Redefining the Stature of Choreography

A Rose for Dance: Why This New Prize Matters

By Cynthia Dragoni

When it comes to the world’s most celebrated art prizes, literature has the Booker. Visual art has the Turner. Film has Cannes and the Oscars. But what about dance? For too long, choreography has thrived behind the curtain—respected, yes (to a degree), but rarely spotlighted with the same institutional fanfare. That changed this year, when London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre introduced the Rose International Dance Prize, a biannual award with the potential to transform how dance is seen, funded, and valued.

In its inaugural edition, the Rose Prize announced not only one but two major awards: a £40,000 main prize for established choreographers and the Bloom Prize, a £15,000 award for emerging talent. It’s a bold move—and a welcome one. At its core, the prize is an investment in choreography’s future, creating space for artists to take risks, sustain their practice, and reach broader audiences.

This year’s winners were refreshingly diverse in both voice and vision. The main prize went to Greek choreographer Christos Papadopoulos for LARSEN C, a stark and poetic exploration of melting glaciers and environmental collapse. Israeli artist Stav Struz Boutrous took the Bloom Prize for Sepia, a work layered with personal history, ancestral memory, and striking contemporary movement.

But the shortlist was just as compelling. Among the finalists: Brazil’s Lia Rodrigues, whose Encantado emerged from the heart of Rio’s favelas; and Kyle Abraham, the acclaimed American choreographer blending social commentary with groove and grace in An Untitled Love.

What’s particularly noteworthy is the Rose Prize’s global and inclusive scope. It’s not trying to define dance by a narrow standard—it’s trying to open the lens. Ballet, contemporary, multidisciplinary, culturally rooted forms—they’re all welcome. That breadth reflects the world we live in, where choreography can just as easily reference street styles and folklore as it can neoclassical lines.

Even more exciting: the prize isn’t confined to the proscenium. A behind-the-scenes documentary, Inside the Rose International Dance Prize 2025, was released on Marquee TV, giving audiences a rare, intimate look at how choreography is made. It’s a smart move—inviting the public into the creative process, demystifying the rehearsal room, and drawing new viewers into the art form.

Funded by an anonymous donor for the next twenty years, the Rose Prize isn’t just an award. It’s infrastructure. It’s long-term thinking. And in a field where artists often struggle to access sustainable support, it sends a powerful message: choreography matters. Not just on opening night, but in the cultural imagination.

In giving dance the kind of platform usually reserved for other disciplines, the Rose Prize is doing something radical: it’s saying that choreography deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great art forms of our time. It’s about time.

If you want to see all the artists nominated for the prize and get insights into their work on Marquee TV you can subscribe here.

WHAT’S ONSTAGE? 2 Swan Lakes

So many great things to see this summer, we’ll do a longer breakdown in another dispatch but first I want to talk about 2 VERY SPECIAL Swan Lakes:

1. Gillian Murphy, Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theater is retiring after 29 YEARS onstage. Murphy has become an icon—a towering figure in the company, inspiring 3 generations of dancers and she’ll have her FINAL performance in the dual role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake on Friday July 18th in New York. You can read more about her prolific career and get tickets here.

   Retirement performances, especially for dancers of her stature are always really emotional affairs, the curtain calls will have at least as much drama as the show and I highly recommend witnessing this one.

2. Swan Lake in the round is one of the most spectacular ballet performances I’ve ever seen. The 2nd act, which is already a revelation—in this mirrored and kaleidoscopically expanded version absorbs and reflects centuries worth of beauty.

   Derek Dean’s production for English National Ballet is a representative of the next waves of development in ballet, which will have to do with the experiential quality of the performance and the integration of technology rather than leaning on the specific musings and step reorganizations of any one choreographer.

You can see it live in June casting and dates here.

If you can’t get to a show you can see it in full on Marquee TV here.

Want to learn more about Swan Lake??

Here’s a video I made on YouTube with some amazing footage courtesy of Marquee TV and some history and fun facts.