SEDA - Salavisa European Dance Award
On the initiative of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, seven European cultural institutions, including JOINT ADVENTURES, the Biennale de la Danse / Maison de la Danse, Lyon, France; Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, Denmark; ImPulsTanz, Vienna, Austria; K.V.S., Brussels, Belgium; Sadler's Wells, London, United Kingdom and the Kees Eijrond Foundation, will present the SEDA - Salavisa European Dance Award every two years from 2024.
The nomination committee, which is made up of representatives from the individual partner institutions, has now selected five finalists from a list of 21 nominees. These include Dalila Belaza (Algeria/France), Idio Chichava (Mozambique), Catarina Miranda (Portugal), Dorothée Munyaneza (Rwanda/UK/France) and Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco). The winner will be selected by a three-member international jury and announced at an award ceremony at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon on 27 November 2024.
The jury is made up of Mette Ingvartsen (choreographer and performer, Denmark), Nayse López (journalist, curator and director of the Panorama Festival, Brazil) and Tang Fu Kuen (curator, producer and dramaturge for contemporary visual and performative art, Singapore).
At 150,000 euros, the biennial SEDA Award is the most highly endowed international prize for contemporary dance. It is aimed at artists from all over the world who have already begun to build an international reputation and is intended to provide them with substantial support in realising a production in the year following the award ceremony. This will be shown by the organisations in the partner network. JOINT ADVENTURES receives support for this from the Cultural Department of the City of Munich.
Nominees
Dalila Belaza (Algeria/France)
Dalila Belaza's artistic approach is guided by the need for meaning and sublimity. Crucial here is the moment of exploration, which serves to fathom the invisible and unsettling and to allow performers and audiences to experience what lies at their core. Dalila Belaza founded her ensemble hiya compagnie in 2020. From 2024 - 2026 she is an associated artist at the Briqueterie - CDCN du Val-de-Marne in Paris, France.
Idio Chichava (Mozambique)
Idio Chichava is a Mozambican dancer, choreographer and artistic director. He first danced in a traditional dance group before turning to contemporary dance in 2001 and expanding his repertoire through Danças na Cidade and CulturArte with Lia Rodrigues and Thomas Hauert. He has been working with Kubilai Khan Investigations in France since 2005. In 2012 he founded the ensemble CONVERGE+. Since his return to Maputo, he has produced workshops, artistic works and events that aim, among other things, to bring art from the city to the periphery.
Catarina Miranda (Portugal)
In her works, Catarina Miranda merges movement, scenography and light. She sees the body as a medium for the transformation and mediation of hypnagogic states and the visceral consciousness of the present. Catarina Miranda studied choreography at the Master Exerce/ICI Montpellier and Fine Arts at the Fine Arts School in Porto. She has created several pieces characterised by the construction of fictional topographies, including "Cabraqimera", "Dream is the Dreamer" and "Reiposto Reimorto".
Dorothée Munyaneza (Rwanda/Great Britain/France)
Dorothée Munyaneza is a multidisciplinary artist. She uses music, song, text and movement to explore disruption as a dynamic force and to create spaces for resonance and hope. She draws on the diversity of her cultural heritage: her childhood in Rwanda, 14 years of life in London, her move to Paris and her subsequent settlement in Marseille. In her creations, Dorothée Munyaneza enters into a dialogue with other artists such as the performers Nadia Beugré and Holland Andrews, the musicians Alain Mahé, Ben LaMar Gay and Khyam Allami, the designer Stéphanie Coudert and the visual artist Maya Mihindou.
Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco)
Bouchra Ouizguen is a Marrakech-based dancer and choreographer who has been involved in the development of the local dance scene since 1998. Her interest in society and the visual and popular arts in her country is reflected in her work with sound, performance and video. In her production "Madame Plaza", she shared the stage with three artists from the Aïta tradition in song and dance. They also work with her in the context of "Ha!", "Corbeaux", "Ottof" and "Elephant". Bouchra Ouizguen's multidisciplinary work is shown internationally in both theatres and museums.
Selection procedure
Each partner institution submitted a total of three proposals for possible award winners. To this end, the institutions worked together with international experts and institutions in the field of contemporary dance that broaden the horizons of the SEDA network. These associated experts in 2024 include
- Andreea Capitanescu - WASP - Working Art Space and Production (Bucharest, Romania);
- Faustin Linyekula - Studios Kabako (Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo);
- Gintarė Masteikaitė - LDIC - Lithuanian Dance Information Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania);
- Helly Minarti (Munique) - koreografi (Lingkaran, Indonesia);
- Hsin-Yuan Shih- National Theatre & Concert Hall (Taipei, Taiwan);
- Ice Hot Nordic Dance Partners (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland);
- María José Cifuentes - Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Centro GAM (Santiago de Chile, Chile);
- Quito Tembé - Kinani - Festival Internacional de Dança Contemporânea (Maputo, Mozambique);
- Talita Rebizzi - SESC São Paulo / Bienal de Dança de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil)
The nomination committee selected five finalists from the list of a maximum of 21 nominees. The nomination committee consists of one member per network partner. In 2024, the nomination committee is made up of Danjel Anderson (Dansehallerne); Kristien De Coster (KVS); Tiago Guedes (Maison/Biennale da la Danse); Gintare Masteikaite (JOINT ADVENTURES); Cristina Planas Leitão (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation); Rio Rutzinger (ImPulsTanz) and Alistair Spalding (Sadler's Wells).
An independent jury consisting of three members will select the winner from the five finalists.
The SEDA Award is dedicated to the Portuguese dancer Jorge Salavisa (1939-2020). Salavisa worked with the Ballet National Populaire, the Ballets de Paris and the London Festival Ballet, among others. In addition to being the artistic director of Ballet Gulbenkian from 1977, he worked internationally as a teacher and was a founding professor of P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. He was responsible for dance at Lisboa'94 - European Capital of Culture, was President of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Companhia Nacional de Bailado and Director of the Teatro Municipal de São Luiz.
Further information: www.gulbenkian.pt/