Press release
25 April 2016
22nd CZECH DANCE PLATFORM
names its winners
Prague – The CZECH DANCE PLATFORM this year enjoyed the highest ever participation of
foreign guests, who largely decided the winner of the Audience Award. The international jury
then deliberated about the Dancer of the Year and Dance Production of the Year awards, and
awards were also given for light design and for the first time ever for Manager of the Year.
The winner of the most awards was GUIDE by Věra Ondrašíková, but it finished just behind
Disconnected by Viliam Dočolomanský and his company Farm in the Cave in the contest for
best production of the year.
The international jury decides on two awards. The first is Dancer of the Year, which went to
Jaro Ondruš, the principle dancer in Věry Ondrašíková's GUIDE, who finished just ahead of
Tereza Ondrová in the voting. The second award is Dance Production of the Year, a prestigious
title awarded by an 11-member international jury. This year the award went to Disconnected by
Viliam Dočolomanský and his company Farm in the Cave. The Audience Award conversely
went to GUIDE by Věra Ondrašíková and the team behind the scenes also took home the Light
Design Award. For the first time ever the Manager of the Year award was granted, going to
Karolína Hejnová for her tireless support of Czech dance in all its forms – production of a wide
range of performances, many of which have enjoyed international success, co-management of
the ALTA studio, which opened up completely new opportunities for dance research and
experimentation for many new projects, shared space of mangers and much more.
This year's 22nd annual CZECH DANCE PLATFORM welcomed a record number of foreign guests
from the ranks of the expert public. Meeting in Prague from April 20 – 25 were 120 presenters,
dramaturges, choreographers, representatives of dance houses and managers from around the
world to see the most interesting Czech dance performances from the past year. During the
weekend their ranks grew to 240 in order to see more European works, including Czech
productions, at the Aerowaves Spring Forward festival in Plzen.
Dance Production of the Year 2016
An international jury of experts consisting of five international and six Czech jurors evaluated a
total of nine productions preselected by the dramaturgical committee from 35 applicants. The
winner received a CZK 40,000 prize from Tanec Praha and Studio ALTA will lend it its rehearsal
space for 14 days to create a new project.
The winner was DISCONNECTED by Viliam Dočolomanský and his company Farm in the Cave.
The runners up were:
GUIDE by Věra Ondrašíková
Absent by Jaro Viňarský and VerTeDance
As Long as Holding Hands by Tereza Ondrová and Peter Šavel
Tanec Praha z.ú. | ČESKÁ TANEČNÍ PLATFORMA | Husitská 899/24A, 130 00 Praha 3 | www.tanecpraha.cz | www.tanecniplatforma.cz
Transmutation by Andrea Miltnerová and Jan Komárek
Dancer of the Year 2016
The same international jury also votes for the Dancer of the Year award. In addition to a
financial prize of CZK 10,000 from Tanec Praha, thanks to the Czech Centre in Prague the winner
has the opportunity to spend a weeklong residency stay in the European city of their choice and
to collect a number of prizes.
The Dancer of the Year 2016 is Jaro Ondruš for his performances in GUIDE and Absent.
The runners up were:
Tereza Ondrová
Minh Hieu Nguyen
Markéta Stránská
Roman Zotov
Audience Award 2016
This year's audience at the Platform consisted mainly of foreign guests. They awarded the
audio-visual work GUIDE by Věra Ondrašíková, in which projections and light effects are used in
original ways. Dancer Jaro Ondruš and actor Jan Kotěšovský meet on stage in a story about the
search for a guide. The winner in this category will receive a CZK 10,000 prize from Tanec Praha
and other material prizes.
The runners up were:
VerTeDance / Jaro Viňarský: Absent
Farm in the Cave: Disconnected
Tereza Ondrová & Peter Šavel: As Long As Holding Hands
NANOHACH / Michal Záhora: DEVOID
Award for Light Design
A three-member jury granted the award for light design to the whole team behind GUIDE.
Prizes for this category were provided, among others, by WD LUX, Zvuk-světlo.cz and
OLDSERVIS.
Other nominees included the light designers for Transmutation and Disconnected.
Manager of the Year
The Manager of the Year award is the brainchild of Jiří Opěla, one of the pioneers of the
management of independent dance companies in the Czech Republic, and was granted this year
for the first time. The award comes with a CZK 10,000 prize and other material prizes. The
winner was Karolína Hejnová.
This year the main awards were designed by Štěpánka Bláhovcová and Papelote. They were
inspired by the changes and transformations of the human body. The award for light design was
Tanec Praha z.ú. | ČESKÁ TANEČNÍ PLATFORMA | Husitská 899/24A, 130 00 Praha 3 | www.tanecpraha.cz | www.tanecniplatforma.cz
prepared by Eva Nováková. In addition to the statuettes and cheques, the winners also received
vouchers to classes from Bikram yoga, gift certificates for the purchase of dance wear from
Sansha, and small gifts from Taneční zóna, Tanečních aktualit.cz, Klub FAMU, Radio Wave and
Tanec Praha.
"This year's festival again showed the high level and diversity of the Czech dance and movement
scene," said director of Tanec Praha Yvona Kreuzmannová. "Just the fact that the jury granted
awards to two artists – Tereza Ondrová and Jaro Viňarský – testifies to the interest to deepen
contacts with the Czech scene."
The festival was also enriched by an evening selected by the Audience Jury and a fabulous
accompanying program consisting of expert discussions, meetings with the Choreographic
Forum, meetings of Czech dance companies and foreign guests and a vernissage of photographs
by Vojta Brtnický.
Festival Jury:
Foreign Jury members:
Roberto Casarotto (IT) – Director of the dance projects for the Centro per la Scena
Contemporanea di Bassano del Grappa (CSC) and Operaestate Festival Veneto
Laura Kumin (ESP) – Director of Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid
Suzy Blok (NL) – Artistic director of the Dansmakers production house in Amsterdam
Olga Zitluhina (LV) – head of a program of contemporary dance in Latvian Academy of Culture
Felix Wittek (DE) – head of a director of the internationale tanzmesse nrw
Czech jury members:
Petra Hauerová – dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher
Yvona Kreuzmannová – founder and director of Tanec Praha (1/2 vote with Markéta Perroud)
Martin Macháček – Dance Zone magazine editor
Markéta Perroud – artistic co-director of Tanec Praha (1/2 vote with Yvona Kreuzmannová)
Pavel Štorek – director of the festival 4+4 days in motion
Nina Vangeli – dance journalist
Light design Award jury:
Minna Heikkila (FI)
Jan Honz Šuškleb (CZ)
Jan K. Rolnik (CZ)
Tanec Praha z.ú. | ČESKÁ TANEČNÍ PLATFORMA | Husitská 899/24A, 130 00 Praha 3 | www.tanecpraha.cz | www.tanecniplatforma.cz
CZECH DANCE PLATFORM is supported by:
Ministerstvo kultury ČR, Hlavní město Praha, Kreativní Evropa / Be SpectACTive! a Aerowaves
Městská část Praha 3, Česká centra, Institut umění – Divadelní institut, Francouzský institut
v Praze, Italský kulturní institut
Partners:
Studio ALTA, Institut světelného designu, SE.S.TA – Centrum choreografického rozvoje,
Aerofilms.cz, Klub FAMU, Bikram Yoga, Sansha Praha, WD LUX, Papelote
Media partners:
Radio 1, Taneční zóna, Taneční aktuality.cz, ČRo Vltava, ČRo Regina Dab Praha, ČRo Region,
Radio Wave, Artikl, informuji.cz, i-divadlo.cz, scena.cz, Taneční magazín, Newton media.
Hana Čekanová
PR & communication
[email protected]
+420 724 581 085
Tanec Praha z.ú. | ČESKÁ TANEČNÍ PLATFORMA | Husitská 899/24A, 130 00 Praha 3 | www.tanecpraha.cz | www.tanecniplatforma.cz