Les Productions Figlio wins Rio Tinto Alcan Award

Serge Bennathan

>> by Naomi Brand
Les Productions Figlio is the winner of the twelfth annual Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, a $60,000 production fund. The company's new work, Elles, will have its premiere at Vancouver's, The Cultch in March 2012. Les Productions Figlio is a production house dedicated to the artistic work of choreographer Serge Bennathan. Elles is Bennathan's latest work, which brings together a large cast of female dancers from across Canada. The piece researches the visceral, raw physicality of feminine strength and passion. The Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award is a production fund open to performing arts companies residing in British Columbia. One of the largest awards of its kind in Canada, the award is funded by Rio Tinto Alcan and administered by The Cultch. The competition rotates annually among the disciplines of Dance, Theatre and Music/Opera and is adjudicated by an independent panel of artistic professionals. Previous winners in dance include The Holy Body Tattoo (Circa), battery opera (Cyclops), Kidd Pivot (Lost Action) and Wen Wei Dance (Cock-Pit).

John Hobday Arts Management Awards announced

Mary-Louise Albert / Photo courtesy of the artist
Eva Cairns / Photo by David Ley

>> by Brittany Duggan
On January 24th, the Canada Council for the Arts announced Mary-Louise Albert and Eva Cairns as the 2011 recipients of the John Hobday Awards in Arts Management. The $10,000 awards celebrate established and mid-career arts managers, allowing each recipient to enhance their professional development. Albert, artistic managing director of the Norman Rothstein Theatre and Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver, transitioned into arts management after an active career as a professional contemporary dancer; she will use this award to pursue a mentorship with Howard Jang, executive director of Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company. Albert and Jang will work together on a series of specific themes surrounding arts management. Cairns, managing producer for Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton, started her career in arts administration as a tour coordinator and will use this award to take three Leadership Development Programs at the Banff Centre. “In order to help arts organizations survive and thrive in an environment in constant flux, there need to be opportunities for arts managers to renew and enhance professional skills,” commented Stephen Bronfman, president of The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Foundation, in the Canada Council’s press release.

International choreography competition returns to Saint-Sauveur

>> by Naomi Brand
After a six-year hiatus, the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur announces the return of its international choreography competition. The festival offers international programs in dance and music including a competition of original creations that showcases the works of emerging choreographers. The international choreography competition will be held in Saint-Sauveur Valley, a vacation resort located forty minutes north of Montréal, during the next Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur from July 28th through August 6th, 2011. Registration deadline for the competition is April 15th, 2011.
www.fass.ca