The Dance Centre is pleased to announce that Sara Coffin is the recipient of the third Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award.
The Award was established in memory of Iris Garland, the pioneering educator who developed Simon Fraser University’s dance program. The biennial Award provides $5000 to assist an emerging artist between 19 and 35 years of age who demonstrates exceptional choreographic potential, to produce their work at Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver. Coffin will use the award to support the production of a new ensemble work inspired by the concept of open source culture, set to premiere in September 2010 at Scotiabank Dance Centre. The previous recipients of the Award are Amber Funk Barton in 2005, and Chengxin Wei in 2007.
The Award was established in memory of Iris Garland, the pioneering educator who developed Simon Fraser University’s dance program. The biennial Award provides $5000 to assist an emerging artist between 19 and 35 years of age who demonstrates exceptional choreographic potential, to produce their work at Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver. Coffin will use the award to support the production of a new ensemble work inspired by the concept of open source culture, set to premiere in September 2010 at Scotiabank Dance Centre. The previous recipients of the Award are Amber Funk Barton in 2005, and Chengxin Wei in 2007.
Born in Nova Scotia, Sara Coffin is a Vancouver-based dancer and choreographer. She completed her BFA in dance at Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts and her Kinesiology degree (BScK) at Dalhousie University. Notable artists she has worked with include The Holy Body Tattoo in monumental, Daelik, Mascall Dance, Susan Elliott, Susan Lee and Lesandra Dodson, Deborah Dunn, and Peter Chin, with the TILT: sound + motion dance company. Her own choreography has been presented in Nova Scotia, Toronto and Vancouver; including the Dancing on The Edge Festival, ROMP! (Victoria), Dances for a Small Stage, 12 Minutes Max, Pulse (at Scotiabank Dance Centre), Video-In, Toronto's 808 series, and at TILT's Choreographic Workshop (Toronto). Coffin studied at the Impulstanz International Dance Festival in Vienna, supported by the Canada Council in 2005. She received the 2005 BC Emerging Dance Artist Award, awarded by the Holy Body Tattoo Dance Company; the BC Arts Council Senior Scholarship Award for choreography (2002), and The Pat Richards Choreographic Award (1999,1998); and is Dance Centre Artist-in-Residence during the 2009-2010 season. She is a co-founder of SINS Dance (Sometimes In Nova Scotia), a collective based in Nova Scotia that traverses Canada. She also currently teaches contemporary dance at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and is an assistant programmer for the dance program. www.saracoffin.com
