The winner of the inaugural Rose International prize was announced on Saturday night. The new biennial competition with a £40,000 bounty for the victor is initially guaranteed to run for 10 editions, by which time it hopes to be on a par with the Booker or Turner prizes, boosting dance’s profile accordingly. It was Greek choreographer Christos Papadopoulos who took home the honour (and a cool Es Devlin-designed trophy) for his piece Larsen C, chosen by an eclectic judging panel, with Christopher Bannerman and Arlene Phillips from the dance world, musician PJ Harvey and poet Karthika Naïr. (There was also £15,000 awarded to an early-career choreographer in the Bloom prize, won by Stav Struz Boutrous.)
Papadopoulos is pretty much unknown in the UK, but a darling of the Greek dance scene who’s toured widely in Europe. Larsen C may have been the most divisive piece in the contest. The title refers to an Antarctic ice shelf, and the dance does indeed move at glacial pace, with small, repetitive movements that drove some viewers to distraction (it’s rare to hear a “boo” in a polite dance theatre). It was inspired, the choreographer has said, by how your perception of something can completely alter when the smallest element is changed. There’s an element of illusion that can’t help call to mind Papadopoulos’s compatriot Dimitris Papaioannou, as bodies disappear into the blackness of the stage and flashes of flesh appear, looking like truncated arms or extra limbs – the dancers’ feet in shadow making them seem as if they’re gliding soundlessly. There’s beautiful movement here, boneless limbs like drifting tentacles, as mysterious as the creatures in the depths of the Mariana Trench.
