TERPSIHORA FOR MILAN RUS
The award and Special Praise of Terpsihora, a prestigious prize awarded annually to artists or dance cultural institutions was founded eight years ago by the Association of Professional Ballet Dancers, Choreographers and Ballet Pedagogues of Serbia.
The Award and Special Recognition Award of Terpsihora will be presented in 2019 again, the eighth time, always on the occasion of the International Dance Day, an international day that celebrates all dance forms in the world, in one day, in all countries of the world, established by the Dance Committee, the international organization of UNESCO.
In the past seven years, this recognition has been rewarded to the best among equals, who have contributed confirmed to their reputation and significance through their work and accomplishments.
The three-member jury consisting of:
Ivana Milovanovic, president of Belgrade CID – UNESCO, cultural associate (president of the jury), Bojana Zegarac, the champion of the Ballet of the National Theater in Belgrade and Dijana Milosevic, professor at Belgrade Dance Institute, founder and director of Dah Theater and theater director, have brought a unanimous decision to award MILAN RUS, a renowned ballet dancer at the National Theater Ballet in Belgrade the Terpsihora Prize for 2019.
Special Praise has unanimously been awarded to ĐURĐIJA JELENKOVIĆ, a final year student at Belgrade Dance Institute, a professional ballet dancer, contemporary dancer and a physicist doing her master studies in applied physics.
The Award and Special Praise of Terpsihora has been supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia and Belgrade Institute in Belgrade.
The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 12 o’clock, at the National Theatre Museum in Belgrade, at 2 Dositejeva St.
EXPLANATION
Special Praise
Special Praise for 2019 has unanimously been awarded to ĐURĐIJA JELENKOVIĆ by a three-member jury.
Đurđija Jelenković is a final year student at Belgrade Dance Institute. She came to the world of performing arts from a totally different walk of life, i.e. physics. In her work Đurđija bravely combines different fields, showing a high level of commitment, innovation and skill at creating and interpreting activities. Her work is intertwined with risk and relies on the best tradition of modern dancing, but also on the tradition of contemporary performance and installation. In her research within the trilogy of Death and the Girl- Hell- Unless, she moves through the space of the subconscious, investigating the elements that connect us, which are our fears and she examines her own physical and mental limits using her body as a precise tool of expression and movement as a way of communicating the inexplicable.
The special praise is encouragement for Đurđija’s research to continue but it also shows the intention of the Jury to encourage young dancers and choreographers to flow into the unsearched regions of dance, movement and artistic dance in the form of all its shown forms and aesthetics.
Terpsihora Award
The three-member jury brings the unanimous decision to award MILAN RUS, a principalballet dancer at the National Theater Ballet in Belgrade the Terpsihora Prize for 2019.
The Ballet School in Novi Sad, the Ballet Ensemble of the Serbian National Theater, where he gained the title of the second soloist after a number of solo roles; the Ballet of the National Theater in Belgrade, which takes him as a permanent member in 2003, where he as a ballet player interprets the entire repertoire as a ballet dancer; with his classical and neoclassical, as well as modern dance style, he soon becomes the first soloist, with engagements in other theaters that occasionally gives some space to a dance repertoire; his collaboration with numerous renowned Serbian and international choreographers of varying sensibility in his prolific career, Milan Rus has passed through different stages in his ballet dancing career, thus deserving our deep respect.
We will highlight only one part of his artistic opus as a professional ballet player.
He was our Salier in the ballet of Wofgang Amade, a young man in La Capinera, the Singer in the cult ballet Ko to tamo peva (Who’s singing there), Mage in The Spring Celebration (Vrač na proslavenju proljeća), Arman in The Lady with the Camellias, La Mol in Queen Margo, our Orpheus in Ballet Orpheus in the Underworld (Orfej u podzemlju)… He was much more in the choreographies that formed him as a player and significantly influenced him and his stage expression.
In all the roles devoted to him, Milan In every role that was entrusted to him, Milan has shown an enormous charisma, a striking stage appearance scene and a high-level of performing technique. In a distinctive and personal manner, he has performed memorable solo roles, but his high-profile engagement in duet must be emphasized, as he has always had understanding for its complexity. In duets, he has always been a reliable and dedicated partner to his ballerina counterparts, who always felt safe and supported in his hands. Milan Rus is a special and unrepeatable ballet artist. The Terpsihora Prize is perhaps the best way to thank him for everything that he did on stage as a ballet artist and to pay tribute to his great contribution to Serbian authentic ballet art.
