Dance artist Livona Ellis wins inaugural Louise Bentall Biennial Award for Emerging British Columbia Choreographers
Honorary mentions go to choreographers Alyssa Favero and Joshua Ongcol, in new prize given out by the Hawthorne Foundation and DanceHouse
Livona Ellis
Alyssa Favero
Joshua Ongcol
THE NEW $10,000 Louise Bentall Biennial Award for Emerging British Columbia Choreographers will go to choreographer and Ballet BC dancer Livona Ellis, the Hawthorne Foundation and DanceHouse announced in a ceremony tonight.
The prize will go to support the development of her work Fortress.
Born in Vancouver and trained at Arts Umbrella, Livona Ellis began dancing with Ballet BC in 2010 and just completed her final season with the company. She has created works for Dances for a Small Stage, Dance Deck, Public Salon 2019, Contemporary Art Gallery Gala 2018, Arts Umbrella Season Finale, and Ballet BC Take Form. In 2017 she received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Emerging Artist. She was a guest artist with Konzert Theater Bern for their 2019-2020 season, works as faculty at Arts Umbrella, and is a programming advisor for the BC Movement Arts Society. She is currently dancing with Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot.
Ellis co-created the 15-minute duet Fortress in 2021 and will put the Louise Bentall Award toward expanding it into a full-length work, pushing past the duet with Margolick to incorporate an actor, she told Stir at the event. The project was inspired by the women and matriarchs who have been pillars in her family (and the family of collaborator Rebecca Margolick), likening the fortress to the vulnerability and strength required for motherhood.
“We look to the women in our family that have been the most selfless and most generous and have the most ferocious sense of self,” Ellis said in the announcement today. “So many of my values and morals were instilled by my mother, who passed those virtues down from her mother. This ongoing fight for human rights has initiated many conversations amongst my family and I would like to incorporate my lineage and history of Black Women into the creation.”
The award applications were juried by a diverse panel of dance and theatre professionals including interdisciplinary feminist curator, researcher, and artist Sonia Medel; Raven Spirit Dance co-artistic director, dancer, and choreographer Starr Muranko; and playwright and theatre-maker Marcus Youssef.
The jury has also selected two artists who will receive Honourary Mentions, Alyssa Favero and Joshua Ongcol, who will receive letters of recommendation to use in support of projects from other sources. Favero is an emerging queer, multiracial dance artist who graduated last year from Modus Operandi and has performed works by Khoudia Toure, OURO Collective and Zahra Shahab. Ongcol is a Dubai born, queer, Filipinx artist who has performed in styles including contemporary dance, locking and popping, hip-hop, and Vogue, working with artists including Kim Sato, 605 Collective, Justine Chambers, Deanna Peters, and more. His LAKBAY was created in collaboration with musician Miguel Maravila.
The award was created in memory of Louise Bentall, who passed away in 2017 and was a long-serving board member of DanceHouse. Louise spent her life working and volunteering for many dance and theatre organizations, in addition to her numerous charitable activities in support of the performing arts and social justice communities of the Lower Mainland. The longtime supporter of Vancouver’s dance community was remembered tonight as compassionate, intelligent, and feisty, with a keen attention to detail, giving back to the community with both her actions and words. At the ceremony tonight, her surviving daughters Carly and Erin recalled that Bentall found herself in the arts, loving both the dark and lighter moments in dance.
Related Articles
