Chrystal Dance Prize - Projects

Dance Victoria announced the 2021/22 Chrystal Dance Prize – Projects award recipients and committed $44,000 in commissioning support:

Kevin Fraser (Vancouver) receives $36,000 for his dance collective, Immigrant Lessons, to travel and collaborate with dance artists/producers Margarida Macieira and Nicolas Ventura and other international dance associates at Meeting Point: Portugal. Fraser will use the funds to support an artistic residency at Performact studios in Portugal in July and August 2022. The work will be co-authored by the collective’s dancers with the creation process documented on film. Fraser is a Jamaican born, interdisciplinary artist who founded Immigrant Lessons to create artistic opportunities for marginalized, qt – bipoc, and underrepresented youth and communities. The company consists of Fraser and artists Sophia Gamboa, Simran Sachar, Sevrin Emnacen-Boyd, Joshua Cameron, Hayden Pereira, Joanne Park, and Vanessa Yuen. International associate artists include Alesya Dobysh (Russia/ Netherlends), Lua Carriera (Portugal), Ariel Gelbart (Israel), Panos Malactos (Cyprus), Maria Fonseca (Portugal), and Hugo Marmelada (Portugal). As predominantly street dancers, the collective is a continual mentorship where the emerging artists can express gratitude for the innovations of black and Latinx people and culture. 

Kayla Henry (Victoria) receives $8,000 for her project Luminaries, which draws inspiration from mycelium, a network of underground fungal threads acting as a communication system for mushrooms. Henry, through her company Noble Riot Dance Theatre, feels called to create work that moves people to make meaningful change in response to our climate crisis. Henry will use the Chrystal Dance Prize – Projects funds to support travel, research, and performances at the Arts University of the City of Vienna, collaborating with Austrian choreographer Christina Medina, and with dancer Alia Saurini and musician Finley Rose. You can learn more about Henry here.