British documentary Ballet Boyz wins Grand Prix at Golden Prague festival

Prague, Oct 20 (CTK) - British BBC TV's documentary Ballet Boyz: The Rite of Spring won Grand Prix at Golden Prague festival yesterday.

The international jury headed by British producer and media expert Hazel Wright appreciated that the work by the Ballet Boyz dance group offering a radically new interpretation of Igor Stravinski's work was ordered for a television channel that never broadcast dance.

Wright said the jury is convinced that this film has broken the television borders.

Both professional and amateur dancers selected from entirely different spheres of modern dance, including tango, street dance and pool dance, perform in the programme.

Czech Crystal in the category Documentary programmes dedicated to music and dance went to Elgar: The Man behind the Mask.

Czech Crystal in the category Music on the TV screen was bestowed on Carmen peformed at Paris's Opera Comique.

The award of the Vision 97 Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel was awarded to the Czech entry Keep the Beat that shows the joy of children who first knew nothing about dancing, but eventually were happy about their achievement.

The award of Czech Television went to director Christopher Nupen's documentary Everything is a Gift - The Wonder and the Grace of Alice Sommer Herz.

The audiences' prize went to Janacek's opera Katia Kabanova directed by Robert Carsen and played under the baton of Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek in Madrid's Teatro real.

The prize-giving ceremony will be held at 20:00 tonight.

The 47th international television festival Golden Prague was held on October 16-20 with some 100 programmes entered for competition.

The first Golden Prague festival was held in 1964. Only Prix Italia and the festivals in Monte Carlo and Montreux have a longer history. The first one was launched in 1949, the two others in 1961.