The Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship has returned in 2026, offering $10,000 to support Australian choreographers undertaking national or international travel for research and professional development.
The fellowship is one of two significant funding opportunities revived by Ausdance this year after being paused during the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship, which Dance Australia reported on last week, the two awards represent a total investment of $20,000 in early and mid-career Australian choreographers working across all dance genres.
Named in honour of Keith Bain OAM, a former Bodenwieser dancer and long-serving movement director at NIDA, the travel fellowship supports choreographic research and professional development at a time when competition for travel funding remains intense. Ausdance notes that Creative Australia's most recent International Travel Fund round attracted 135 eligible applications, of which only 31 could be funded.
Ausdance President Julie Englefield said the fellowships continued the legacy of two artists who chose to invest in future generations of Australian choreographers.
“These fellowships exist because two extraordinary artists, Dame Peggy van Praagh and Keith Bain, chose to invest in the choreographers who would come after them,” she said.
“At a time when the whole sector is asking how we build sustainable careers for Australian artists, these bequests are a reminder that targeted, artist-centred investment changes lives. Ten thousand dollars at the right moment in a choreographer's development can be the difference between an idea and a body of work.”
The Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship supports the creative development of Australian choreographers, while the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship is specifically designed to enable national and international travel for choreographic research and professional development. Both are open to Australian choreographers working in any dance genre.
Applications for both fellowships close on Friday 31 July 2026.