Making Sure Choreography Is Getting Its Share Of The Kudos

"When I looked around the visual arts," says art collector, publisher and dance lover Phillip Keir, "I saw that there were 160 awards in Australia each year but I found that there wasn't anything in the choreographic world."

As the co-founder (with Sarah Benjamin) of the Keir Foundation, he was in a position to do something about that particular gap in the market. "Because there was some really interesting contemporary dance being done but no one was hearing about it," he adds. "Or at least, it wasn't being celebrated."

"Philanthropy can do things sometimes that government or corporate funding is not so able to do. Sometimes it can be more risky."

Thus, as it did in its first iteration back in 2014, this year's Keir Choreographic Award has commissioned eight short works from a group of Australia's top dance makers, with the semi-finals to be held at Melbourne's Dancehouse and the final in Sydney at Carriageworks in early May.

"What I wanted to do," Keir states, "was to find a way to create an award that brought contemporary choreography to the fore much more. But I was keen to make sure that it wasn't just a prize; and so there's the commission element to it. So y'know, hopefully there's eight winners. Eight commission fees, so..."

This is an important distinction. It hints at something more than a desire to create short-lived spectacle. Keir's years in magazine media drilled him in the stubborn realities of column inches and on-air mentions and his years as a theatre director honed his sensitivity to the politics of the funding grind. "Philanthropy," he declares, "can do things sometimes that government or corporate funding is not so able to do. Sometimes it can be more risky."

Private giving, he attests, is much less political. "We don't have any restrictions about state representation or a whole number of things that we're free from. Within the government sphere there are often certain political realities that have to be obeyed. Philanthropy can instead develop another set of principles and that then provides another view on things."

While readily conceding that public funding bodies like the Australia Council are "absolutely essential", Phillip Keir is clearly pleased to be offering an alternative. KCA participants will not need to submit acquittals or reports. "We've even tried with the award not to make people fill out a long form when they're applying," he explains. "We ask them to send us a five-minute video rather than a 15-page written proposal."

But of course, the real driver is a lifelong personal passion for the arts. As Keir elaborates, "There's a very high passive interest in the arts, but I always think that our job is to take that passive interest and make it a bit more active. Y'know, and someone has to activate that process in the dance community, because they tend to be a little Cinderella of the arts in terms of the quantum of funding and the amount of conventional media space."

Having studied with Merce Cunningham in New York "back in the late '70s" Phillip Keir is perhaps ideally suited to give his name to a choreographic award. His passion for contemporary dance and shrewd media brain have coalesced in the award. "Y'know, that's one of the things I really wanted to say," he concludes. "Here are some really great artists doing great work. I just want you to come along and have a look."