The inaugural Rose International Dance Prize came to a close with an award ceremony hosted at Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

Christos Papadopoulos has been named as the Rose Prize winner 2025 for his haunting production, LARSEN C. Named after the vast Antarctic ice sheet which broke away in 2017, Greek choreographer Christos Papadopoulos’ work explores the universal patterns of change and the monumental shifts occurring around the world.

Stav Struz Boutrous has been awarded the Bloom Prize winner for Sepia, a solo piece that draws on her family’s Georgian roots, and reclaims a conventionally masculine dance, the traditional Georgian folk dance Khorumi. Stav Struz Boutrous contrasts this martial dance with feminine tenderness.

The productions were judged live by a jury featuring Dame Arlene Phillips, Karthika Naïr, PJ Harvey and chaired by Professor Christopher Bannerman, who presented the winners with a trophy at this evening’s ceremony.

On behalf of the jury, Professor Christopher Bannerman said: “We are delighted to be awarding these two prizes to Christos Papadopoulos and Stav Struz Boutrous. Over the last ten days we’ve seen such a wide range of visions, all realised to an exceptionally high standard, so we extend our congratulations to all those who presented work. Each of the seven choreographers represents not only a very distinctive voice, but comes from such distinctive contexts. It made the judging process unique, but also uniquely difficult.”

The judges also noted some commonality across the seven productions, recognising that these works emerged from the end of the global pandemic:

The prize is run by Sadler’s Wells, who managed a nomination and shortlisting process over a two year period, and funded by an anonymous donor who chose the name Rose for the Prize.

Sir Alistair Spalding CBE, Artistic Director and Co-CEO, Sadler’s Well’s said:

The two trophies were newly commissioned sculptures, designed by the award-winning artist and stage designer, Es Devlin. Devlin mapped the movements of two dancers using a motion capture set-up of multiple cameras, before translating the choreography into 3D digital models. The models were used to programme a laser, which was pulsed into a cube of glass, creating a suspended bloom of fractured glass within.

The Rose International Dance Prize has partnered with global arts and culture streaming service Marquee TV, who present a 60-minute documentary Inside the Rose Prize, capturing an intimate behind the scenes look at the competition in its inaugural year at Sadler’s Wells. Viewers will be immersed in these innovative performances, combining groundbreaking dance and compelling storytelling. The film follows not only the four finalists as they showcase their work on stage, but also the prestigious judging panel as they deliberate and ultimately choose the winners. Celebrating the international reach and global themes of the shortlisted works, the film steps into the lives of the choreographers to highlight their artistry in new and unexpected ways. The documentary will be available to stream exclusively on Marquee TV, with transmission date to be announced.

About the Rose International Dance Prize

A total of seven shortlisted choreographers were nominated across two categories: the Rose category for established choreographers presenting a full-length performance of 50 minutes or longer, and the Bloom category, for emerging choreographers with a maximum of ten years’ experience.

Staging their productions in Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the Rose category included Lia Rodrigues, Kyle Abraham, Marco da Silva Ferreira and Christos Papadopoulos, while in the Lilian Baylis Studio, the Bloom category featured Stav Struz Boutrous, Wang Yeu-Kwn / Shimmering Productions and Leïla Ka.

The Rose International Dance Prize has been made possible by a generous donation to Sadler’s Wells from an anonymous individual who chose the name Rose for the prize. The donation will fund 10 iterations in total over 20 years, which positions it alongside awards like the Oscars and the Booker Prize as being both truly global and impactful to the choreographic community.

Image credit Foteini Christofilopoulou