Some Open Source Criteria for Critenders

“Categories for Comparing the Prix Jardin d’Europe Nominees and Establishing Criteria for Evaluation”, derived from Franz Anton Cramer’s (It is only a proposal, please add what you think is needed)

1) Aesthetic aspects / making of / composition / construction / dramaturgical thread(s)

What was “it” and what did “it” do? How was it done? Did it fulfil its potential and/or promise? Did the choices seem to be arbitrary or articulate and deliberate? What about the “performing” – of bodies, of objects, of other elements that comprise the work?

2) Authorial aspects within the “performance”

How far the specificity and/or the uniqueness of the author was visible, their approach, their style, and their questions? To what extent was it the following of a “fashion”, to what extend it was an emulation of existing choreographers or other “authors”, to what extent it created its own agenda and brought to the fore un-thought of questions?

How did it resonate with their previous work, their trajectory, or future projections?

3) Contextual aspects

Elements that determine the significance of the project in a specific context, but are not necessarily integral for the functioning of the piece (e. g. )

4) Socio-political concerns (regional, global, transnational, personal)

Where has the piece been made and what were the conditions of its making?

5) Potential of creative development

A piece might not convince as a piece, but the choreographer may convince as a creator

6) Intertextuality – What show does the performance remind you of?

7) Personal preference / subjective gaze

Things you are not able to “justify” but that influence your appreciation of the work

Some Criteria for Evaluation (please feel free to add on to the list)

• consistent work routine

• crafty use of elements
• reflective capacity
• resonance in the field
• locating dance in her time
• adaptability to locales / transformability of theatre spaces
• innovation
• precision of work
• variety of scope / activity
• specificity of issues
• commitment to professionalism
• age / generation
• taking chances / pushing the form
• going against the expected
• commitment to own work
• …