NDT 2 presents The beauty of it all, striking the ultimate balance between honoring NDT’s legacy and its rich repertoire, while creating space for new artistic voices that provide the company with surprising perspectives. On tour from March 14 until May 2.
The new NDT 1 performance Do Not Run Fly premieres on Thursday May 16. To be seen until June 8.
NDT 2 dancer Sophie Whittome has been nominated for a Piket Art Prize in the Dance category! The three winners for each discipline will be announced in November. The jury praises Sophie’s natural, powerful appearance on stage.
Photo: Sacha Grootjans
The nine nominees for the tenth edition of the Piket Art Prizes, the prize for young, promising artists in the fields of painting, dance and theater, were announced Tuesday, June 27. A professional jury led by Amare director Jan Zoet selected Katarina Head, Menno Pasveer and Kamila Sipika (Painting category), Justin Brown, breakdance crew Heavy Hitters, Sophie Whittome (Dance category), Finn Borath & Boris de Klerk, Ensemble New Theater Workers (ENT) and David Westera (Drama category). This year’s award ceremony will take place on November 20 at Theater aan het Spui in The Hague. New in this anniversary year, is that all nominees will receive a cash prize.
“The nominations of the 2023 Piket Art Prizes send a multifaceted and colorful signal of how talented, diverse, experimental and innovative the broad arts and maker potential in The Hague is,” said director Marie Jeanne de Rooij of the Piket Art Prizes. Nominee Menno Pasveer (Painting) is honored. “This nomination is a huge boost and offers room for new possibilities.”
A professional jury selects which talent stands out among all those young artists who have a connection to The Hague. This year, the jury consists of chairman Jan Zoet, director of Amare in The Hague, Lea van der Vinde (Huygens’ Hofwijck and Huygens’ Swaensteyn), visual artist Joncquil de Vries, Amos Ben-Tal (dancer and choreographer OFFprojects), Erik Kaiel (dance collective Arch8), John de Weerd (Zaal 3 and the Parade) and Ellen Goemans (actress, teacher and mentor HKU Actors’ Training Program). Van der Vinde and De Vries on the Painting nominees: “All three are ‘real painters’ with a lot of potential who are still finding their individuality in these times when it is so often only about ‘likes.'”
Kaiel and Ben-Tal (expert jury Dance): “The trajectory to theater that the Heavy Hitters are on is special. They make themselves vulnerable. Justin Brown is very strong and charismatic. The different styles he uses blend seamlessly. Sophie Whittome of NDT 2 is completely natural on stage, even in the most extreme work.”
Finn Borath and Boris de Klerk are “innovative, daring, clever, good,” according to the Theater professional jury. David Westera is praised for his “universal style”. About ENT, the professional jury says. “They dedicate themselves enormously to people who have just graduated. They try to take out the competitive element and share instead.”
Per discipline (Painting, Dance and Theater) the professional jury selects three winners. They receive a cash prize of 8,000 euros an award made by an exceptional artist. Starting this year, the other nominees no longer go home empty-handed. They will each receive 2,000 euros and an award.
Since 2014, the Piket Art Prizes have been awarded to young artists who have a connection to The Hague, either because they have flourished there or because their work makes a stimulating contribution to The Hague’s cultural climate. Namesake Frederik Hendrik Piket (1927-2011), lawyer and member of the Upper House for the CHU (later CDA), was a great lover of art and culture. After his death, a foundation was created to annually encourage three promising, professional artists under the age of 30 with an award.
