Ausdance National, Australia’s peak body for dance, has just announced the 2026 recipients of the Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship and the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship. Both Fellowships were made available as a result of bequests from Dame Peggy van Praagh and Keith Bain OAM, both of whom made substantial contributions to dance in Australia.
Currently working in Perth, Xin Ong has been awarded the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship. From the media release we learn that Xin Ong is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice centres on presence, connection, and deep listening. She has been invited as Assistant to Farooq Chaudhry OBE, Artistic Director, in his upcoming development of The Bridge, in Shenzen, China. Within this project, which centres on intercultural and interdisciplinary collaboration, the Fellowship will support Xin’s choreographic practice and enquiry, through the opportunity to witness a multitude of complexities at close range, under expert mentorship.
Read a biography of Xin Ong on the Strut Dance website. Images of Xin Ong below are by © David Cooper.
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The Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship was awarded to Chung Nguyen. Currently based in Melbourne, Chung Nguyen has just recently staged a work with the name of Fluid Memories.
A Vietnamese/Australian, he practises as a dance artist, somatic movement facilitator and Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist. His work sits, as media information explains, at the intersection of live performance, video installation, choreography, and community engagement. With his Fellowship Chung will build on investigations of the Australian migrant journey to develop Breathing is Remembering through a series of developments and residencies across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. The work will consider communities and sites linked to Agent Orange, an agricultural chemical weaponised and used during the war in Vietnam (1962-1971). The Fellowships will directly impact Chung’s leadership, providing dedicated research and development time, while building skills in community-based, cross-cultural, and choreographic research.
The Fellowships were put into place several years ago but were closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic and through the following years. Ausdance National has managed the Fellowships on behalf of the donors from the beginning and the organisation has now reinstated them. It is great to see the Fellowships back up and working, and to reflect once more on the exceptional work carried out by van Praagh and Bain. I do hope this is not a one-off event and that the Fellowships will continue to be part of Australian dance activities.
Read more about the Fellowships on this website at this link.
Michelle Potter, 16 September 2026.
Featured image: Xin Ong. Photo: © David Cooper.
