On Saturday, 17 August, dancer Miřenka Čechová of the Tantehorse company was named the winner of a Herald Angel award at a gala ceremony held as part of the Edinburgh Theatre Festival. Just one week before a Herald Angel award was given to Czech dancer Markéta Vacovská and Czech singer Lenka Dusilová for their impressive performances in One Step Before the Fall by the Spitfire Company & Damúza. The Herald newspaper traditionally hands out this award four times over the course of the August festivals in Edinburgh and the Herald’s critics select the winners out of the more than 24,000 artists appearing not just at the Fringe, but also at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Jazz & Blues Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The competition is thus enormous in terms of the sheer number and quality of projects. Critics praised Miřenka Čechová’s bold choice of theme and the dance-documentary approach of the production based on the true stories of transsexual and transgender people. Just one week before a Herald Angel award was given to Czech dancer Markéta Vacovská and Czech singer Lenka Dusilová for their performances in One Step Before the Fall by the Spitfire Company & Damúza. Besides the award from the Herald, this production is also nominated for the Total Theatre Award, the most prestigious award handed out at the Fringe, the winner of which will be named at the close of the festival.
Two Herald Angel awards and a nomination for a Total Theatre Award are clear signs of the success of the Czech Dance Showcase. Three Czech companies are appearing at this three-week showcase of contemporary Czech theatre in Edinburgh. Alongside Tantehorse and Spitfire Company, the third is the foursome of dancers that make up VerTeDance with its outstanding production What Is the Weight of Your Desire?
All three companies have been met with positive responses in Edinburgh from critics in the British media. The awards and the reviews from the Fringe may help Czech companies to obtain more engagements abroad and will certainly also increase the awareness among professionals of the high-quality contemporary dance and theatre scene that exists in the Czech Republic.
Besides performances, the Czech Dance Showcase also included a professional presentation on Czech dance and theatre, which was prepared for professionals and the media by the Czech Centre in London, the Nová síť organisation, and the Arts and Theatre Institute. Source: czechdance.info
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species