June Johnson Newcomer Prize

In cooperation with the Federal Office of Culture, we launched the June Johnson Dance Prize in 2013, which promoted young, innovative dance creations, in memory of June Johnson, the wife of Stanley Thomas Johnson. From 2021, the dance prize has been extended to include the performing arts. The prize is aimed at professional Swiss choreographers and dance ensembles, directors and theater groups who are at the beginning of their careers and whose work shows particular potential.

Award ceremony in LAC Lugano, October 2023
© Adrian Moser

Prize winner 2023: Marc Oosterhoff

In October 2023, the June Johnson Newcomer Prize in the amount of CHF 25,000 was awarded to Marc Oosterhoff as part of the Swiss Performing Arts Awards of the Federal Office of Culture. With his company Cie Moost, he combines acrobatics with contemporary dance and theater.

From the laudatory speech by Ursula Frauchiger, member of the Board of Trustees:

«Marc Oosterhoff captivates his audience as an explorer of the last things. He stands on one side of a seesaw and throws sandbags onto the opposite side until he and the sand are evenly balanced. That takes time. He has time. And so does his audience. He rocks with the chair and knives stick out from underneath him. The tipping must not go wrong under any circumstances. He staggers and sways through the stage space, completely absorbed by his dance partner, the banana skin on the floor. His audience is absorbed too. "D'abord le corps. Non. D'abord le lieu. Non. D'abord les deux," says Samuel Beckett. In Marc Ooosterhoff's work, body, stage and time are one. D'abord les trois. A clown, a poet and explorer of the last analog things somewhere between disaster and magic.»

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Previous prizewinners

Anna Anderegg (2013)                                       Dark Side Of The Moon (schweizerkulturpreise.ch)
Daniel Hellmann (2015)                                     Requiem for a piece of meat (schweizerkulturpreise.ch)
Kiriakos Hadjiioannou (2017)                            Hyperion - Higher States Part 2 (schweizerkulturpreise.ch)
Marion Zurbach (2019)                                      Unplush / Marion Zurbach (schweizerkulturpreise.ch)
Mirjam Gurtner (2021)                                       Mirjam Gurtner (schweizerkulturpreise.ch)
Isabelle Spescha (2022) InQrdt (schweizerkulturpreise.ch)