Louise Bentall Award

Livona Ellis was born on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and s ̱ əlilwəta㶶 (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

She has performed with Ballet BC (11 seasons), Buhnen Bern, and many others. Livona has created works for Dances for a Small Stage, Dance Deck, Public Salon 2019, CAG Gala 2018, Arts Umbrella Season Finale, Ballet BC Take Form, and most recently City Opera of Vancouver. In 2017 she received the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Artist and in 2023 received the inaugural Louise Bentall Award for Emerging Choreographer.

Livona joined Kidd Pivot in June 2023 and is currently on faculty at Arts Umbrella. In November 2024 Livona premiered “Fortress”, a duet co-created with Rebecca Margolick. The completion of the work was made possible with the support of the Louise Bentall Award.

Lee Su-Feh (she/they) is a dance artist whose practice sits in the interstices of performance-making, pedagogy, ritual, writing and dialogue facilitation.

They split her time between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where they were born and raised; and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ Territories, a.k.a. Vancouver, Canada, where they make their home. Over the past 35 years, they have created a provocative body of award-winning trans-disciplinary work that interrogates the contemporary body as a site of intersecting and displaced histories and habits. Some of their current preoccupations involve creating somatic algorithms and building societies that dance.

Quelemia is a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist from the Musqueam Nation. She is a writer, actor, director, storyteller, host and dramaturge.Though she works in various forms, much of Quelemia’s work centres Indigenous perspective, specifically her Musqueam knowledge and culture.

Over the past 20 years, she has been disseminating sχʷəy̓em̓ (Musqueam history), knowledge of placenames, land-based stories and teachings that were passed down to her from her grandfather Ed Sparrow Sr. and her grandmother Rose Sparrow.

She represented the Musqueam Nation during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics welcoming the world to Vancouver and since then has continued to do Welcomes on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people.

She has worked across Canada as an actor, writer and director for various theatre companies including: The Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, Globe Theatre, WCT and The Stratford Festival. Some of her acting Film and T.V credits include: Until Branches Bend, Motherland, Tribal, Clouds of Autumn, Blackstone, Cable Beach, Da Vinci’s City Hall and Da Vinci’s Inquest which she won a Leo Award for Best Female Guest Appearance.

Livona Ellis was born in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples. She completed her training at Arts Umbrella under the direction of Artemis Gordon. Livona began dancing with Ballet BC in 2010 and throughout 11 seasons has been fortunate to work with incredible artists such as Crystal Pite, Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Felix Landerer, Sharon Eyal and many others.

Livona has created works for Dances for a Small Stage, Dance Deck, Public Salon 2019, Contemporary Art Gallery Gala 2018, Arts Umbrella Season Finale, and Ballet BC Take Form. In 2017 she received the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Artist. Livona was a guest artist with Konzert Theater Bern for their 2019/2020 season. Livona is on faculty at ArtsUmbrella and is a Programming Advisor for the BC Movement Arts Society.

Livona is currently collaborating with NYC based artist Rebecca Margolick on the creation of their full length duet “Fortress”.

Alyssa Favero is an emerging queer multiracial dance artist currently based on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver, British Columbia). Alyssa believes in entering spaces with curiosity and love. Alyssa is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, facilitator and director. Just a year out of Modus Operandi and Alyssa has felt creative momentum and support in the Vancouver community. As a dancer they have previously performed works by Khoudia Toure, OURO Collective and Zahra Shahab. As a facilitator, Alyssa has recently completed a nourishing mentorship with All Bodies Dance Project. As a choreographer-director Alyssa has had the pleasure of researching their own work around intimacy, queering relationships and pleasure through the support of What Lab and Co. ERASGA. Alyssa is excited to share their own solo work Vibrate during Nextfest (Edmonton, Alberta) in June, 2023, and is honoured to receive an Honourary Mention from DanceHouse. 

Josh Ongcol is a Dubai born, Queer, Filipinx artist that is currently a settler on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. 

Josh first exposure to dance was in highschool during the advent of Youtube, Americas Best Dance Crew and choreo dance competitions. Finishing highschool he trained in dance locally and internationally, in the styles of Locking, Popping, House, Hip hop, Vogue, Whacking from Ejoe Wilson, Sekou Heru, Natasha Gorie, Rina Palerina, Anna Martynova, James de Guzman, Mike brown, Kevin Shazam and Kim Sato and Contemporary dance from Tiffany Tegarthen, David Raymond, 605 collective, Sufeh lee, Kevin Fraser, Peter Bingham, Justine Chambers, Delia Brett and Deanna Peters. Josh continues to dive deeper in his relationship to streetdance; recently he had trained in west african dance in Guinea last February.

Josh is interested in the concept of “home” and “KAPWA” and the necessity of dance in the community/culture especially in protest, spirituality and reclaimation. His latest work, LAKBAY was created in collaboration with musician Miguel Maravila. Currently, Josh is creating a piece called “The E.N.D.” or “The Energy Never Dies” a dynamic live music and dance work inspired by the concept of the cypher specifically in house club dance culture.