The winner of the BNG Dance Prize is filmmaker, dancer and choreographer Melisa Diktaş. This was announced last Thursday, 17 April, at the Korzo theatre and creative centre. Melisa impressed the jury with her work ‘Dat Wat Ontembaar Is' (That Which Is Untameable). By winning the BNG Dance Prize Melisa will be able to tour eight theatres with this performance under the DansClick format. This tour represents a sum of € 50,000.
The jury sees ‘Dat Wat Ontembaar Is’ as a work full of authentic power and, at the same time, a harbinger of a distinctive creative talent that will develop even further in the coming years. The performance is hyper-lived and authentic. Melisa Diktaş creates her own world that you immediately recognise as hers. She unabashedly exposes her feelings, dictates the stage and demands attention. What she has to say must be said, must be shared.
The jury is curious to see how this performance will be developed into a longer version and how this language will translate to other bodies. The jury has already seen fragments of group processes, which makes them curious to see more! The jury hopes that the BNG Dance Prize 2025 – in addition to making this special performance visible – will also be a boost to open up connections and opportunities for special future work. The decisiveness you feel in her choreography and see in her dance language gives the impression that she will continue and develop her further creative work with verve.
Melisa developed her solo performance as artist in residence at interdisciplinary hip hop and urban production house RIGHTABOUTNOW INC., under the guidance of Marjorie Boston and Maarten van Hinte and with thanks to Dansdagen Haarlem. Melisa is part of the new creators' scheme with ICK Dans Amsterdam and Cinedans as collaboration partners. She participated in the Fringe Festival Amsterdam and won the Fringe at Best Awards in 2024 for the same performance.
Melisa Diktaş is a dancer of Kurdish/Indonesian descent, born in the Netherlands. She works primarily as a dancer in theatres for various productions, companies, choreographers, poets and events. After graduating from the Lucia Marthas Institute for Performing Arts dance academy, she had the opportunity to continuously explore and learn in the field, gaining a wealth of experience. Her solo performances are based on her own movement style and her beliefs from her perspective on the world. Melisa is a creator whose starting point is the power of origin. 'Everything that moves dances'. That which connects us but also sets us against each other. Her work as a choreographer can also be seen in Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Winning the prize means that ‘Dat Wat Ontembaar Is’, together with the duet Antibodies by Korzomaker Constantin Trommlitz, will go on tour in the DansClick 27 format. The performance will be accompanied by video portraits and after the show, the audience will have the opportunity to talk to the creators/dancers. The Après Danse is an essential part of DansClick, bringing creators and audiences together to discuss dance. DansClick is a unique touring model that connects a new generation of choreographers with potential dance audiences and programmers from various theatres in the Netherlands.
The BNG Dance Prize is awarded annually by the BNG Culture Fund with the aim of encouraging young Dutch talent to realise their productions and offering talented choreographers with national and even international potential an important step forward in their careers. The fund does this in collaboration with Korzo, the house for movement in The Hague and producer of DansClick.
The prize is awarded by an independent jury chaired by choreographer and former BNG Dance Prize winner Mohamed Yusuf Boss. The other jury members are Marc Maris (Dance Programmer at Korzo), Lisa Reinheimer (Artistic Director of Dansateliers), Janneke Schmeitz (Dance Programmer at Parkstad Limburg Theaters and Programmer and Festival Coordinator at the schrit_tmacher festival) and Susanne Visser (Head of Programming and Communication at Cultuurhuis De Klinker).
Photo: Michel Groen
Video: NPO / IGHTABOUTNOW INC.
