Dance Preview: The Place Prize 2012

Jemma
By Jemma Last edited 138 months ago
Dance Preview: The Place Prize 2012

Cash for contemporary dance? An extraordinary thing indeed. The Place Prize is Europe’s biggest contemporary dance competition, which offers a £25,000 prize for the work that manages to beat off 15 other commissioned pieces premiering at the semi-finals with four pieces going through to the Finals in April 2013.

The first week, 6–13 September, is preview week. This allows the choreographers to try out their pieces on a real audience before semi-finals week, which follows from Saturday 15-22 September. Four pieces are on show each night. Just like the X-Factor (the comparison stops right here) both a panel of judges (Sarah Crompton, Roberto Casarotto, Siobhan Davies, Stine Nilsen and Jonzi D) and the audience will vote for their favourite pieces to go through to the finals in semi-finals week.

The Place Prize covers diverse contemporary performance practices, showing what's hot right now in the ephemeral and oft-obscure world of contemporary dance — the real draw being the opportunity to see four exciting, cutting edge artists on a single bill. Nail-biting, captivating and no doubt titillating, don't miss this rare dance treat in an up-close venue.

The line up is  as follows:

Tue 6 (preview);  Sat 15 (Semi-Finals) September

  • Moreno Solinas, Life Is a Carnival
  • Riccardo Buscarini, Athletes
  • Tony Adigun, The Lake
  • Joe Moran, Obverse

Sat 8 (preview); Tue 18 (Semi-Final) September

  • Mamoru Iriguchi, One Man Show
  • Ben Ash (Dog Kennel Hill Project), Execute Now
  • Hanna Gillgren & Heidi Rustgaard (h2dance), Duet
  • Rick Nodine, Dead Gig

Tue 11 (preview); Thu 20 (Semi-Final) September

  • Nina Kov, Copt
  • Neil Paris, The Devil’s Mischief
  • Bgroup (Ben Wright), A short lived alteration of an existing situation
  • Darren Ellis, Revolver

Thu 13 (preview); Sat 22 (Semi-Final) September

  • Goddard Nixon (Jonathan Goddard and Gemma Nixon), Third
  • Seke Chimutengwende, The Time Travel Piece
  • Robbie Synge, Flux
  • Eva Recacha, The Wishing Well

The Place Prize previews and Semi-Finals take place 6-22 Sept, The Place Theatre, tickets £12-£17.

Last Updated 05 September 2012