The Place Prize
Encyclopedia
The Place Prize is a prestigious contemporary dance
award, given to the winner of a biennial choreography
competition organised by The Place
in London
.
The Place Prize was created in 2004 and has been sponsored by Bloomberg
since its inception. With the stated aim of creating an award for choreographers comparable to the Turner Prize
for visual artists and the Man Booker Prize
for novelists, The Place Prize 2004 commissioned 20 UK-based artists to create new 15 minute works following an open application process; performances of these works were staged at The Place in September 2004 with Rafael Bonachela, Rosemary Butcher, Hofesh Shechter, Tom Roden & Pete Shenton and Bawren Tavaziva chosen as the five finalists. These finalists staged ten further performances, before a panel of judges named Rafael Bonachela as the inaugural Place Prize winner.
The Place Prize awarded over £120,000 to dance artists in 2004, with £40,000 distributed between the five finalists and £25,000 going to the overall winner.
The second Place Prize was held in 2006, with Nina Rajarani
announced as the winner on Saturday 30 September.
The third Place Prize in 2008 named former Royal Ballet dancer Adam Linder as the overall winner.
The Place Prize 2010 is the current and fourth edition, and will be the biggest single source of commissions for Britain’s independent choreographers this year. The works created often remain in artists’ repertoire for years after the competition and are seen around the world. By the conclusion of this latest edition, The Place Prize will have enabled the creation of 76 works and invested over £1million in new dance.
Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...
award, given to the winner of a biennial choreography
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
competition organised by The Place
The Place
The Place is a dance and performance centre in Duke's Road near Euston in the London Borough of Camden. Originally the home base of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre from the 1970s, it is now the location of the London Contemporary Dance School, the Richard Alston Dance Company and the Robin...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The Place Prize was created in 2004 and has been sponsored by Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
since its inception. With the stated aim of creating an award for choreographers comparable to the Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
for visual artists and the Man Booker Prize
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
for novelists, The Place Prize 2004 commissioned 20 UK-based artists to create new 15 minute works following an open application process; performances of these works were staged at The Place in September 2004 with Rafael Bonachela, Rosemary Butcher, Hofesh Shechter, Tom Roden & Pete Shenton and Bawren Tavaziva chosen as the five finalists. These finalists staged ten further performances, before a panel of judges named Rafael Bonachela as the inaugural Place Prize winner.
The Place Prize awarded over £120,000 to dance artists in 2004, with £40,000 distributed between the five finalists and £25,000 going to the overall winner.
The second Place Prize was held in 2006, with Nina Rajarani
Nina Rajarani
Nina Rajarani, MBE, is an award-winning South Asian dancer and choreographer and winner of The Place Prize 2006. She runs a dance school based in Harrow, Middlesex, and is Artistic Director of Srishti - Nina Rajarani Dance Creations, a male-dominated touring dance company.Nina Rajarani was awarded...
announced as the winner on Saturday 30 September.
The third Place Prize in 2008 named former Royal Ballet dancer Adam Linder as the overall winner.
The Place Prize 2010 is the current and fourth edition, and will be the biggest single source of commissions for Britain’s independent choreographers this year. The works created often remain in artists’ repertoire for years after the competition and are seen around the world. By the conclusion of this latest edition, The Place Prize will have enabled the creation of 76 works and invested over £1million in new dance.