Salavisa European Dance Award (SEDA) 2026 finalists announced!
Five outstanding finalists have now been selected for Europe’s landmark dance award, recognising artists from around the world for their exceptional talent and unique artistic voices.
Chiara Bersani (Italy), Dan Daw (Australia), Jefta van Dinther (Netherlands/Sweden), Lukas Avendaño (Mexico) and Mamela Nyamza (South Africa) have been selected as finalists by the Nomination Committee, composed of one representative from each of the nine European institutions behind SEDA – Dansehallerne (Denmark), Fondazione Fabbrica Europa per le arti contemporanee ETS (Italy), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal), Joint Adventures (Germany), KVS (Belgium), Maison de la Danse/Biennale de la Danse (France), Mercat de les Flors (Spain), Sadler’s Wells (United Kingdom) and Tanzquartier Wien (Austria).
Together, the five artists represent a remarkable breadth of perspectives and practices from across the global dance field.
Their work will now be evaluated by an independent jury of three renowned dance experts – Ilgaz Gurur Ertem, La Ribot and River Lin.
The recipient of the €150,000 award will be announced in November at a ceremony hosted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
The finalists
Performing artist, activist and choreographer working to advance accessibility for disabled artists in the performing arts. Her work explores the politics of the body and challenges dominant ideas of virtuosity and productivity through practices of duration, attention and radical presence. Co-founder of Al.Di.Qua.Artists, award-winning maker, co-curator at Spazio Kor (2025-2026), guest curator of Bastards Festival 2025, and associate artist at Triennale Milano Teatro (2025-2027).
Performing artist, choreographer, anthropologist and writer whose practice brings together dance, ritual, ethnography and activism. Drawing on muxeidad – a Zapotec social and gender system that predates colonial binaries – his work explores sexuality, indigeneity and power. Presented widely in Mexico and internationally, his artistic and activist work also addresses the ongoing crisis of disappearance and violence in the Americas.
Dutch-Swedish choreographer, dancer and teacher whose work explores what it means to be human in relation to society, community, environment and other forms of life. His practice combines immersive choreographic worlds with a strong commitment to accessibility and diversity in contemporary dance. He teaches internationally and has held key roles at Uniarts Stockholm and HZT Berlin.
Artist, performer and producer, and founder of the UK-based, disabled-led company Dan Daw Creative Projects. His work spans dance, theatre and activism, creating accessible international touring productions while advocating for systemic change for d/Deaf and disabled artists and audiences. An Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, he has collaborated widely as a performer, curator and co-curator.
Dancer, teacher, choreographer and activist whose work is shaped by a deep engagement with body politics, feminism and decolonial critique. Trained in South Africa and at the Alvin Ailey School in New York, she is the founder of Mamela Artistic Movement, supporting marginalized dance artists. Her award-winning practice challenges the Western canon and reclaims space for black, queer and female bodies.
The jury
Three independent dance experts form the jury for each edition of SEDA. For 2026, the members of the jury are:
As an interdisciplinary scholar, sociologist, curator, and educator in the field of somatic movement and dance, Ilgaz Gurur Ertem explores the intersections between the arts, social theory, and political thought. Her writings address contemporary dance and performance, cultural and curatorial politics, European artistic networks, and the intersections between social theory and bodily and embodied practices.
Choreographer, dancer and artist. Her work, which emerged at the end of Spain’s democratic transition in the 1980s, has profoundly changed the field of contemporary dance. She challenges the frameworks and formats of spaces, freely appropriating the vocabularies of theatre, the visual arts, performance, cinema and video in order to displace the conceptual landscape of choreography.
Paris-based Taiwanese artist and curator, River Lin is dedicated to performance and works with live art, dance, and queer culture. His curatorial work focuses on community engagement, the production of intra-Asian knowledge, the creation of cultural infrastructures, and the queerisation of institutional agendas.
About SEDA
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.
The Kees Eijrond Foundation, whose founder was a great friend of Jorge Salavisa and a promoter of SEDA, is also a partner.
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 24 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 nine 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 winners of the first SEDA Award 2024
The inaugural award ceremony took place on 27 November 2024 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, where Dorothée Munyaneza and Idio Chichava were announced as joint first prize winners.
