The Prague Post
September 8th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

A fest for the best

Audience gets to vote at 2007 Dance Platform

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
April 11th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Watch out for flying feet in Dance Theater Entre Pasos' "Voices of a Dream."
Last week, at the press conference for Czech Dance Platform and the Tanec Praha festival, there was a television showing a DVD of the Canadian troupe Compagnie Marie Chouinard, one of the many international dance companies scheduled to appear this year in Tanec Praha, Prague’s massive modern dance festival. That’s what held the attention of everyone in the room — not the slouching speakers at the table, but images of nearly naked bodies jerking rhythmically, hypnotically on the screen.
Czech Dance Platform is the kick-off event leading up to Tanec Praha. Over five days, it focuses attention on contemporary Czech dancers before the international stars come to town. The event was founded to feature local talent in works selected as contenders for the prestigious Sazka Prize.  
Czech Dance Platform

When: April 13–18
Where: Divadlo Ponec, Duncan Centre, Divadlo Disk, Roxy NoD, Alfréd ve Dvoře
Tickets: 50–200 Kč, available at the venues
For individual events, see the Calendar listings; for a complete schedule, check www.tanecpraha.cz

“It’s a special festival of Czech dance,” says Jiří Sedlák, spokesman for the festivals. “You have Czech dancers, choreographers and artists who have created their works in the Czech Republic.”
The Sazka Prize is an annual award bestowed upon one promising dancer-choreographer. Along with bragging rights, a major boon of the prize is the right for the winner to perform his or her work at the following year’s Tanec Praha. “The judges watch performances during Czech Dance Platform, and the award is given in June,” Sedlák explains.
This year, Marta Lajnerová, director of both Czech Dance Platform and the Tanec Praha festival, broadened the scope of Czech Dance Platform to include audience favorites from previous years.
“For me, the Platform is a very good opportunity to present not just Sazka Prize contenders, but also the best choreography that has been created over the past two years,” she says. This new format gives local dancers and choreographers even more chances to display their abilities.
And not just for local audiences. Judges and festival organizers host dance critics, choreographers, company directors and other dance VIPs from abroad every year. These international guests have been impressed by what they’ve seen in the Czech Republic, Lajnerová says, so they keep returning to watch the newest creations by Czech dancers and choreographers. And the artists appreciate the exposure.
“The Czech Dance Platform festival has not only had a very good response from critics and audiences,” Lajnerová says, “but from the dancers and choreographers as well.”
This year, regular audience members will get to play VIP, too. A new award, the Spectator’s Prize, is a viewer’s choice award, voted on by the audience. “Each person that buys a ticket gets to vote,” Lajnerová says. “It is important that they rate every choreographer they see.”
A total of 19 different performances are included in this year’s lead-up to Tanec Praha, shining a spotlight on local dancers and choreographers that they definitely deserve.

Brooke Edge can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (11/04/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.