Wen Wei Dance has won the 10th annual Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, a real coup for the B.C-based dancers and their choreographer, Wen Wei.

The award, one of the largest of its kind in Canada, is a $60,000 production fund and is only open to performing arts companies residing in British Columbia.

Wen Wei Dance's new work is scheduled to debut at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in February 2009, and will feature renewed collaboration with composer Giorgio Magnanensi (Three Sixty Five), James Burrows for lighting design, and Kate Burrows for costumes.

In a media release from the Cultch, Wen Wei reflected on the new work: "The ideas for my new work are somewhat a reflection of my own experiences as a student at my dance school in China. I was one of five boys who shared a small room for more than five years. Sometimes we liked each other and at other times we did not. These memories contribute subconsciously to my scenario for the proposed new work."

Previous winners of the Rio Tinto award include Vancouver dance company The Holy Body Tattoo, Modern Baroque Opera, and neworldtheatre's Adrift on the Nile.

The competition rotates annually among dance, theatre, and music/opera sectors of the arts community, and is adjudicated by an independent panel of artistic professionals.

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