The Place Prize 2013: does the dance world only care about itself? Each judge came from a different background, and I found it fascinating to listen to choreographers such as Siobhan Davies and Stine Nilsen analysing the movement in ways I would not. We all had contrasting tastes: the hip-hop dance maker Jonzi D and I tended to like a suggestion of narrative in the short works; Roberto Casarotto, artistic director of an Italian dance festival, was analytical in his approach. Under the chairmanship of Place director Eddie Nixon we rubbed along well, and didn't fall out, even on the last evening when - with the audience waiting downstairs - we had to choose our four finalists. The list, when it came, was not exactly unanimous; each judge lost favoured works along the way. Nevertheless, it was reached by consensus. We all believe that the four pieces we have chosen - and which audiences can see until April 27 - have great merit. They are richly varied - from a comic duet by h2dance to a brooding piece called Athletes by Riccardo Buscarini, to Eva Recacha's speech-filled The Wishing Well, to Rick Nodine's tribute to the Grateful Dead. They deserve to be seen and to be considered for the prize by a new panel of non-expert judges. But here's the thing. One of the award's unique features is that every night the audience is also asked to vote for its favourite work. And night after night, the audience choice did not reflect the judges" opinions. One slot on the shortlist is reserved for the audience choice - h2dance's Duet. None of the other works on our final shortlist had won the audience vote. Now, personally (and I do not speak for my fellow judges) I would not have put Duet - a funny piece about dance and dancers, winningly performed - in my top four. It was predictable that the audience at the Place would love it; they are dancers and people obsessed with dance, and they like to be amused. I predict that as the finals progress it will take the nightly audience prize of £1,000 over and over again. But it seems to me, like many of the audience choices, to sum up why dance finds it hard to gain a foothold in the wider culture. Duet is inward, rather than outward-looking, the kind of piece that offers easy rewards but does not break new ground. Its tropes - and those of many of the other pieces the audience favoured - are familiar. Yet if prizes in the arts are for anything, surely they should reward the bravest and most ground-breaking? This is not to say that democracy in dance can't pick a worthy winner. Famously, in 2004, when choreographer Rafael Bonachela took the award, the audience gave equal votes to Hofesh Shechter. Both have gone on to have flourishing careers, but it is Shechter who looks more like the future, with a visceral brand of movement that has altered the art form itself. We saw nothing as radical this year, but I still hope our finalists go on to great things that will win more converts to dance. I also hope the final judges don't play it safe by picking whatever appeals most to aficionados. Instead, they should champion a work that suggests contemporary dance has something to say to the broadest possible audience.