The Place Prize was a prestigious

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...

award, given to the winner of a biennial

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

competition organised by

The Place The Place may refer to: * The Place (London) The Place is a dance and performance centre in Duke's Road near Euston in the London Borough of Camden. It is the home of London Contemporary Dance School and the Robin Howard Dance Theatre, and forme ...

in London. The Place Prize was created in 2004 and sponsored by

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

since its inception. With the stated aim of creating an award for choreographers comparable to the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

for visual artists and the

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

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 Rafael Bonachela is a Spanish-born, Australian Choreography, choreographer notable for work across a range of art forms, including contemporary dance, Installation art, art installations, Performance, pop concerts, Musical theatre, musicals, film, ...

, Rosemary Butcher,

Hofesh Shechter Hofesh Shechter (; born 3 May 1975) is an Israeli choreographer, dancer and composer based in London. He is the founder and artistic director of the Hofesh Shechter Company. Early life Hofesh Shechter was born in Jerusalem, Israel, in 1975. At ...

, 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 fourth edition of Place Prize in 2010 saw a new phased approach to the competition, with the Semi-Finals held in September, and the Finals in April 2011. A total of 16 works were chosen to premiere in a series of public performances in London at The Place during the Semi-finals. Three competitors were selected by a panel of dance experts, and one by audience vote, to compete in the Finals in April the following year for £35,000 in prize money. The winners of the 4th edition were Lost Dog, with the piece It Needs Horses. Th
fifth
and last edition of the Place Prize in 2013 was won by choreographer Riccardo Buscarini. The Place Prize was open to all UK-based choreographers working in contemporary dance. The shortlisted commissions were selected by a dance panel chaired by Eddie Nixon, Director of Theatre and Artist Development at The Place. The Place Prize, sponsored by Bloomberg, was the biggest single source of commissions for new short works in British dance. By the end of the 5th edition, it had enabled the creation of 92 original pieces of choreography, most of which remained in the artists' repertories, and toured in theatres and festivals nationally and internationally. The Place Prize invested over £1m in new British dance, and brought leading artists to international attention.

External links

The Place Prize website
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