Keir Choreographic Award finalists chosen

The Keir Foundation, Dancehouse and Carriageworks recently announced the eight outstanding commissioned artists competing for the 2016 Keir Choreographic Award, the second edition of Australia’s first major choreographic award launched in 2014.

Award entry requirements called for professional artists with an established practice to enter by submitting a five-minute video with a choreographic idea of 20 minutes in duration. The eight finalists were selected by an independent national and international jury to each make a new piece of original work. The biennial award is dedicated to the commissioning of new choreographic work and to promoting innovative, experimental and cross-art form practice in contemporary dance.

The 2016 Keir Choreographic Award jury consisted of: Bojana Cvejić, performance theorist and performance maker based in Brussels; Pierre Bal-Blanc, curator and independent art critic based in Athens and Paris; U.S. based choreographer Sarah Michelson; Perth International Arts Festival Artistic Director Wendy Martin and Phillip Keir, Keir Foundation founder.

The eight commissioned artists, who hail from across Australia, include: 2014 Keir Choreographic Award finalist Sarah Aiken; Canberra-born James Batchelor, an award-winning choreographer and performer; Chloe Chignell, an emerging choreographer and recent DanceWEB scholarship recipient; Ghenoa Gela, a Sydney-based choreographer and performer from Torres Strait Islands whose recent work includes MURA BUAI [Liveworks,Performance Space]; choreographer and performer Martin Hansen, now based in Berlin; Alice Heyward, seen recently in Maria Hassabi’s Intermission [Australian Centre for Contemporary Art] and Xavier Le Roy’s latest work Temporary Title [Carriageworks]; Rebecca Jensen, a New Zealand artist whose work was presented in Next Wave 2014 and Dance Massive 2015; and Paea Leach, who has worked as a performer and collaborator in Australia and Europe and was most recently commissioned by Chunky Move’s Next Move 2014 season.

The eight commissioned works will premiere at Melbourne’s Dancehouse in late April 2016. Four of the works will then be selected by the jury to participate in the Sydney season presented by Carriageworks in May 2016. The eight commissioned artists will compete for the accolade of the award, including a cash prize of $30,000 for first prize and $10,000 for an audience choice prize that will be voted by Sydney audiences.

Keir Choreographic Award Founder Phillip Keir said, “The Keir Foundation is very excited to be partnering with the Australia Council, Carriageworks and Dancehouse again to bring some of the best of contemporary dance to Australian audiences. The work is always fresh and vibrant.’’

The Semi-Finals will be on April 26-30 at Dancehouse and the Finals will be on May 5-7 at Carriageworks.

Photo: Atlanta Eke in Body of Work. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti for Dancehouse.