Bout! (6+) by Andreas Denk

Jury about the nomination

''Bout! is an imaginative and hopeful performance in which three dancers interact in an inimitable way with objects that appear to have been sourced from barns and cellars. Chaos and chance reign supreme, but if you look more closely, you notice that this chance is very precisely choreographed. The likeable, quirky dancers are engaged in their building and repairing activities in a relaxed manner, their optimism causing the dance steps to arise naturally from the sounds of their work. Towards the end, the audience is involved in assembling a pipe system, after which, to everyone's surprise, a chain reaction occurs in the set: the magic of discarded items.''

About Andreas Denk

Andreas Denk is a choreographer, dancer, set designer and artistic director of the Plan d- foundation. With his distinctive signature style, he creates physical, visual performances for young and old, in which humour, imagination and everyday objects come together in surprising choreographies. 

After completing his training at the Rotterdam Dance Academy, he became co-artistic director of the Hans Hof Ensemble. In 2008, he founded Plan d-, a company that creates dance performances with a disarming theatricality and a keen sense of space, timing and audience experience. 

Denk lets dance arise from the unexpected. For him, objects are not props, but dance partners: carriers of rhythm, friction and play. His style is associative, musical, slightly absurdist and always physical. He knows how to touch young audiences without simplifying — with work that is as provocative as it is moving. 

With his work, Andreas Denk has been enhancing the artistic expressiveness of youth dance for years. He plays with the boundaries between dance and theatre, creating a physical visual language that lingers.

Fotography: Petra Katanic