VdL Announces 2025 Elsy Jacobs Merit Award Laureates

On Thursday 12 November 2025, the City of Luxembourg (VdL) reported that the Elsy Jacobs Merit Award 2025 had been presented to Christiane Eiffes and Nicole Wampach. 

According to the VdL, the award ceremony took place at the Schéiss Cultural Centre in Luxembourg-Belair, in the presence of the Elsy Jacobs association and members of the College of the Mayor and Aldermen, including Luxembourg's Minister for Gender Equality and Diversity, Yuriko Backes, Minister for Sport Georges Mischo, First Alderman Maurice Bauer and Alderman Simone Beissel.

For the 2025 edition, Christiane Eiffes, former dance pedagogue at the Conservatoire of the City of Luxembourg, was selected as the local laureate. A leading figure in contemporary dance in Luxembourg, she has significantly shaped the national choreographic landscape and played an important role in the emergence and development of contemporary dance in the country, both artistically and institutionally. Since the 1970s, she has worked to promote and teach classical dance to boys, ensuring they received dedicated support, then not available, and facilitating their integration into an environment long perceived as exclusively female. Her efforts paved the way for the wider introduction of classical dance classes for boys in Luxembourg.

At the national level, the Elsy Jacobs Merit was awarded to Nicole Wampach. Passionate about artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, she founded GRS Differdange in 1993, Luxembourg’s first rhythmic gymnastics club, and served as its president until 2015. Throughout her career, she voluntarily accompanied numerous athletes during competitions and performances.

The VdL added that while the laureates were traditionally announced during the press conference presenting the Elsy Jacobs cycling festival, an official ceremony has been held since 2023 to give the Elsy Jacobs Merit the recognition it merits.