On 18 July 2024, the nominees for the BNG Bank Circus Award 2024 were announced. From the 24 graduation acts from the two Dutch higher professional education circus programmes, the jury selected four that are in the running for the €7.500 prize.
According to the jury, Alice creates an innovative act within her discipline in which she gives the audience every opportunity to connect with her. An act that is also excellently performed. This combination results in a balancing act of control and vulnerability that feels like a metaphor for life.
The jury sees Clara as an outstanding artist with a very appealing stage presence. Her movements feel new and fresh for this discipline. In this choreography, she makes clever use of impressive technique.
According to the jury, Dimitri is a true performer with a great sense of scene creation. With his act, he succeeds in taking the audience into his reality, told in a wonderful combination of different disciplines with strong physical movements.
The jury sees Hedvig & Karin as engaging performers with strong dramaturgy to tell their story. The absurd, comical choices in their act and the unique use of Icarian games make it a performance that is ready to be developed into a longer work. The fact that they are twin sisters makes the act even more special.
On Saturday 26 October 2024, the four nominees will give their first performance for the jury. On Sunday 27 October 2024, the award ceremony will take place during the closing performance of Festival Circolo in Tilburg. Both performances are open to the public.
The prize is an initiative of the BNG Culture Fund and Circuspunt, the platform for the Dutch circus sector. It is one of the cultural prizes designed to stimulate and support up-and-coming talent in their further development. The BNG Circus Prize is awarded to the most distinctive graduating talent of that year at one of the two higher professional education circus programmes in the Netherlands (Codarts Circus Rotterdam and the Fontys Academy for Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg).
Previous winners of the BNG Circus Prize: 2023 Erik Berkey (Chinese pole), 2022 Harvey Cobb (object manipulation), 2021 Melody Nolan (handstands/floor acrobatics), 2019 Knot on Hands (acrobatics), 2018 David Eisele (diabolo), 2017 Familiar Faces (acrobatics). In 2020, the final could not take place and the prize was divided among the four nominees.