Ottawa, July 27, 2010 – The Canada Council for the Arts announced today that Montreal journalist, lecturer and dance filmmaker Philip Szporer has been awarded the 2010 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, valued at $6,000.
The Jacqueline Lemieux Prize is awarded annually to the most deserving applicant in the Canada Council Grants to Dance Professionals program. The prize is awarded in memory of Jacqueline Lemieux and her contribution to Canadian dance. Teacher and administrator, Ms. Lemieux co-founded with her husband, Lawrence Gradus, the Montreal dance company Entre-Six and the summer school Québec Été Danse in Lennoxville
The Jacqueline Lemieux prize is in addition to a $14,500 grant Mr. Szporer received to research and write Moments in Motion, Part Deux.
Download images of Mr. Szporer and his works.
Mr. Szporer was chosen by a peer assessment committee consisting of Gioconda Barbuto (Montreal), Linda Blankstein (Vancouver), Marie Claire Forté (Montreal) and Geraldine Morita (Edmonton).
The committee said, “Mr. Szporer has made an outstanding contribution to dance in Canada through his sustained and active engagement in advancing the dance discourse both nationally and internationally. We note the dedication and generosity demonstrated by this respected dance scholar and filmmaker who has influenced and supported a new generation of dance artists and whose works have reached wide audiences at home and abroad.”
Philip Szporer has been immersed in the Canadian dance world for 30 years. Currently, he teaches in the Contemporary Dance department at Concordia University and is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. In 1999, he was awarded a Pew Fellowship (National Dance/Media Project, University of California). For over 20 years, he worked as an arts journalist for CBC Radio, was a dance columnist for Radio-Canada’s radio arts magazine Aux arts, etc., and correspondent for The World (BBC/WGBH-Boston). His dance writings have been published in Hour, The Dance Current, Ballettanz and Dance Magazine among others.
In 2001, Mr. Szporer and Marlene Millar co-founded the award-winning arts film company Mouvement Perpétuel. Together they have
co-directed and produced documentaries, including Moments in Motion, Byron Chief-Moon: Grey Horse Rider, and the interdisciplinary Quarantaine. The short films Falling, The Greater the Weight and Butte were all featured during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Butte was also screened in the Canadian Pavilion during the 2010 Shanghai Expo. He is now collaborating with Ms. Millar and Crystal Pite on a 3D dance film at the National Film Board of Canada.
In addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts, the Canada Council for the Arts administers and awards many prizes and fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and health sciences, engineering, and arts management. These prizes and fellowships recognize the achievements of outstanding Canadian artists, scholars, and administrators. The Canada Council for the Arts is committed to raising public awareness and celebration of these exceptional people and organizations on both a national and international level.
Find a complete listing of these awards.
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Carole Breton
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