Montreal-born dancer Margie Gillis has won the $50,000 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, marking a career spent mostly in Canada.
The prize, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, was endowed by Toronto businessman and philanthropist Walter Carsen and is awarded annually in a four-year cycle for dance, theatre, dance and music.
A Member of the Order of Canada who made her mark as a soloist, Gillis was chosen by Peter Chin, artistic director of the Tribal Crackling Wind for the Arts; Marie Chouinard, artistic and general director of the Compagnie Marie Chouinard (Montreal); and Grant Strate, director of the Dance Foundation (Vancouver). The committee called her "an artist of integrity and charisma who is committed to aesthetic expression and social issues."