Just for the record: "German Dance Award 2022" and “tanz 2022”

Sep 9

Sep 9 Just for the record: "German Dance Award 2022" and “tanz 2022”

Unfortunately the press is turning into a very manipulative “machine”. I feel the need to clarify once more what is a prize and what is just a nomination for one…

German Dance Award: Jury awards two main prizes this year

Marco Goecke and Christoph Winkler will each receive the German Dance Award 2022, while Reinhild Hoffmann and the association Aktion Tanz will be honored.

After an exciting review of the proposals submitted and the associated discussions within the jury on current developments in dance, the prize winners of t he German Dance Award 2022 were announced in the digital press conference on May 4th.

For the first time since its founding in 1983, the main prize will be awarded to two outstanding dance artists: the jury, chaired by Dr. Patricia Stöckemann, has decided to award Marco Goecke and Christoph Winkler each with the German Dance Prize 2022, endowed with 10,000 euros. In addition, the jury has decided to honor Reinhild Hoffmann with a lifetime achievement award, also endowed with 10,000 euros. The Aktion Tanz association will be honored with 5,000 euros for outstanding developments in dance.

The jury explained this unusual decision with the desire to better reflect the enormous diversity of dance, which is created both within the permanent ensembles at theaters as well as in the independent dance scene. The artistic and choreographic impact and significance of the award-winning artists for the German and international dance scene are outstanding.

The award ceremony and dance gala will take place on October 15, 2022 at the Aalto-Theater in Essen, Germany. The advance ticket sale starts on May 14, 2022.

To the German Critics Survey of the yearbook tanz 2022 just a few comments: On a much lesser scale and surprisingly contradicting the opinion of a great number of the Vienna’s spectators and customary “Ballet goers”, The Vienna State Ballet has received Award “nominations” by the, in majority not so widely international, German critics.

This critics’ “survey” featured in New Spaces, New Bodies, the 2022 yearbook of tanz magazine, came to the conclusion that The Vienna State Ballet, (somehow exaggeratedly) expressed as a “beacon of excellence” in the 2021/22 season, has been presenting outstanding Artistes alongside The Gauthier Dance at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Ballett Zürich and Nederlands Dans Theater.

My thoughts for today: The Viennese Company struggled, like every single other company in the whole world, through the past two years. There is nothing particularly exceptional in that.

I also believe but that things will be much harder to justify in the future when a normal “atmosphere/situation” has returned to our everyday life. Like with many other companies all over the world, there will be no more excuses for a bad House occupancy because of Covid-19.

Victor Cagnin in Death in Venice« ©Barbara Pálffy

The nominations by Austrian and German dance journalists were addressed to the Vienna State Ballet and its director Martin Schläpfer in the categories »Company of the Year«, »Most Interesting Choreographer« (is the word “interesting” meant as a compliment?), »Dancer of the Year« and »Online«:

A special award nomination went to the dancer Victor Cagning, who trained at the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy and joined the corps ballet of the Vienna State Ballet as of September 2021: his interpretation of the role of Tadzio in the production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice at the Volksoper Wien was so convincing that the yearbook 2022 of tanz magazine chose him as one of the »10 dancers with the best prospects« – »the start of a career as a tall danseur noble« (Andrea Amort).

Martin Schläpfer sees his work as director and chief choreographer of the Vienna State Ballet with the results of this year’s critics’ survey in a most gratifying way confirmed and looks forward with great expectations to the coming season, which will have its first two Première highlights next October with “Sleeping Beauty” (October 24th at the Vienna State Opera; choreography: Martin Schläpfer) and “Jolanthe and der Nussknacker” (October 9th, at the Vienna Volksoper; staging: Lotte de Beer/choreography: Andrey Kaydanovskiy).