Call for proposals

Lucy Bowen Award for Inclusive Choreography

Supporting new choreography for people with Parkinson's

Two awards granted this year

We're pleased to announce that the application window for the 2026-27 Lucy Bowen Award for Inclusive Choreography is now open. Applications will be accepted until 9 p.m. US Eastern Time on July 15, 2026.

This award, now in its 6th cycle, aims to support emerging or established choreographers who want to create a new dance in collaboration with and publicly performed by people living with Parkinson’s in their local community.

Award applicants' body of work, which can be in any style or dance form, should reflect quality, craft, creativity, and innovation. Applicants must propose a collaborative partnership with a specific, established Dance for Parkinson’s class community anywhere in the world. This year, we will once again aim to grant one or two awards of between $8,000 and $12,000 USD each in support of new projects.

The award recipients for the 2026-27 season will be announced in October 2026. Please click here for more details, terms and conditions, as well as the link to apply. Por favor haga clic aquí para ver la página en español.

Support for the Bowen Award comes from Lucy Bowen and contributors to the Bowen Fund.

Past Awardees

Valeria Solomonoff | 2021-22

NYC-based Argentinian choreographer, dancer, and teaching artist Valeria Solomonoff, an NYU Tisch Tango instructor and research associate at Harvard’s Partnering Lab, drew upon her tango roots to reimagine new possibilities of partnering and improvisation for the NYC Dance for PD community in a piece called Gathering Together.

Robin Dekkers | 2022-23

Robin Dekkers created Rewilding, an original dance film featuring participants in Berkeley Ballet Theater’s Dance for PD® program in Berkeley, CA. Dekkers is the Artistic Director of Berkeley Ballet Theater and Post:ballet.

Katie Elliott | 2023-24

Katie Elliott, co-founder and artistic director of Boulder-based 3rd Law Dance/Theater, created INTERZONE, a dance performance project developed as a collaboration between participants in 3rd Law Dance/Theater's Dance for Parkinson's program and 3rd Law company dancers that premiered in November 2024.

Maïté Guérin and Hrishikesh Pawar | 2024-25

Maïté Guérin, founder of Care to Dance in Belgium, is in the process of creating What if, an intergenerational dance film that will portray the emergence of five relationships between a person living with Parkinson’s disease and a child or young adult.

Hrishikesh Pawar, Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Dance in Pune, India, is creating Rhythms of Resilience to celebrate the power of movement and music in fostering resilience and well-being among individuals living with Parkinson's disease through both live performance and a documentary.

Niamh O'Loughlin and John Heginbotham | 2025-26

Niamh O’Loughlin, a dance artist based in Scotland, created Spell Body, a collaborative dance film created with the Dance for Parkinson’s class at Perth Concert Hall in Dundee, Scotland, inspired by the 17th-century figure Isobel Gowdie. Centering accessibility, embodied listening, and participant storytelling, the project explores mischief and transformation.

John Heginbotham, Artistic Director of Dance Heginbotham, worked with New Orleans Ballet Association to create the multigenerational ENCORE Parkinson's Dance Project, a collaborative performance premiering at Tulane’s Dixon Hall this month.