Acclaimed West Coast dance artist Crystal Pite has won the first biennial award named for the late local choreographer Lola MacLaughlin.

On March 1, MacLaughlin's birthday, Pite received the Lola Award, a $10,000 prize that will go into research for her next work in 2013.

Pite and her company Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM have recently toured Europe and are coming to the end of a three-year residency at a theatre in Europe.

The Award jury, made up of people in the fields of dance, visual art, and theatre, issued this statement: “Crystal Pite exemplifies the spirit of this award, both as a creator and as an interdisciplinary collaborator. As an artist in her own right, she creates complex artworks that weave movement, theatricality, spirituality and intellectual inquiry into art that takes the stuff and strangeness of human existence and the natural world as the basis for provocative and reverberant insights into the richness of human potential. She inspires the same sense of adventure in others, and in the spirit of Lola’s gift of influence, we applaud Crystal’s commitment to nurturing and developing her creativity in the company of other artists both locally and internationally. In her upcoming phase of research, she will continue to give back to a community that has supported her endeavours abroad and at home. Welcome home, Crystal.”

The Lola Award is designed to encourage and facilitate the work of mid-career and senior choreographers, and is supported by the new Lola MacLaughlin Endowment Fund. The Vancouver Foundation and Dance Centre administer the prize. Tony Giacinti, Lola’s husband and a major contributor to the establishment of the award, said in a press statement: “We hope this Award will reflect and nurture some of the essence of Lola’s spirit, artistic approach and vision, and contribute to the growth of a Vancouver aesthetic that reaches beyond our shores.”