Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, who was described by one member of the Canberra Critics’ Circle judging panel as “the doyenne of Australian dance”, won a $1000 cheque and a fine porcelain bowl crafted by Canberra ceramic artist Avi Amesbury.

“I shed a few tears [and] felt several pangs of homesickness… I have always felt proud to be a part of Canberra’s artistic and cultural community, but this award makes me feel even more so,” she told “CityNews” by phone.

“I am also humbled and, indeed, very honoured.”

Founder, 50 years ago, of the Australian Dance Theatre in Adelaide and 13 years ago of the Mirramu Dance Company, named after her property on the shores of Lake George, Dalman is a proud octogenarian who shows no sign of slowing down.

She has staged several works in this, her golden anniversary year, and says: “It’s essential to pass on my work to solo dancers who are younger than me.”

Initially inspired by dance trailblazers such as Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham and Colombian-American Eleo Pomare, she fined-tuned her dance practice in Amsterdam, where she met her late husband Jan Dalman, known for his photographic portraits of Marcel Marceau.

After returning to Australia she set up the ADT, which she directed for 10 years and put on the map with a 1971 tour to Taipei, breaking away from the conventions of European ballet tradition.

She created original works with Aboriginal and Taiwanese dance artists, usually accommodated and hosted by her at Mirramu.

In her 26 years in the Canberra region she created many works about the environment on the dry lake bed near her home, also founding “Weereewa – a Festival of Lake George”.

With an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship (a “Keating”), an OAM, the award for lifetime achievement at the Australian Dance Awards, an artsACT Fellowship, no fewer than four Canberra Critics’ Circle Awards and now “CityNews” Artist of the Year, Dalman has been justly recognised for what she calls “a fortuitous lifetime of dance”.

The ACT Arts Awards evening, hosted by the Canberra Critics’ Circle, also featured the Circle’s own awards, which went to: visual artists Alison Jackson, Phoebe Porter, John Pratt, Alison Alder and Danny Wild; filmmakers Simon Cunich, Declan Shrubb, Christian Doran and Daniel Sanguineti; dance artists Ruth Osborne and Elizabeth Cameron Dalman; theatre artists David Atfield, Karen Vickery, Liz Bradley, Michael Sparks and Pip Buining; musical theatre artists Ben O’Reilly, Will Huang, Bronwyn Sullivan, Jacquelyn Richards and Chris Neal; musicians Katie Cole, Coro Chamber Music, Tom Woodward and Sally Greenaway; and writers Owen Bullock, Robyn Cadwallader, Marion Halligan and Julian Davies (with illustrator Phil Day).