B.C. dancer Margaret Grenier wins Walter Carsen Prize for performing arts

Gibsons, B.C.,-based dancer and choreographer MargaretGrenier has won this year's Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence inthe Performing Arts.

The Canada Council for the Arts administers the $50,000 prize,which honours Canadian professional artists in music, theatre ordance.

Grenier was born in Prince Rupert, B.C., and is of Gitxsan andCree ancestry.

She started learning traditional Gitxsan dance at a young agefrom her parents, Kenneth and Margaret Harris, who were inductedinto the Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame last year.

In 1967 the couple established the First Nations collectiveDancers of Damelahamid, where Grenier is executive and artisticdirector.

Grenier is also producer and director of the annual Coastal DanceFestival and has worked as a professional dancer since 1991.

She has scores of choreography credits, including "Setting the Path'' and "Sharing the Spirit,'' which toured to New Zealand and to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China.

"I am deeply compelled as an artist by the desire to impact ashift in our collective consciousness that values and upholds all dance forms,'' Grenier said Thursday in a statement.

"Receiving this award, as a traditionally trained Indigenousdancer from the Northwest Coast, is a great honour and givesrecognition to the depth of this art form and to the dedicatedefforts that revitalized these dances.''

She added: "I have witnessed and experienced an immense shift inthe world of dance as a result of our collective struggle to createspace for our Indigenous dance practices and overcome colonialbarriers. It is my hope that every achievement opens newpossibilities and breathes strength into one another and our arts.''