Fitting conclusion of dance audience awards at DeLaMar

In a chock-full DeLaMar theatre, deputy director Robert Guijt presented the 2014 Dance Audience Award and Dance Photo of the Year on 23 February 2015. This was a good match for the festive premiere of Crazy Blues by winner International Dance Theatre.

Many acquaintances from the dance world performed at the DeLaMar. 'Hans van Manen is sitting beautifully on Princess Beatrix's chair,' Guijt joked. The same Hans van Manen made a preselection with Thomas Cott from 43 entries for the Dance Photo of the Year.

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The Dance Photo Awards took place for the first time this year. Photographer Gerard Boymans once suggested the idea for it, a pilot turned out well. And a tradition was also immediately set: the winner, Hans Hordijk, will make a preselection from submissions for the next edition.

The winner of the 2014 Dance Audience Award Favourite Dance Performance is FADO of International Dance Theatre. It has been some time since this company made a U-turn from traditional dances it started with in 1961 to a contemporary approach to culturally informed dance. And it did so without any significant subsidy.

Artistic director Jan Linkens and business director Sophie Lambo therefore show decisiveness and complete enthusiasm. A must for a dance company in this day and age. That this reflects on the dancers, their supporters and audiences is clear. After all, they did not win the Dance Audience Award for nothing.

Also at the premiere of Crazy Blues showed how close-knit the collective is. Until recently, everyone with an on-call contract had to work at Internationaal Danstheater, now there is more security thanks to financial support. That pays off. With even more budget, even more quality can always surface. But that was not to spoil the fun of premiere.

This brought the fourth edition of the Dance Audience Award to a successful conclusion. With some 65 nominated performances, 105 dancers nominated and 15,000 votes, it took some doing to keep everything on track. But an audience award as a useful counterpart to a jury prize still proves to be very welcome in the dance world.

Read more about the Dance Audience Award ceremony Favourite Dancer 2014 and Oeuvre Prize 2014.

(Photo header and collage: Robert Benschop)