Salavisa European Dance Award

SEDA – Salavisa European Dance Award is a new European dance award initiated by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in collaboration with seven leading European cultural institutions, including Dansehallerne.

Created in 2023 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to honour the legacy of the Portuguese dancer, teacher and artistic director Jorge Salavisa (1939–2020), the Salavisa European Dance Award (SEDA) will be attributed to artists from all around the world who demonstrate talent or special qualities that deserve to be better known beyond their national borders.

This award, which provides a sum of €150,000 in prize money, hopes to establish itself as an incentive for artists with artistic maturity who do not fall within a strict age category and are still little known on the European circuit due to their artistic discourse or their social and cultural background.


In addition to Dansehallerne, the other partners are as follows:

  • ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival (Vienna, Austria)
  • KVS (Brussels, Belgium)
  • Maison de la Danse/Biennale de la Danse (Lyon, France)
  • Joint Adventures (Munich, Germany)
  • Sadler’s Wells (London, United Kingdom)

The Kees Eijrond Foundation, whose founder was a great friend of Jorge Salavisa and a promoter of SEDA, is also a partner.

SEDA partners

Nomination Process

The selection process for nominees for the Salavisa European Dance Award occurs every two years and involves several key steps. For the initial longlist of 21 candidates, each partner institution together with its associated expert selects and proposes three artists. From that list a Nomination Committee is tasked with selecting five candidates for the award. This committee consists of seven voting members, each representing a partner institution, along with a non-voting chair.

The five nominated artists are publicly announced and subsequently evaluated by an independent jury comprising three members of different nationalities. This jury holds the responsibility of selecting the award winner.

The Five Nominees

  • Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco)
  • Catarina Miranda (Portugal)
  • Dalila Belaza (Algeria/France)
  • Dorothée Munyaneza (Rwanda/UK/France)
  • Idio Chichava (Mozambique)

The shortlist of five artists nominated for the SEDA Award is the outcome of a selection process that entailed deliberation and voting by a Nomination Committee comprised of representatives from each partner institution.

Jury

Three independent dance experts are invited to form the jury for each edition of SEDA. For the first edition in 2024 the members of the jury are:

  • Mette Ingvartsen (Denmark)
  • Nayse López (Brazil)
  • Fu Kuen, Tang (Singapur)

The First SEDA Award Show

The first award ceremony will take place on November 27, 2024 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal.