News Release
Flamenco dancer Oscar Nieto wins Jacqueline Lemieux
Prize
Ottawa, October 12, 2005
The Canada Council for the Arts announced that Vancouver-based
flamenco dancer Oscar Nieto is the winner of the Jacqueline
Lemieux Prize. It is the first time that the award goes
to a flamenco artist.
The Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, valued at $6,000, is
awarded annually to the most deserving applicant in
the Dance Section¡¯s Grants to Dance Professionals program.
The prize is awarded in memory of Jacqueline Lemieux
and her contribution to Canadian dance. Co-founder with
her husband, Lawrence Gradus, of the Montreal dance
company Entre-Six and of Quebec Ete Danse, a summer
school in Lennoxville, Jacqueline Lemieux was a teacher,
administrator and a member of the Canada Council for
the Arts Advisory Panel. Recent winners of this Prize
include Toronto dancer and choreographer Sarah Chase
(2004); and Vancouver choreographer Joe Laughlin (2003).
Click on this link to view the full list of past winners:
Jacqueline Lemieux Prize - Full list of winners.
The prize will be presented to Oscar Nieto following
his performance of Poemas de Alegria, presented by Mozaico
Flamenco Dance Theatre, on the evening of Saturday,
October 16 at Vancouver's Norman Rothstein Theatre.
Mr. Nieto is the company's artistic director.
The winner of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize is chosen
by a peer assessment committee. The committee consisted
of Esmeralda Enrique (Toronto), Jose Navas (Montreal)
and Lynda Raino (Victoria, BC).
Oscar Nieto was selected in recognition of his long
standing contribution to the art of flamenco in Canada.
The selection committee said: ¡°Oscar Nieto still puts
the stage on fire when he performs! He has never ceased
to innovate and challenge himself. Over the years, he
has kept his foot on the pulse of flamenco development
and also kept his students abreast of these new developments.
As one of very few senior male flamenco dancers in this
country, he is leaving an important legacy for flamenco
dance across Canada.¡±
Oscar Nieto
Born in Texas and raised in Los Angeles; Oscar Nieto
began dancing at the age of eight under the musical
influences of Tex-Mex rock and pop, show tunes, musicals,
jazz, Latin, Mexican and Spanish music and dance. He
launched his professional career in Antonio Gades¡¯ production
of El Amor Brujo at the Chicago Lyric Opera House in
1969, and has built his reputation as a dancer performing
with the Jose Greco Company, Lola Montes, the Boston
Flamenco Ballet, and Jose Antonio Ballet Siluetas (Madrid).
Mr. Nieto worked with Ciro in New Orleans and Chicago.
Furthermore he has choreographed for the Vancouver Opera,
and most recently performed with his dance company Mozaico
Flamenco Dance Theatre with the Vancouver Symphony.
Oscar Nieto created Mosaico de Danzas in Los Angeles
in 1972 and began teaching there. Inspired by his first
visit to Spain in the mid-seventies, he then fused song
and dance together with Latin rhythms, something that
was revolutionary for it¡¯s time. Mr. Nieto later established
Mozaico Flamenco which evolved into Mozaico Flamenco
Dance Theatre in Vancouver, where with co-instructor
and business partner Kasandra Lea, he teaches at their
studio Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy. Mr. Nieto
established residence in Vancouver in 1983. There he
created Flamenco Heresy, a band that fuses flamenco,
jazz and Latin rhythms. He also has created a teaching
method called C.A.L. (Cognitive Awareness Learning).
Oscar Nieto has dedicated years to the study of the
origins of flamenco, regional and classical Spanish
dance forms. He is a fountain of knowledge from a cultural-historical
standpoint. In 1998, Mr. Nieto received a Canada Council
for the Arts grant to study the evolution of flamenco
and Spanish dance in Spain. In 2004, he received a British
Columbia Arts Council grant to remount Espiritu Sin
Nombre (Spirit Without Name), a multi-media dance, music
and art presentation that was based on a poem by Spanish
writer and poet, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. Mr. Nieto is
currently working on a documentary on the life of his
mentor, Lola Montes. This year he received a Canada
Council grant to assist him in the development of this
documentary. In 2003 he was dubbed ¡°a flamenco Fred
Astaire¡± by the Los Angeles Times.
Oscar Nieto is one of North America¡¯s most acclaimed
flamenco dancers, and divides his teaching year between
Los Angeles and Vancouver. In addition to wearing several
hats such as artistic director, choreographer, dancer,
and singer, his latest passions are videography and
the preservation of flamenco and Spanish dance. You
can visit his web site at www.oscarnieto.com.
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its
principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in
Canada, administers and awards nearly 100 prizes and
fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences,
natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. Among
these are the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in
the Performing Arts, the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton
Awards, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes,
the Governor General¡¯s Literary Awards, the Governor
General¡¯s Awards in Visual and Media Arts and the Killam
Prizes.
For more information about these prizes, including
nomination procedures, contact Janet Riedel Pigott,
Acting Director of Endowments and Prizes, at (613) 566-4414
or 1 800?263?5588, ext. 5041, janet.riedel@canadacouncil.ca,
or Danielle Sarault, Acting Endowments and Prizes Officer,
at (613) 566-4414, or 1-800- 263-5588, ext. 4116, e-mail:
danielle.sarault@canadacouncil.ca.
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Media contact: Public Affairs, Research
and Communications
Carole Breton (613) 566-4414 or 1-800-263-5588, ext.
4523
E-mail: carole.breton@canadacouncil.ca
Donna Balkan (613) 566-4305 or 1-800-263-5588, ext.
4134
E-mail: donna.balkan@canadacouncil.ca
Visit our web site at www.canadacouncil.ca.
Tous les documents du Conseil des Arts du Canada sont
offerts en francais et en anglais.
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