The international Jury of the 41st Infant, the International Festival of Alternative and New Theatre, consisting of: Slobodan Savić, a theatre critic, Chairman, and the members Sofija Ristevska, theatre director and Boris Todorović, theatre director, in the session held on 2nd July 2014, has unanimously reached the following decisions:
3rd The Award for Particular Expressivity in the Border Areas between the Theatre and Other Arts, or creativity in the widest sense, is given to the play
STANDARDS, by “Campagnie dernière minute”, France, concept and choreography: Pierre Rigal
The play Standards is a well-coordinated, harmonious, polyphonic stage structure that finds its origin and foundation in re-shaping and stylisation of hip-hop standards, and thematises and re-examines the fundamental dilemmas and doubts of contemporary society. It focuses on the position of an individual, groups and/or minorities in today's turbulent post-colonial world, as much as on the issues of individual and national identity in multicultural and multi-ethnic communities. The dissolution, examination and deconstruction of the limited space and meaning of the national flag as the central symbol and standard gives rise for a re-examination, as well as playing with all the other standards too, including the theatre, that is, dance-performing arts.
2nd The Award for the Most Original Exploration of One Segment of Theatrical Language is given to the play
RISING, by the Akash Odedra Company, Great Britain.
Although of a fragile, frail constitution, Akash Odedra emanates from the stage grandiose, intoxicating, powerful energy that, in the viewer's reception, condenses into a pure, disinterested, aesthetic, sensory experience. He demonstrates a dancer's virtuosity and precision, a supreme mastery of the body and movement, with a subtle sense of detail and minimalist theatrical expression. Through four choreographic etudes, or variations on the classical dance patterns, Odedra investigates, reveals and finds new bordering expressive possibilities of the human body. In this way, in an era of technological superiority and domination of cyber reality, this dedicated dancer reaffirms the fact that only that which is organic in its origin, be it human or not, is truly authentic and creative. The expressive body language is complemented and further emphasised by a sophisticated design of light and sound.
1st The main prize for the Most Successful Experiment, a performance as a whole, is given to the play
OPEN SOURCE by the Maria Kong Company, Israel, choreography by Talia Landa and the Mary Kong team.
The play OPEN SOURCE is brimming with an erotic charge, sensuality, desire, as well as dilemmas of a young woman and her partners on the eve of the so-called big day. It is a compact, rounded dramatic whole, whose clear and easily readable narrative derives primarily from emotion-filled dance where blend the shades of eruptive energies of suppressed feelings, longings, fears and daydreams. With an exquisite sense of humour and even irony, in a time devoid of emotions and elementary morality, the play still celebrates a sincere, true love and pure feelings. The play OPEN SOURCE is a dramaturgically potent, thematically and expressively coherent, dance-stage score, but also an open form for reading in and reading out new, potential meanings and stage codes.
Finally, but this time as theatre professionals and devotees, the Jury members express their strong support for INFANT as well as its organisers and operative implementers in their noble intention to persevere, even if it is only on the wings of pure enthusiasm, in the preservation and keeping the continuity of this festival as one of the few that has, in the field of revealing the new and supporting the alternative, long established itself and positioned in this part of theatrical Europe. The members of the Jury think that INFANT is equally necessary for the theatre and theatre workers and lovers, especially those outside of the mainstream, as it is for Novi Sad and Serbia, confident that they do not stand alone in this opinion.
Slobodan Savić, Chairman
Sofija Ristevska
Boris Todorović
Novi Sad, 02.07.2014