Vancouver dance artist Sara Coffin has just won the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award, the Dance Centre has announced.

The Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts grad has worked with local contemporary troupes from the Holy Body Tattoo to Mascall Dance.

But perhaps her most unique effort has been the SINS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) Dance project in which she often collaborates with colleagues on the other side of the country, in her Maritime home province.

The biennial award grants Coffin, who is artist in residence at the Dance Centre this season, $5,000.

Coffin is to use the money to create a new ensemble work that will premiere at the centre next year.

It's named for the woman who pioneered the dance program at SFU.