‘Turner prize for dance’ winner Christos Papadopoulos: failure, friction and my forgotten youthquake

Amid galloping global crises, the Greek choreographer has returned to his revolutionary ideals. He explains how asking the near-impossible of dancers brings a shared joyChristos Papadopoulos is talking about how to spend £40,000. Specifically the winnings he scooped from the first ever Rose international prize for choreography in 2025 – the dance world’s equivalent of the Turner and the Booker. The Greek choreographer came out top of four finalists, picked by a judging panel including Arlene Phillips and PJ Harvey, for his piece Larsen C, a shadowy, trance-like and glacially paced crescendo of a dance named after an Antarctic ice shelf.Forty grand is not a bad bounty. Did he blow it on designer gear and exotic holidays? He did not. A big chunk went to his dancers, “because they are very hardworking and not so well paid – that’s the Greek reality”. The rest he invested in his new production: “I had some holes to fill, you know, in the budget.” The win may not have made Papadopoulos a household name (this is contemporary dance we’re talking about), but his work is touring worldwide. We speak over video call from Shanghai, where he is performing My Fierce Ignorant Step before its UK premiere. Continue reading...