The Place Prize is a prestigious

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of 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 strong popularity in ...

award, given to the winner of a biennial

choreography Choreography is the art or practice 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 ...

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 former ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The Place Prize was created in 2004 and has been 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 and ma ...

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 known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

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 Rosemary Butcher (1947–2016) was a British choreographer and dancer. Life and career Butcher studied ballet as a child. She was the first dance student at the Dartington College of Arts. She spent 1968–1970 in New York, studying with the Mar ...

Hofesh Shechter Hofesh Shechter (born 3 May 1975) is an Israeli choreographer, dancer and composer based in London. He is best known for being the founder and artistic director of the Hofesh Shechter Company. Shechter was nominated for the Tony Award for Best ...

Tom Roden & Pete Shenton Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

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, MBE, is a 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 ...

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 are chosen to premiere in a series of public performances in London at The Place during the Semi-finals. Three competitors are 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 are Lost Dog, with the piece It Needs Horses. The fifth and last edition of the Place Prize in 2013 was won by choreographer

Riccardo Buscarini Riccardo Buscarini is an Italian choreographer and director Buscarini was born in Castel San Giovanni Piacenza, Italy. He came to dance at 17, approaching ballet and contemporary dance studying at Accademia Domenichino da Piacenza, Piacenza, ...

. The Place Prize is open to all UK-based choreographers working in contemporary dance. The shortlisted commissions are selected by a dance panel chaired by Eddie Nixon, Director of Theatre and Artist Development at The Place. The Place Prize, sponsored by Bloomberg, is the biggest single source of commissions for new short works in British dance. By the end of this 5th edition, it will have enabled the creation of 92 original pieces of choreography, most of which have remained in the artists’ repertoire, and have been toured in theatres and festivals nationally and internationally. The Place Prize has already invested over £1m in new British dance, and has brought leading artists to international attention.

External links

The Place Prize website
Contemporary dance in London Contemporary dance London awards Dance awards Choreography awards Biennial events {{contemporary-dance-stub