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

By Lyndsey Winship · The Guardian Culture

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 joy Christos 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...