Chrystal Dance Prize

Dance Victoria supports western Canadian dance artists through its Chrystal Dance Prize for Emerging Artists (Deadline TBA: spring 2019) and Independent Artists (Deadline: Mon. Oct. 15, 2018). The prize is funded through an annual disbursement from the Chrystal Dance Fund held at the Victoria Foundation, and this year the Emerging Artist prize will be up to $6000.

The 2017/18 Emerging Dance Artist Award winners are Holden Cole and Adrian de Leeuw. The 2017/18 winner of the Independent Dance Artist Award is Victoria’s, Stacey Horton.

In 2017/18, in addition to the Emerging and Independent dance prizes, the Chrystal Dance Fund supported Ballet BC’s commission of a new Romeo and Juliet choreographed by French dancemaker Medhi Walerski. Dance Victoria’s contribution supported the inclusion of Arts Umbrella graduate dance students in the production, increasing the number of the corps de ballet.

“The invitation to join Ballet BC to work with an international choreographer the calibre of Medhi Walerski is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will change the outlook of these young dancers and their future,” says Sally Hart, Manager, Dance Operations, Arts Umbrella.

On February 22, Dance Victoria’s Board and staff were thrilled to see the premiere of Romeo and Juliet at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

“Nothing on the Canadian dance landscape is quite like Ballet BC, an ambitious company that blurs the line between classical and contemporary and finds its riches not through extravagant spending, but through this kind of craft and thoughtful innovation.” Globe and Mail review by Martha Schabas, February 22, 2018.

Read about the winner of our 2017/18 Independent Dance Artist Award (Stacey Horton) and winners of our 2017/18 Emerging Dance Artist Award (Holden Cole and Adrian de Leeuw).