Portuguese choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira and Brazilian Lia Rodrigues are finalists for the first edition of the 2025 Rose International Dance Prize, launched by the Saddler’s Wells theater, it was announced today in London.
Marco da Silva Ferreira was nominated for his work “Carcaça”, which was awarded the prize for Best Choreography by the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) in 2023.
Premiering in Porto in 2022, the production is described as an attempt to explore Portuguese identity through the intersection of folk dance and contemporary street and nightclub dance.
Marco Ferreira da Silva was born in 1986 in Santa Maria da Feira and graduated in physiotherapy, but didn’t pursue this profession, giving priority to the performing arts. In 2010, he won the television competition “Achas que Sabes Dançar”.
As a performer, he has worked with André Mesquita, Hofesh Shechter, Sylvia Rijmer, Tiago Guedes, Victor Hugo Pontes, Paulo Ribeiro and David Marques, among others.
In addition to Marco da Silva Ferreira, the other finalists in the Rose category, for established choreographers, are the Brazilian Lia Rodrigues, the American Kyle Abraham and the Greek Christos Papadopoulos.
In the Bloom category, open to emerging choreographers with a maximum of ten years’ experience, Israel’s Stav Struz Boutros, France’s Leïla Ka and Taiwan’s Wang Yeu-Kwn were selected as finalists.
All the finalists will perform their nominated choreographies at the Saddler’s Wells theater between January 29 and February 8, 2025, culminating in the announcement of the winners on February 10.
The winner of the Rose category will receive 40,000 pounds (47,000 euros at the current exchange rate) and the winner of the Bloom category will receive 15,000 pounds (18,000 euros).
The prize, which will be awarded biennially, was made possible thanks to a contribution from a patron, who remains anonymous, but chose the name Rose, said the artistic director of Saddler’s Wells, Alistair Spalding.
The financial donation guarantees 10 editions of the prize, which Spalding said he wants “to do for dance what the Turner Prize did for the visual arts or the Booker did for literature”.
In addition to a jury whose composition will be known in October, the public will also be able to designate their favorites through an electronic vote.
The finalists were chosen by a group of six people after an initial nomination by 14 international professionals of choreographers applying for the award with shows premiered between October 2021 and February 2023.
Spalding stressed today that the list of finalists reflects the internationalism of the professionals involved and also “the diversity of dance as an art”.
