jury also appreciated the complexity of the work and balance between both main characters in the form of a special mention. The jury awarded Tereza for her “embodied awareness, change on the stage, high quality of motion and generosity towards the audience and the work”.
The main Czech Dance Platform Award went to Viktor Černický with PLI for the original attitude towards choreography and outstanding stage performance. The jury commented on Viktor Černický: “The young author and performer Viktor Černický created objects of everyday use through an outstanding motion performance, the metaphor of human’s desire to reach the sky.”
“These two nominations were unanimously supported by all members of the international jury; thus, I am excited to congratulate Tereza Ondrová, who has been an outstanding talent radiating on our stage since the early years of the platform. My congratulations also go to Viktor Černický, who is a rather new emerging artist in physical theatre, but has reached a rare concord of professionals and non-professionals because he also received the Audience Award based on voting after each performance at the platform,” says Yvona Kreuzmannová, the founder of the platform and director of Tanec Praha, which organized the whole event.
The international jury also agreed on four works, which received the special mention: Markéta Stránská’s LeŤ was awarded for the exceptional energy Stránská injected to her role and for the redefinition of beauty and excellence in contemporary dance her work undoubtedly brings. Tereza Hradilková’s Nepřestávej/Don’t Stop is yet another acknowledged work. Hradilková attained an exceptional presentation on the stage thanks to intensive motional research, and she also created very intimate and fascinating atmosphere. The acknowledgement of the international jury also went to Medúza of the tYhle company and choreographer Marie Gourdain. In this case, the jury appreciated the great teamwork and an innovative creative process, which helped interpret a demanding concept. She had the courage to risk, and we should thank her for her artistic integrity and creative attitude towards stage design. In SAME SAME by the French choreographer based in Belgium Karine Ponties in close cooperation with Petra Tejnorová and Tereza Ondrová, the jury highlighted humor and complexity of the attitude as well as strong individualities of both performers.
“The new way of awarding the artists provided more space for artist’s perspective, the jury dealt with quality of all parts of every work. It was possible to emphasize what the members of the jury appreciated about each work and they used this opportunity to the max,” Kreuzmannová explains.
The Institute of Lighting Design awarded the award for light design to Jiří Šmirk, the eleventh laureate. Šmirk received the award for his work to Spitfire Company’s CONSTELLATIONS II: Time for Sharing.
The Czech artists received several specific invitations to foreign countries as soon as during the final evening – the specific contributions of the festival and evaluation from international critics will be available in the upcoming weeks. The personal statements by top international experts participating in the event for the first time express their feelings about the platform being a nice surprise and a discovery of original dance culture in this part of Europe. Those coming back regularly appreciated high quality and diversity of this year’s offer and also acknowledged a great team of organizers.
