Recognition at Dutch Dance Days for plodding 'Swans' 2015 winners

During a festive dinner at Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, 'Swans' were awarded to dancer Jorge Nozal of NDT 1, Ann Van den Broek for The Black Piece and to Roel Voorintholt (Gouden Zwaan), artistic director of Introdans. The annual highlights festival De Nederlandse Dansdagen hosted this successful 'Swan Dinner': posh sponsors and stakeholders ate side by side with messy dance artists. That's how it should be, because they need each other. 

The Swans, the 'Oscars of Dutch dance', are awarded by a top jury. And there will have been some meetings. Because just get to the point of choosing between dancers Andreas Kuck of WArd/waRD and Jorge Nozal of NDT 1, for instance. At Culture Press we wrote back in 2014 "when will this man get a prize?" about Nozal, and 'Highlighting a shuddering shadow play by 37-year-old Andreas Kuck.' But the jury of the Dutch Dance Days says it in its own press release much nicer: "Jorge Nozal effortlessly steers his body from lyrical to razor-sharp, articulate, movements that fully open up the poetic charge of the choreography. His presence, so soft and powerful at the same time, leaves you breathless".

For dancers, that recognition is wonderful. Loïc Perela experienced that on Friday night when he was awarded the Prize of the Dutch Dance Days Maastricht. That prize comes inclusive of a generous €12,000 for a new work to be created. Interestingly, earlier in the year the public could nominate a choreographer, after which a jury chose a winner from three relatively 'small' choreographers. So you can toil in a studio for weeks on end, reap success in a small venue and then just fall in the prizes. 

That toil by experimenting artists is much needed: without it, we would all be massively bored with over-familiar dance material. For that, performances would not even have to be repeated. After all, without newly developed language, we would also only see new productions with the same idiom over and over again. That's an assault on your spirits.

So it is to be hoped that the dance world may remain as surprising and free as the Festival of Dutch Dance, which took place after the Swan Dinner.

Update: The Dioraphte Dance Award also goes to The Black Piece by Ann Van den Broek! The cash prize of €5,000, made available by the Dioraphte Foundation, is for the promotion of the selected work abroad.

Periscope contribution

On the way to dinner, a badge of honour does wonders for your ego.

To the tune of Happy a in your face recording of winner Jorge Nozal.