DanceHouse and Hawthorne Foundation launch $10,000 Louise Bentall Award for Emerging B.C. Choreographers
Biennial prize pays tribute to memory of late arts supporter, who passed away in 2017
THE HAWTHORNE FOUNDATION and DanceHouse have launched the new Louise Bentall Award for Emerging B.C. Choreographers. The $10,000 biennial award will go to an emerging artist to research, develop, or produce new dance work.
The award is named for Louise Bentall, who passed away in 2017 and was a long-serving board member of DanceHouse and supporter of the arts.
“She was recognized for her tireless dedication and generosity to building the cultural life of Vancouver,” remembers DanceHouse artistic and executive diretor Jim Smith. “Louise was an important part of DanceHouse from the beginning, as one of the founding board members and as President at the time of our launch. With her supportive words, community connections, and presence on the board, she made our start-up dance presentation series seem viable and exciting when we experienced any doubts. Her steady presence is very much missed, and we are thrilled to be able to honour her memory with this award.”
With ongoing funding from the Hawthorne Foundation and administrative support from DanceHouse, the award will launch in 2023. The winner will be chosen by a diverse panel of dance professionals, as yet to be named. Applications are due March 15, 2023, and the award recipient will be announced May 5.
A special advisory panel was set up to develop the criteria for the award, which has been developed over the past two years. It included Bentall’s daughters Carly Bentall and Erin Cayley Ross, as well as Norman Armour, Cornelius Fischer-Credo, Serge Bennethan, Laurie-Ann Goodwin, Katrina Dunn, and Fran Brafman.
“We wanted to make sure it was holding the memory of Louise,” explains DanceHouse artistic associate Francesca Piscopo. “We wanted to have that conversation with her daughters and wanted it to be meaningful for them as well. The advisory council members were all in some way related to Louise, either professionally or personally.”
Piscopo adds that the focus on an emerging artist fits well within the vision and work that Bentall did in the community. “We considered that for many people she was a mentor, not only on the DanceHouse board but in life in general—and a mentor for young artists specifically,” she explains. “That's also part of the reason why, instead of several smaller prizes, we decided to give just one big award so it would be substantial help for research or a developing process to help a young artist create work.”
Applications will be awarded based on the overall presentation of the proposal, the innovative qualities of the project, and the vision and potential of the artists involved. Applicants must submit a project description, a CV, two letters of support, a project budget, and up to two video links relating to the proposal.
The prize is aimed at individual choreographers who have completed pre-professional training and enjoyed at least one public performance of their work. The emerging dance artists can be based in all styles of dance or multidisciplinary dance projects, with no upper age restriction.Students are not eligible to apply to fund further studies or training, and companies, collectives, and organizations are not eligible. The applications, due March 15, are now available here.
The inaugural winner will be announced May 5 at DanceHouse’s presentation of South African dance artist Dada Masilo. At the jury’s discretion, up to two additional Honourary Mentions may be awarded. “While those projects will not receive financial support, they will receive letters of recommendation that artists can use to obtain further support from other sources,” DanceHouse said in its announcement today.
Smith points out that Bentall drew her commitment to the arts from her own training, having graduated from the Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts and practised as an actor. “Later in her career, Louise evolved to be a much-respected arts administrator in such organizations as Dancecorps, DanStabat and Touchstone Theatre,” he adds.
DanceHouse, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this season, is best-known in Vancouver for presenting touring and big-name local dance companies, from Hofesh Shechter Company to Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot. But it has also taken part in other projects to support the local dance community, such as NEXT: New Dance in Development, a project with 149 Arts Society and the National Arts Centre that was a 2021 residency and livestream sharing of works-in-progress by four emerging Canadian choreographers (All Bodies Dance Project artists romham pàdraig gallacher and Lance Lim, Shion Skye Carter, Ralph Escamillan, and Zahra Shahab) at SFU Woodward's.
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