Salavisa European Dance Award Ceremony

Created in 2023 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to honour the legacy of Jorge Salavisa, dancer and artistic director of the Ballet Gulbenkian (1977-1996), the first SEDA will be granted to one of the five finalists: Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco), Catarina Miranda (Portugal), Dalila Belaza (France/Algeria), Dorothée Munyaneza (UK/Rwanda) and Idio Chichava (Mozambique).

At the beginning of the ceremony, the Companhia Nacional de Bailado interprets Le Chef d’Orchestre, by Paulo Ribeiro, a work dedicated to Jorge Salavisa which the choreographer created for twenty dancers from the Companhia Nacional de Bailado.

A conductor does not conduct alone; he or she is permeable to the proposals of the musicians, suggesting, receiving and opposing. Faithful custodians of a higher work entrusted to them, conductors negotiate their capacity for transcendence each and every second. This is where their path crosses with dance and those that perform it. The body, the bodies, are those of twenty performers, male and female, who rigorously execute scores based on the composer Shostakovich for a profusion of different, but complicit, musical registers. Twenty conductors for various imaginary orchestras, with a single score. This is the beginning of the choreography that moves from chef d’orchestre to corps d’orchestre.

Programme

Le Chef d’Orchestre, by Paulo Ribeiro
Companhia Nacional de Bailado

Welcome
António Feijó – President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Kees Eijrond – President of the Kees Eijrond Foundation and promotor of SEDA

Speech by the jury representative and announcement of the winner
Nayse López – Jury representative

Video about the winner and acceptance speech