Choreographer Giulio D'Anna, graduate of the School for New Dance Development(School voor Nieuwe Dansontwikkeling, SNDO) in 2009, received the Prize of the Dutch Dance Festival 2013 (Prijs van de Nederlandse Dansdagen 2013) in Maastricht on 4 October. Guido received the prize from the councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Maastricht, Jacques Costongs. The prize includes €12,000 to be used for a new work.

In addition, the winner receives both artistic and management advice. The nominees for the field of dance were Giulio D'Anna, Cecilia Moisio (graduate of the Jazz and Musical Dance study programme at the Amsterdam School of the Arts in 2001) and Melissa Ellberger. The jury was moved by the inspiring way in which the three nominees presented their concepts. All of the plans were distinct and uncompromising, and demonstrated a strong social engagement.

From the jury report:
...Giulio D ’Anna took the Italian word ‘r-esistere’ as starting point. This word combines ‘to exist’ and ‘to resist’. He talked about personal and political resistance as an important source of movement and progress. Giulio made an impression with a well thought-out plan that is able to evoke a layered experience; a plan that touches on current events and that deals with a universal human force at the same time. The choreographer places the small and vulnerable elements of humans in a broader context and promises to sweep away, and simultaneously stimulate, the audience with this new work...

About Giulio D’Anna
Giulio D’Anna (1980, Italy) studied medicine, and underwent training in both classical dance and modern jazz and theatre in Italy. His fascination for modern dance brought him to the Netherlands, where he studied at the SNDO, which he finished in 2009. In 2011, D’Anna won the Premio Equilibrio Roma, an Italian incentive prize for young choreographers. The production Parkin’son (2012), in which D’Anna appeared on stage with this father, saw him break through to a wider audience. This production was awarded the Dioraphte Dance Prize by an international jury during the Dutch Dance Festival in 2012. His work  ‘O O O O O O O O’ received its première during the Festival de Keuze in Rotterdam.

Background to prize
The Prize of the Dutch Dance Festival Maastricht was established together with the municipality of Maastricht, because the Dutch Dance Festival attaches great importance to the development of young talent. It is a national prize for young, promising and special choreographers who have already executed a number of eye-catching projects on the professional circuit, but have not yet received a structural grant.

The nominated choreographers were invited to make a plan for a new work and present it to a committee, which this year comprised of Jacques Costongs, councillor for Culture of the municipality of Maastricht, Ton Smeets and Joh Hoen of Stichting Cultuur en Bedrijf Maastricht (Maastricht Foundation for Culture and Entrepreneurship), Jan van Opstal, choreographer and lecturer at Maastricht Theatre Academy, Branko Popovic, artistic director Fashionclash and Peggy Olislaegers, director Dutch Dance Festival. The new work will receive its première during the next edition of the Dutch Dance Festival.

Former winners of the prize include Monique Duurvoorts, Joost Vrouenraets, Erik Kaiel, Muhanad Rasheed, Joeri Dubbe and Alida Dors.