Eight new dance commissions compete for $50,000 Keir Award

The biennial Keir Choreographic Award is dedicated to the commissioning of new choreographic work and promoting innovative, experimental and cross-artform practice in contemporary dance.

Eight artists and collectives – including Lewis Major, a proud Bungandidj artist with a background in sheep farming and a foreground in experimental dance theatre, and the small-to-medium Gold Coast company The Farm – have been shortlisted for the fourth edition of the biennial Keir Choreographic Award.

Co-presented by the Keir Foundation, Dancehouse, Carriageworks and the Australia Council for the Arts, the winner of the $50,000 cash prize will be chosen by a jury of five internationally renowned contemporary dance leaders.  

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts