PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
In the autumn of 2005, Trafó, together with MU Theatre, established an award to acknowledge and publicise the best creators and creations in contemporary dance. The jury for the Rudolf Lábán Award (named after the most outstanding and inspirational figure in twentieth century dance) was selected from those who, in our opinion, have most notably highlighted, analysed, and promoted figures in the contemporary dance scene.
To strengthen the tradition of Hungarian theater as an experimental art form that transcends genre boundaries, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts and the magazine SZÍNHÁZ established the Péter Halász Award in 2018. With this award, we aim to recognize performing arts initiatives presented in the previous calendar year whose creators strive to expand the boundaries of theater-making and do not regard what we generally understand as “theater” as an immutable, set-in-stone rule. The purpose of this award, presented alongside the Lábán Prize for Contemporary Dance, is to seek out and bring to light, within the theater scene, those hybrid, performative initiatives that view theater primarily as a situation unfolding between the audience and the performers—one that can be planned and controlled only to a certain extent.
