These are the winners of RIDCC 2023!
XL Production Award:
Our jury consisting of: Samuel Wuersten, Hofesh Shechter, Katrín Hall, Tony Adigun and Eve Hopkins chose MEGASTRUCTURE by Isaiah Wilson and Sarah Baltzinger as the winners of the XL Production Award 2023. They will create a complete professional production in collaboration with Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and RIDCC, with the value of €100.000.
Audience Award:
LOCA by Albert Hernández has won the prestigious Audience Award. This duet captured the hearts of our audience during the final, receiving the highest number of votes. He will receive the money the audience donated for the Audience Award.
Partner Awards:
Nederlands Dans Theater Partner Award:
Isaiah Wilson & Sarah Baltzinger – MEGASTRUCTURE
MiR Dance Company Gelsenkirchen Partner Award:
Or Marin – Breath with Me a Moment
Maas Theater En Dans Partner Award:
Isaiah Wilson & Sarah Baltzinger – MEGASTRUCTURE
Conny Janssen Danst Partner Award:
Charlie Skuy – KEVIN
SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht Partner Award:
Isaiah Wilson & Sarah Baltzinger – MEGASTRUCTURE
Dansateliers Partner Award:
Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić – AMAE
Club Guy & Roni Partner Award:
Mats van Rossum & Rebecca Laufer – Clay
Skånes Dansteater Partner Award:
Isaiah Wilson & Sarah Baltzinger – MEGASTRUCTURE
Codarts Partner Award:
Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić – AMAE
Or Marin – Breath with Me a Moment
Tamir Goland – Oxytocin
Fan Xiaoyun – Mercury
Yang Kang, Huang Sijun, Zhu Xinyun – Up
Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Lia Claudia Latini – Simposio
Albert Hernández – LOCA
Urvil Shah & Chetan Solanki – BOJ
Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum – Clay
Isaiah Wilson and Sarah Baltzinger – MEGASTRUCTURE
Maria Chiara de’ Nobili & Alexander Miller – until again
Li Chen and Shi Feiyang – Should Life Be Busy?
Nadine Gerspacher & Arias Fernández – RE.
Chen Yi En – Self-hate
Charlie Skuy – KEVIN
Tang Chenglong – Aura
AMAE
By Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić
About the choreography AMAE
AMAE questions and investigates the boundaries between care and obsession, love and hurt, support and control. Where is the line between those extremes? How far can one go before it turns into the contrary effect? Is there room for compromise and understanding or is this meant to be an endless loop?
About the choreographers
Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić are freelance makers, dancers and teachers, based in Brussels. Eliana is currently performing with Peeping Tom and Club Guy & Roni while Borna is collaborating with Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekeybus and Olivier de Sagazan.
Credits
Choreography: Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić
Performers: Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić
Music: Nicholas Britell Audio
Editing: Giuseppe Santoro
Breath with Me a Moment
by Or Marin
About the choreography Breath with Me a Moment
Breathe with Me a Moment is a glimpse in which a window opens for intimate dialogue between two dancers. What do we mean when we speak about true intimacy. How fragile closeness is. Is it what we call love, passion, honest conversation, in-depth knowledge? The duet proposes intimacy, a shared breathing, a moment of close connection that encompasses the various colors of intimacy. The meeting of two bodies through shared breath into a harmonica, produces a note to the concept of intimacy, vocalizes the closeness, the love, the passion. It connects the two bodies and turns them into one musical instrument with two lung spaces and one note that emerges from their bond. Union. The sound of intimacy that is revealed to us in a unified musical layer serves as a soundtrack to the bodies in their release into one another in a human, abstract, sensory way.
About the choreographer
Or Marin is a choreographer, designer, teacher, and founder of Or Marin Dance Theater Company (2005), and RE-SEARCH, a three-year professional program for creative dancers. She graduated from Habbostan school of dance, Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts, the Place, LCD, London. Her work is known for its visual aesthetics, use of vocal and textual work, contemporary dance and performance. Over the years, her creations have been performed in many festivals and venues, such as Quinzena de Dança de Almada, MASDANZA de Gran Canaria, Tanzmasse NRW. Or’s company is supported by the Israeli Ministry of Culture and is a permanent associate of the Israeli Choreographers Association.
Credits
Choreography: Or Marin
Performers: Uri Dicker and Tomer Giat
Oxytocin
by Tamir Golan
About the choreography Oxytocin
The thin line between longing to strangeness, calmness to panic, pleasure to pain, laughter to cry. Boundaries, powerment, empathy, control, frustration, false hope, dependence, love, and hate. Two wanderers share a similar past in which the thin line between longing to strangeness is central.
About the choreographer
Tamir Golan was born in 1999. He served in the IDF as an Outstanding Dancer while studying at the Maslool-Professional Dance Program, Tel Aviv. In 2021, Tamir participated in 1|2|3 – a programme for emerging choreographers at Suzanne Dellal Centre, and created three new pieces. He won the Outstanding Creator for his duet creation. Between 2019 and 2022 Tamir danced with Avshalom Pollak Dance Theater. With his works he participated in Holland Dance Festival (Den Haag, the Netherlands) and MILANoLTRE (Milan, Italy). Tamir was chosen for a residency of two months at Quartier Am Hafen (Cologne, Germany) to create a new piece, with the cooperation of Suzanne Dellal Center (Tel Aviv, Israel).
Credits
Choreography: Tamir Golan
Performers: Gil Algrabli and Tamir Golan
Music: Mica Levi, Arcade Fire
Soundtrack Design: Tamir Golan
Original Light Design: Netanel Kafka
Costume adviser: Inbal Ben Zaken
Mentoring: Nitzan Cohen, Adi Boutrous
The work was created within the 1|2|3 Program- A program for emerging Choreographers of the Suzanne Dellal Centre, with the assistance of Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts.
Mercury
by Fan Xiaoyun
About the choreography Mercury
Mercury is a liquid metal with the ‘counter-intuitive’ properties of high hardness, high elasticity, and high corrosion resistance, making it as strong as stone. However, it can also be deformed, spun, fused, and fractured on a large scale under different environmental effects. On the contrary however, as with mercury and external chemistry, for most men and women in social relationships, women face various changes in circumstances. Society, gender, and dogmatic responsibilities are intertwined and dominate women. The ‘rigidity’ inside women is like liquid metal, with tenacity and hardness. Please discover her…
About the choreographer
Fan Xiaoyun is rehearsal director at Xie Xin Dance Theater. Graduated from Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, she joined Xie Xin Dance Theater in October 2017 and participated in the company’s productions and Xie Xin’s works. She has also performed in the Sino-Portuguese collaboration Spring Ritual, Hu Shen-yuan’s Dark Rainbow, and Liu Jia’s 00:00. In 2019, she participated in the choreography and performance of the music dance drama Shui Qiang produced by Shanghai Concert Hall and directed by Peng Zhang. In 2019, she performed in the stage play Lady of the Sea, a Sino-Norwegian joint creation by Wang Yabin. Her choreography work Echo won the Second Prize in the Modern Dance Youth Female Group at the 19th Seoul International Dance Competition. Her dance video Form-Qi-Recognition was selected for the 2023 Arte Laguna Prize and was exhibited at the Arsenale in Venice, Italy. Form-Qi multimedia dance was also invited to perform at the opening ceremony on March 11th 2023.
Credits
Choreography: Fan Xiaoyun
Performers: Fan Xiaoyun and Ma Siyun
Music: Di Bingyu
Up
by Yang Kang, Huang Sijun, Zhu Xinyun
About the choreography Up
Folded ladders are stable when in use but unstable when folded together. Up is a repetition that wanders between equilibrium and imbalance. When people have the possibility of up and down, they will be in fact suspended in the air, with various emotions such as fear, doubt, anxiety, and loneliness emerging one after another. The work Up discusses the sensitive and complex relationship regarding confrontation and collaboration, persistence and abandonment, and hope and darkness, which exists in a constant form of duality in humans. When going through these relationships, we explore world forms with results that are currently unknown but bear our final liberation.
About the choreographers
Yang Kang, an independent dancer and choreographer, was selected as one of China’s top dancers and choreographers in 2022. He participated in different cross-disciplinary productions, such as the Italian Rome Opera’s China tour of The Lady of the Camellias, and the Shenzhen version of Sleep no more. He performed at different theaters and festivals, like the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China and the Shekou Theatre Festival.
Huang Sijun is a Chinese independent dancer and choreographer. Since 2021, he started collaborating with different artists, and performed at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Shanghai International Arts Festival, and the Guangzhou Opera House.
Zhu Xinyun is a cross-disciplinary choreographer and theatre creator. Her works have been commissioned by the Shanghai International Dance Center, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Shekou Theater Festival, and presented in different art platforms, including Shanghai International Arts Festival, Hangzhou International Dance Festival, and Ming Contemporary Museum.
Credits:
Choreography: Yang Kang & Huang Sijun & Zhu Xinyun
Performers: Yang Kang & Huang Sijun
Lighting Designer: Gao Jie
Music: Unbroken – Gustavo Santaolalla & Mac Quayle, Light Means Go – Massive Attack
Symposio
by Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Lia Claudia Latini
About the choreography Symposio
From Plato’s story to the present day, a continuous tension in search of the total, unique, complete body. From the ‘hermaphrodites’ narrated in Aristophanes’ speech, supernatural figures, in terms of strength and shape, to the divided body that we have. The attempt at reunification, the tension towards completeness, the relationship that is never completely ‘satisfied’ because it seems to be impossible to go back to being a ‘single body’. From the specific story of Plato to the analysis of current society: the difficulty of finding, maintaining and cultivating a couple relationship in a society that pushes towards an ever stronger individualism and which leads to less acceptance of the ‘compromise’ of the couple. This is where our moving figures are born; where the two bodies, added together, create a larger one.
About the choreographers
Giovanni Leonarduzzi, aka ‘Gava’, began his career in dance through breakdance in ’96 and soon approached the theatrical environment. Growth opportunities and confirmations continue and increase with the union in 2017 of forces, visions and intentions between Giovanni and Lia Claudia Latini.
Claudia was born and trained in Friuli Venezia Giulia, she began with the study of academic dance and at the same time continued and completed her artistic studies, graduating in fashion design. Together they participated in Italian and international dance platforms, such as Choreography 36 Hannover, CICC Copenhagen, Interplay, MasDanza. Their choreographic research develops through a study of movement and language that pushes from urban roots towards a choreographic writing of contemporary dance, up to the research in partnering.
Credits
Choreography: Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Lia Claudia Latini
Performers: Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Lia Claudia Latini
Music: Hvert Stefnir / Sigur Ros
Production: Compagnia Bellanda
LOCA
by Albert Hernández
About the choreography LOCA
LOCA is a duet where the performers are in dialogue about madness. The piece, one of his first works with his dance company La Venidera, is based on contemporary Spanish dance movement, rooted in the earth, purely honest and free of prejudice. Visceral, intuitive and active listening responses were the three core concepts we worked on during the creative process of the piece, based on the music and the voice of Silvia Pérez Cruz. “Finding the ecstasy of two bodies that feed into each other in the pure desire to free themselves.”
About the choreographer
Albert Hernández graduated from Conservatorio IT Dansa.. In 2014 he expanded his studies in New York after winning a scholarship at the Peridance Contemporary Dance Center and in 2015 he received a scholarship at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Mariemma. In 2016 Albert joined Ballet Nacional de España and in 2022 he was promoted to Principal Dancer. In 2019 he premiered his first show and that same year he won the Choreography First Prize at the Madrid Choreography Contest with LOCA. He is currently artistic director and choreographer of his own dance company La Venidera.
Credits
Choreography: Albert Hernández
Performers: Irene Tena and Andrea Antó
Music: “Loca” – Silvia Pérez Cruz
Production: La Venidera
BOJ
by Urvil Shah & Chetan Solanki
About the choreography BOJ
BOJ in Hindi means ‘burden’. It is an interplay into the emotional journey of the conversations and confrontations one has from within. What happens when one is given a life they are unable to choose? A sense of responsibility one did not account for? A never ending yet recurring story of realisation, fight and acceptance of a burdened fate. Growing up in India, a country so rich in culture, religion, and history. To accept one’s destiny rather than be a charioteer of it, was a normality. It made us curious to explore the state of such a majority and to discover the paths their minds and body would encounter at a certain moment in time.
About the choreographers
Urvil Shah and Chetan Solanki first met in 2013 in Mumbai. Together, they have trained, danced and performed in over 12 countries across the world. Their partnership first started in 2016 during their tenure at Navdhara India Dance Theatre Company (NIDT) where they started aligning their ideas, language of movement, and artistry.
Coming from the same ideology, culture and beliefs, yet having different journeys nationally and internationally, they produce a unique combination of eastern and western ideas from which they derive inspiration to create. They have worked with companies like Club Guy & Roni and Navdhara India Dance Theatre (NIDT) together, and MiR Dance Company and Zawirowania individually.
Credits
Choreography: Urvil Shah & Chetan Solanki
Performers: Urvil Shah & Chetan Solanki
Music: Timber: Part III by Slagwerk Den Haag
Clay
by Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum
About the choreography Clay
Clay is a dance theater piece that was born from personal discord. With a focus on breaking conventional roles and challenging what it means to coexist. Dealing with the many forms of oppression, including physical, emotional, and psychological turmoil, as well as exploitation and isolation. The mental aspect of feeling trapped, powerless, and alone, unable to escape – specifically in the confines of a familiar setting. This work draws inspiration from myth and folklore, presenting the tale through the lens of another world. Clay portrays two beings set in a grim situation, trying to bring light to the darkening world around them. A piece born out of physical limitation. Clay is a bittersweet escape into imagination, beyond logic and reason, unbound by time.
About the choreographers
Rebecca Laufer was born in the United States and received her Bachelor’s degree from Point Park Conservatory. Next to performing her own works, she performed with the Israeli Opera under the direction and choreography of Itzik Galili, the Cameri Theatre with Andrea Martini, Olivier Fredj at La Monnaie de Munt and is currently dancing with Avshalom Pollak dance theater.
Mats van Rossum, born in the Netherlands, received his Bachelors at the Amsterdam School of Arts. Working as a dancer he worked and performed the works of choreographers and theater makers such as Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, Itzik Galili, and Jason Danino Holt. Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum founded their artistic collaboration in 2018, in Tel Aviv. Their work has been shown throughout Israel, Europe and the United States.
Credits
Choreography: Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum
Performers: Rebecca Laufer and Mats van Rossum
Music: Original Music by Mats van Rossum and Thomas Walschot. ‘Sundays’ FJK
Premiere lighting: Nadav Barnea
MEGASTRUCTURE
by Isaiah Wilson and Sarah Baltzinger
About the choreography MEGASTRUCTURE
MEGASTRUCTURE draws with curiosity the trajectory of two bodies in constant cohabitation. A piece themed around intimacy whose dance material forms strange and perilous associations. This duo is like a puzzle whose pieces are constantly being dismantled, searched for, tested and reinvented. MEGASTRUCTURE is a choreographic piece without sound composition, without decor, whose natural musicality is generated by the bodies on stage in a percussive energy.
About the choreographers
Sarah Baltzinger worked as a performer for various choreographers in Europe, such as Bernard Baumgarten, Peter Mika, Helder Seabra and Wayne Parsons. At the same time, she developed her own choreographic work based on a research about pupeteering and dislocated body. She works actively with Isaiah in various projects.
Isaiah Wilson completed his secondary education at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers and proceeded dance at Codarts Rotterdam. He did his internship with the company ICK Amsterdam. He later worked with Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company. Today, he collaborates with Sarah and works as an independent interdisciplinary artist.
Credits
Choreography: Isaiah Wilson and Sarah Baltzinger
Performers: Isaiah Wilson and Sarah Baltzinger
until again
by Maria Chiara de’ Nobili & Alexander Miller
About the choreography until again
until again wants to emphasise that sharing loneliness, eternal waiting, struggles, and the journey of life with a friend is what can possibly turn our cries into laughter and our loneliness into love.
About the choreographers
Miller de Nobili is the label for the joint work of Maria Chiara de’ Nobili and Alexander Miller. Both graduated from the M.A. Choreography at Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden. MdN combines urban and contemporary dance, breaking, and acting methods. Their full-length work PACK premiered in 2021 at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts. After its successful debut, PACK was presented at the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022. In 2022, MdN produced clouds for tomorrow. The work was invited to the Tanzplattform Bern, PACT Zollverein, among others. In November 2022, MdN premiered their full-length production Don’t you dare! co-produced by HELLERAU. In 2023, MdN will create for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam.
Credits
Choreography: Maria Chiara de’ Nobili & Alexander Miller
In collaboration with dancer: Nam Tran Xuan
Dramaturgy: Maria Chiara de’ Nobili
Music composition: Gábor Halász
Light design: Geohwan Ju
Should Life Be Busy?
by Li Chen Li and Shi Feiyang
About the choreography Should Life Be Busy?
This dance piece depicts the true emotions of Li Chen and Shi Feiyang. It portrays how these two individuals meet, strive towards their ideal, and support each other when faced with pressure. In a moment of realisation, they discover the beauty in cherishing the present joy, rendering the notion of success unimportant.
About the choreographers
Li Chen and Shi Feiyang, both natives of Hubei Province, met in Beijing in 2017. Li was admitted to the Beijing Dance Academy, while Shi joined the Beijing Modern Dance Company after graduating from Minzu University of China. The two pursue their dreams together in Beijing. Recently, they have created dance theater productions and dance film productions in China, which have won several awards. Currently, Li is developing a physical movement technology and he is guiding other dancers to set up a company for themselves.
Credits
Choreography: Li Chen and Shi Feiyang
Performers: Li Chen and Shi Feiyang
RE.
by Nadine Gerspacher & Arias Fernández
About the choreography RE.
The duett RE. presses the RE-Set button and offers the possibility of a new beginning. A heavily minimalistic composition and imagery drawing attention to detail which brings emotional expression to the fore. “En la vida, cada final es sólo el princípio de otra historía.” This duet mixes Krump with contemporary dance.
About the choreographers
Nadine Gerspacher is a freelance dancer, choreographer & artistic director of her own company, as well as from Freezone Barcelona alongside Nico Ricchini. She’s been working internationally for the past twenty years, for instance alongside Dave St. Pierre Company Montréal & Cirque du Soleil. She has been a guest choreographer in many companies and universities and received the Isadora Award in 2016 for her exceptional achievements in contemporary dance. As a choreographer she conceives and brings to life characters inhabiting imaginative worlds of absurdity, poetry, and unfiltered physicality.
Arias Fernández is a freelance dancer, teacher and choreographer specializing in the Krump dance style. In 2015 he danced in the Cirque du Soleil project HEART under the choreographic direction of Nadine Gerspacher. He is co-founder of the projects Aina & Arias, Bioshock and The Jokerz Company as well as founder and leader of the project OM RASA, a training method based on several disciplines. His main focus is on connecting different disciplines: krump, parkour, contemporary dance, partnering and dance theater. Arias is an international figure in the krump community, judge, organizer and lecturer at international workshops worldwide.
Credits
Choreography: Nadine Gerspacher & Arias Fernández
Performers: Nadine Gerspacher & Arias Fernández
Music composed by: Josep Maria Baldomà
Dramaturgy: Anna Castells
Coaching: Ombline Huvelle
Light Design: Oli Lorenz and Zak Macro
Self-hate
by Chen Yi En
About the choreography Self-hate
Self-hate is a dance creation that draws inspiration from depression, depicting the emotional lows that everyone may experience, and it is also linked to the life experiences of the choreographer’s mother. We have developed the dance method of ‘Pop and Hold’ to challenge the skillful transformation of body posture and emotions, evoking profound imagery and dialogues through the work in space. Against the backdrop of the increasing focus on mental and physical well-being in the international arts and culture industry, we hope that with this piece, we can care for the world and continue to explore the authentic relationship between creation, dance, and performers.
About the choreographer
Chen Yi En, a choreographer and performer, completed his dance partnership with Cloud Gate 2 in 2018. Supported by Taiwan Ministry of Culture, he resided in Paris at Cité internationale des arts, won the third place at Poland’s Gdański Festiwal Tańca solo dance contest. In 2019, he was honored with the Yokohama Dance Collection Judge’s Encouragement Prize and began promoting contemporary dance with Les Petites Choses Production. Chen embraces interdisciplinary collaborations, believing dance transcends boundaries and impacts lives.
Credits
Choreography: Chen Yi En
Performers: Hung Pei Yu and Lin Hsiu Yu
Music: Louange à lÉternité de Jésus Basilique Saint-Denis by Olivier Messiaen
Light advice: Joanne Shyue
KEVIN
by Charlie Skuy
About the choreography KEVIN
KEVIN is a place where there is nothing but Kevins. Kevin is my vision of a dissonant human form, moving neither from nor towards, made of neither hope nor despair. A Kevin is something you become to leave our world, to join other Kevins – where nothing can hurt you and everything is fine. It is perfect and quiet. Kevin is not one person, but a universe.
About the choreographer
Charlie Skuy is a choreographer, dancer, and performer from Toronto, Canada. He began working in choreography in 2014 and has continued creating while dancing with NDT (Nederlands Dans Theater) since 2018, where he has choreographed five works for SWITCH by NDT. In his artistic practice, Charlie has also self-directed and produced numerous dance films and has recently been awarded in CINEDANS ’23. He was commissioned to create for Assemblée Internationale ’17, was a finalist in the Copenhagen International Choreography Competition 2021, and is currently working on a full-length work for Origen Festival (Switzerland).
Credits
Choreography: Charlie Skuy
Performers: Charlie Skuy and Emmitt Cawley
Sound composition: Charlie Skuy and an excerpt from Woodwind and Brass by Greta Eacott
Aura
by Tang Chenglong
About the choreography Aura
To see. To sense. To feel. To live. And finally, to be. A new experimental duet by Tang Chenglong, Aura features two of the most talented young Chinese artists of this generation – Shi Renqi and Bai Yuhao. Shot originally as a dance film, the piece was created deliberately half in a completely black studio and half by open ocean. Aura hopes to ask the fundamental question of existentialism: who are we? Why are we here? Can you see us?
About the choreographer
Tang Chenglong is a professional choreographer and director based in China. His past experience ranges from large-scale stage productions to experimental films. His dance films, Gatha and L’Appat, were awarded at many festivals around the world, including San Francisco Dance Film Festival, DesArts//DesCinés in France and the Academy-qualifying, Flatpack film festival. Tang’s most recent work is the dance film Aura.
Credits
Choreography: Tang Chenglong
Performers: Shi Renqi and Bai Yuhao
