The Chrystal Dance Prize (CDP)–Projects supports exceptional dance research and/or creation between a Western Canadian dance artist, artists, collectives or companies and an international dance artist. Since 2010, Dance Victoria (DV) has awarded more than $600,000 through CDP–Projects. In 2025, Dance Victoria commits $44,790 in commissioning support to Plastic Orchid Factory, Ángel Ramos, and Punit Singh. Belle Spirale Dance Projects is also recognized with an inaugural Chrystal Dance Prize – Stage 2 award to support Dance Victoria’s presentation of the CDP-winning work UNIVERSUS.
2025/26 Chrystal Dance Prize–Projects
Plastic Orchid Factory (Vancouver), founded by award-winning dance artists and choreographers James Gnam (he/him) and Natalie LeFebvre Gnam (she/her), receives $29,000 towards a new international collaboration with choreographers Guy Nader and Maria Campos (Spain). Using contact improvisation as a starting point, the work explores how dancers transfer, absorb, and redistribute weight, while bodies lean, fall, and reroute to test trust, balance, and timing. Improvised interactions intertwine with precise, rhythm-driven structures, creating a hybrid movement vocabulary that emphasizes endurance as a form of listening within a shared rhythm. This collaboration is a living conversation across geography and dance traditions, composing choreography in the space between bodies—immediate, relational, and insistently alive.
James Gnam (he/him) is a Vancouver-based dancer and choreographer whose work investigates the reciprocal tensions between embodiment, technology and social exchange. A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School, he has interpreted repertoire for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet BC, EDAM Dance and 10 Gates Dancing, performing landmark creations by Crystal Pite, Twyla Tharp, Jiří Kylián, Mark Morris, Kurt Jooss, Peter Bingham and Tedd Robinson. Gnam is the Artistic Director of Plastic Orchid Factory, a founding member of Left of Main, and an associate artist with Mélanie Demers’ MAYDAY and Jacques Poulin-Denis’ Grand Poney. James’ choreography positions the body as both subject and analytic instrument, extending dance into gaming environments, gallery contexts and civic spaces. Over more than twenty works with Plastic Orchid Factory, Gnam has cultivated a practice that oscillates between meticulous introspection and architecturally scaled spectacle, consistently interrogating the conditions under which meaning—and community—are produced.
Natalie LeFebvre Gnam (she/elle) is a dance artist, producer, and performance maker, born on Lheidli T’enneh Keyoh (Prince George), now rooted on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ lands (Vancouver). Her current practice is interested in shaping tactile, design-led spaces where movement and materials co-compose. Tio’tia:ke, Mooniyang, Montréal-trained (ÉSDQ/Cégep du Vieux Montréal) and Arts Management at Capilano University, she has performed with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Coleman Lemieux & Co., Dancers Dancing and Vancouver Opera. Since 2003, she has co-imagined Plastic Orchid Factory with James Gnam and led the creation of Left of Main. LeFebvre Gnam is the Creative Producer at Electric Company Theatre, an Isadora and Mayor’s Arts Award winner, and Finn and Jem’s mom
Independent dance artist Ángel Ramos (they/he, Victoria) receives $8,245 for CLUBGARDEN, an experimental project that reimagines the relationship between performer and audience. Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton, the work explores time, memory, transformation, and possibility through a queer Latinx perspective. As part of this project, Ramos, a queer Mexican-born artist trained in ballet, contemporary dance, and vogue, will collaborate with international artists Farid Sarmiento, Salvador Chocolatl, and Victor Rugerio (Mexico). Beyond performance, the project includes a short dance film and offers open rehearsals and classes for BIPOC and queer communities in Victoria, BC.
Ángel Ramos (they/he) is a freelance dancer and choreographer from Mexico, currently based in Canada. Their work blends classical ballet, contemporary dance, and vogue into a dynamic practice shaped by training at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and Ballet Victoria Conservatory, working alongside Ballet Victoria’s Professional Company. Ramos has directed dance films for the Arts and Culture Department of Puebla in Mexico and created pieces for festivals and queer dance events in Victoria. They have collaborated with and studied under choreographers and teachers including Edgar Madrid, Kathy Lang, Peter Starr, and Andrea Bayne, performing in productions ranging from Carmina Burana, The Fairy Doll, Spring Waters and Swan Lake to contemporary works. Currently pursuing studies in cultural management, Ramos continues to expand their artistic vision, celebrating diversity, resilience, and the transformative power of dance
Punit Singh (Vancouver) receives $7,545 to support the creation of We just out here Loitering!, a site-specific dance-theatre project in collaboration with James Olivo (UK) that blends raw movement, improvisation, and playful partnering. Using “loitering” as both a choreographic tool and an existential question, the work explores how wandering, waiting, and doing nothing can reveal deeper truths about productivity, public space, belonging, and our internal states. Shifting across multiple movement styles, the piece is guided by each performer’s instincts and personal history. An initial iteration premiered at New Works’ All Over the Map Festival in Vancouver. The next phase continues in the United Kingdom, where Singh and Olivo will research how loitering interacts with different landscapes, architectures, and cultural rhythms.
Punit Singh is a first-generation Indo-Canadian dance and theatre artist based in Surrey, BC, whose practice spans contemporary and street dance forms. He has trained with artists including Sophia Sosa, Natasha Gorrie, Marissa Wong, Arash Khakpour, Deanna Peters and Lesley Telford. Singh’s recent professional collaborations include projects with Nasiv Sall and JameyWamey (UK). He has created and presented original works with organizations including New Works Dance, Dance West Network, Up In the Air Theatre, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, and Method Dance Society. Singh is a recipient of a Canada Council award for dance research.
Belle Spirale Dance Projects (Vancouver), led by co-Artistic Directors Alexis Fletcher (she/her) and Sylvain Senez (he/him), is recognized with an inaugural Chrystal Dance Prize – Stage 2 Award. (Learn more about Stage 2 here.) This award supports the presentation by Dance Victoria of a previously CDP–funded work. In 2023/24, Belle Spirale was awarded the Chrystal Dance Prize–Projects to support the creation of UNIVERSUS, a double bill choreographed by Fletcher and Fernando Hernando Magadan (Spain). Dance Victoria will present UNIVERSUS at the McPherson Playhouse on January 16, 2026.
Belle Spirale Dance Projects is an arts organization led by Artistic Directors Alexis Fletcher (she/her) and Sylvain Senez (he/him). It is based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded Indigenous territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Belle Spirale is a platform for the work of many artists; through their collaborative processes they produce their own creations as well as commission original works by both emerging and established choreographers. Through their work, they connect the skilled and passionate Vancouver independent dance community to the national and international independent communities.
Belle Spirale aims to create a diverse repertoire of poetic, thoughtful, relevant and engaging contemporary dance works. Their works strive to create a powerful and tangible connection with their audience, and they believe dance to be a distinct and powerful tool for connection, communication and togetherness. Belle Spirale is also the founder and creator of The Dance Deck, a multi-disciplinary summer series, which is dedicated solely to presenting the work of other artists. As hosts, they transform their backyard into a site-specific outdoor theatre in order to present high-calibre professional performances in a grassroots environment
Read the media release about the 2025/26 winners here.
2025/26 Application Guidelines
Learn about the application guidelines before making your submission.
Call for Expressions of Interest 2025/26: Closed
Deadline to submit: 5:00 pm PDT, Thursday October 9, 2025
*New in 2025/26: With the continued growth of the Chrystal Dance Fund, Dance Victoria is proud to establish a Stage 2 Award through the CDP–Projects stream. Each year, up to 20% of CDP funds may be allocated to artist fees for a previous Chrystal Dance Prize recipient. Fees will compensate artists for a DV presentation opportunity or residency to further develop a CDP-funded work for presentation. The decision to grant the Stage 2 Award in a given year is at the sole discretion of DV staff leadership, based on alignment with curatorial vision, scheduling and other factors. The award is not part of DV’s annual call for Expressions of Interest, and there may be no Stage 2 recipients in a given year. In this case, the full CDP–Projects award will be award through the existing (Stage 1) process.
History of the Chrystal Dance Prize
The prize is funded through an annual disbursement from the Chrystal Dance Fund held at the Victoria Foundation. Learn about Dr. Betty “Chrystal” Kleiman and past winners.