The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation yesterday launched the Salavisa European Dance Award (SEDA), worth 150 thousand euros, to honor the dancer and choreographer Jorge Salavisa (1939-2020) and distinguish the talent of dance artists around the world.
The result of a partnership between Gulbenkian and six European cultural institutions, the award will be given every two years to dancers or choreographers from any part of the world, "who demonstrate that they have talent or special qualities that deserve to go beyond their national borders", according to the statement from Gulbenkian.
The award also involves the presentation of the laureate on the stages of cultural institutions within the partner network, according to the organization.
The biennial award ceremony will take place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, with the first edition taking place on November 27, 2024.
"This European dance award seeks to assert itself as an incentive for young artists, without a strictly defined age category and who are still barely visible on the European circuit due to their artistic discourse or their social and cultural origin", says the foundation.
Six institutions accompany the Gulbenkian Foundation in establishing the award, with an active role in nominating candidates and in the public presentation of their work: ImPulsTanz, Vienna (Austria), KVS, Brussels (Belgium), Dansehallerne, Copenhagen (Denmark), Maison de la Danse/Biennale de la Danse, Lyon (France), Joint Adventures, Munich (Germany), and Sadler's Wells, London (United Kingdom).
The foundation of Kees Eijrond, former general director of Companhia Rosas by choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, "a great friend of Jorge Salavisa and promoter" of SEDA, who settled in Lisbon, will also be a partner in the award.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation created Ballet Gulbenkian - active between 1965 and 2005 - a repertoire company featuring reference works of modern and contemporary dance.
It also promoted the ACARTE Meetings, within the scope of the Animation, Artistic Creation and Education through Art Service, from 1987 to 2000, an international festival of performing arts that hosted and co-produced emblematic works of the so-called new European dance and whose impact was decisive for the affirmation of independent dance in Portugal.
Created in 1956, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation regularly awards training grants, support for creation, reflection and research and support for the internationalization of artists and their works.
Born in 1939, Jorge Salavisa began his dance studies with Anna Mascolo, having continued his training and career in Paris and London. He worked with big names in world ballet, such as Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. Before returning to Portugal, in 1977, at the invitation of Gulbenkian, Jorge Salavisa worked with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, the Ballet National Populaire, the Paris Ballet and the London Festival Ballet, the company where he was the first foreigner.
In addition to being artistic director of the Gulbenkian Ballet, Salavisa was also a teacher in several cities in the United States, at the National Conservatory Dance School and founding teacher at PARTS (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios), in Belgium.
Considered one of the most influential cultural programmers in the country, he was responsible for the dance area of Lisbon '94 - European Capital of Culture, director of the National Ballet Company (CNB), director of the Municipal Theater of São Luiz, in Lisbon, and president of the board of directors of Opart - Artistic Production Organization, which oversees the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos and the CNB.
Source: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation