Luca Branca’s Prix de Lausanne Diary: Part I
Luca Branca. Photo by Gregory Batardon.
One year ago, young dancer and choreographer Luca Branca (18) won the Young Creation Award for young choreographers at the Prix de Lausanne, arguably the most important competition for young dancers. Luca and Milla Loock, the two prize winners of the 2022 Young Creation Award, are now back in Lausanne: their winning choreographies were included in the contemporary repertoire of this year’s competition. TWoA asked Luca to keep a voice diary recording his experiences as the competition unfolds, sharing his excitement about being back at Lausanne to coach his work to young competitors from all over the world.
30 January 2023, Nuremberg Airport, 10:14
I am here, waiting for the check-in for leaving from Nuremberg to get to Amsterdam, and then to take another plane to get to Geneva and then a train to Lausanne. I am really happy to finally go back again to Lausanne, and this time for a different reason: I will be coaching the choreography that I made last year. So, it’s something exciting, something different: I will be coaching more people, not just one dancer whom I chose. I will need to adapt to the type of dancer I will meet. I still don’t know who they are. I know I have girls and boys from different groups and ages, but I don’t know them. I will get to know them once I get there. After I get to know them and the way they are, I will also know how to deal with them, and understand how to talk to them, which is something really important, especially during the competition, because people are getting stressed and excited. The way you talk to them is really important because they might take it personal, a little phrase might stress them. It’s really important to make sure whatever I say is right, and also understandable. This is the only thing that I’m kind of stressed about, to make sure everything I say is good and understandable.
I am really excited to go back and teach again the choreography of Les Ombres du Temps which I taught last time at the summer stage of Lausanne this summer (the summer stage is a workshop and a pre-selection for the competition). I am excited to teach again, but of course it will be a different situation because it is during the main competition. A lot of important dancers, choreographers are there, so it is also really exciting for me to be surrounded by those famous names, historical people: I got such inspiration from them while getting to know the world of dance, I am really looking forward to meeting all of them. I am super excited. I also brought a lucky charm. I have this bracelet that’s from my mom, I’m really close to her. I also had it last year when I came to compete with the choreography, and I was wearing it all the time. And I will do the same this year so that it brings me luck. I’m really excited and can’t wait to take the first flight and arrive there. I’m looking forward to seeing how this experience is going to be - I’m already sure it will be a nice one!
Luca at the Hotel Tulipin.
31 January 2023, Italian Restaurant “La Nonna,” 21:24
I’m sending this message from a restaurant at the end of my day. It was my first day, and it was really, really, really good. I really enjoyed it from the beginning until the end. I got here, the staff welcomed me really kindly, they were really nice to me. Coming back, I felt like I’m back in a safe place, kind of a home. I have many homes - my school, my house, of course, and now here: knowing the people, it’s feeling like it’s part of a new home. I did my coaching: two groups of girls with seven girls in each group, and two boys. My first class was in the morning. I had the youngest class in the beginning. I coached, they did a run-through of the piece two by two and then I gave corrections. We went through all the steps, the meaning behind the choreography, the meaning behind each step. It was really nice, I saw already dancers getting closer to what I was searching for, to my movements. I was feeling really comfortable, and I tried to make them feel at their most comfortable, to work in collaboration together the best we could. Then I had a lunch break which I ate with the staff members and other coaches. After that I had another class with older girls which was also really, really nice. I did the same thing. I tried to be even more professional, to give even more information because I had half an hour to give everything I could. At the end of the day, I had two boys who are also doing my variation. Then I went back to my hotel room. I did some schoolwork: I did an online school class of math. And then I got to a restaurant, an Italian restaurant of course, and I had my plate of pasta all’amatriciana. Now I am going to go back to my hotel, I will take a nice shower and call my parents. I already sent a message to my director explaining how it went. He’s really happy, he’s coming on Thursday, so I will meet him. I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Luca Branca. Photo by Gregory Batardon.
1 February 2023, Hotel Tulipin, 21:06
Today was a wonderful day. I had a class this morning and then I had a meeting with the young choreographers and dancers of the Young Creation Award of this year. It was lovely to talk with them. Then I had coaching on stage and then with the same people, the two boys, I coached for the first time in front of the jury. It was a bit stressful, at first, to go in front of the jury, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Diana Vishneva, all these important people, I was trying to be respectful with my words, through my work: they were not going to just look at the dancers, but also to check what I was doing, what I was going to say. It was important for them to understand the quality, what I was working on in the choreography so that they could judge exactly how they were dancing, if they were getting the steps, whether they were doing it with the right quality. So, it was also important to me to be clear for the jury. That part was stressful at the beginning, but then I really started to feel comfortable. I really love this kind of environment, so I wasn’t stressed at all after I started and I enjoyed it a lot, a lot, a lot. I saw the progress of the boys already. It was live streamed, so it’s on Facebook now and also on YouTube. The jury liked it, I got good feedback, people were telling me that I am working really professionally even though I’m young and it’s my first experience like this. My director was also really happy about my work. Can’t wait to see him tomorrow because he is also coming here. And lots of friends and my parents, people close to me were really happy and texted me. They sent me pictures of me while I was doing the livestream, so I had a lot of support. People from the jury also came up to me saying they liked the piece. I said kind of goodbye to the two boys because it was the last coaching I was giving to them. Tomorrow we will have the girls but not the boys and then it’s the preselection for the finals. In the evening I went to watch the competition of the Young Creation Award of this year. They announced the winners, I enjoyed the choreographies and to watch the actual competition from the outside as a winner was really nice and interesting. Then I watched the rehearsal on stage from Goyo Montero for the creation he is doing for the Partner School Choreographic Project. I got to my hotel and had my dinner while talking to my parents. Now I will take a nice warm shower and then go to bed. It was a lovely day, and I can’t wait for tomorrow for another beautiful day.
2 February, Hotel Tulipin, 19:53
Off to work at the Theatre Beaulieu.
Today I had the girls, which was really hard because there were both groups, senior and junior. There are seven girls in each group, so fourteen all together. This is the biggest group in the competition doing one variation, so most people chose my variation this year. This is really nice to know, that they didn’t just focus on the choreography of important and famous choreographers but went also for mine, and that I’m having the biggest group. I am really proud and happy. I was again coaching in front of the jury. I was less stressed of course because I did it yesterday. I was trying to be a bit faster with the girls because I wanted to do everything on time and give all I could give. I tried my best, even though when we had the livestream tonight it was a bit harder to give a lot of corrections so then I staid a bit longer behind the stage to talk to them, give corrections, make them feel comfortable for tomorrow for the selection. I saw my director today and he was also really happy. It’s going really amazing. I am really young, but the other coaches who have more experience and are older, they are helping a lot, they are giving me suggestions, they are there for me if I have questions or need help. They also eat with us, so I feel already at home, and like a part of it, not left apart because I’m too young or because I’m not an actual official choreographer, serious, famous. They all help me a lot and I am really happy about this experience. Today was the last day coaching. Tomorrow I’ll be mostly watching and if I see the candidates backstage, I will maybe give some extra corrections to help them get even better. I tried to give all I could, and the time is never enough, you always want to stay a bit more to search for the movements, the quality, the reasons, everything. I am really happy and looking forward to seeing how the selection and finals go for them.
Stay tuned for Part II of Luca’s Prix de Lausanne diary – remember to subscribe to our newsletter or to follow us on Instagram!
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