The Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund
The Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund, now 30 years old, has announced the recipients of its 2015 awards 'The Bonnies'. This encapsulates a new set of awards including the Marion North Mentoring Awards, The Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award and the Bonnie Bird Lifetime Contribution to Choreography Award.
The Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund focuses on supporting dance artists’ current practice and research, in the development of new choreography and aiming to recognise and address what choreography is today. Today choreographers are continuing to push boundaries and create increasingly complex works, in a bid to keep themselves and their work abreast of the ever-changing dance landscape and audience. The Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund was set up by Bonnie Bird in 1985 and since its inception the fund has provided over 130 awards to dance artists in the UK and across the world.
The 2015 Bonnie Bird Lifetime Contribution to Choreography Award has been awarded to Rosemary Butcher in recognition of her extraordinary dedication and achievement to dance and choreographic practices in the UK. Butcher's career is spread across more than 40 years, in which she has created more than 50 works which have been performed in over 40 countries. She continues to create innovative dance works, in addition to writing, working with other dance makers, pioneering dance research as a Senior Research Fellow at Middlesex University and has recently been awarded an MBE.
Two new partnerships for the 2015 Marion North Mentoring Awards, which provide mentoring support to younger artists, have been announced between The Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund and Pavilion Dance South West and Tramway, Glasgow. These awards give new and emerging choreographers the opportunity to gain invaluable advice, support and feedback from established choreographers or dance artists. These newly announced partnerships will see four artists receive mentoring over the next year.