Laurel Victoria Gray
LAUREL VICTORIA GRAY
'Enlightenment through Dance' TM

TORONTO, Ontario. Laurel Victoria Gray, Artistic Director of Washington DC’s Silk Road Dance Company, received the prestigious Arash Award at the closing gala of Toronto’s Tirgan Festival, the world’s largest Iranian cultural celebration, held July 21-24, 2011. The honor is bestowed on leading artists and literary figures in Iranian culture. Gray is the first American of non-Iranian descent to receive this award.

Known for her innovative choreographies based on the movement vocabulary of traditional Persian and Central Asian dance forms, Laurel Victoria Gray actively promotes understanding of the Islamic world through her cultural presentations, performances, and lectures. She founded the Silk Road Dance Company in 1995; the ensemble has since performed throughout the US as well as in Qatar and Uzbekistan. At the invitation of the Tirgan Organizing Committee, Silk Road Dance Company presented several programs at this year’s festival. Tirgan 2011 showcased the talents of over 150 Iranian artists, many of whom traveled thousands of miles to attend the festival. Exemplary performances in music, dance and theatre were presented, and world class masterpieces in cinema and the visual arts were made available to the public

The Arash Award is named for the legendary Persian archer who, during a dispute between Persian and non-Persian peoples, put his soul into a magical arrow destined to peaceably mark the boundaries between two kingdoms. The stunning statuette was designed by Iranian sculptor Ahmad Sakhavarz. Made from 24 carat gold-plated pewter, the Arash Award was manufactured by the same company that created the Oscars.

LAUREL VICTORIA GRAY TO GIVE
2009 SELMA JEANNE COHEN LECTURE
AT 32nd ANNUAL
FULBRIGHT ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 21, 2009) -- The Fulbright Association announced today that Laurel Victoria Gray, artistic director of the Silk Dance Road Company, will present the 2009 Selma Jeanne Cohen Lecture in International Dance Scholarship on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. Ms. Gray is adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at George Washington University.

Ms. Gray will discuss “A Living Legacy: Uzbek Dance” and will touch on the 1989 Seattle Soviet Theatre Arts Exchange, in which Dr. Cohen participated. Her presentation will include a performance by members of the Silk Road Dance Company of traditional Uzbek dances from the company’s Legacy Repertoire.

Ms. Gray first visited Uzbekistan in 1973 and, in 1981, joined the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Committee. She participated in the official 1984 delegation of Seattle residents to Uzbekistan and founded the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society that same year. Gray also co-founded of an annual dance camp that hosts dance instructors from Uzbekistan. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Uzbek Ministry of Culture at a ceremony held at Tashkent's Institute of Art in recognition of her work in promoting and preserving traditional Uzbek culture and dance. She has produced performances at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington, D.C. She received the Kennedy Center’s Local Dance Commissioning Project Award for her production of “Egypta: Myth, Magic, and Mystery” in 2003.

“I hope that my study of women's dance of Silk Road regions has helped to cultivate better understanding of, and respect for, traditional cultures of the East,” Ms. Gray said.

The late Selma Jeanne Cohen, preeminent dance historian and founding editor of the International Encyclopedia of Dance, endowed the dance lecture at the Fulbright Association’s annual conference to highlight dance.

“I view this honor as a tribute to Selma Jeanne Cohen and her great enthusiasm for Uzbek dance. Twenty years after she participated in our historic delegation to Soviet Uzbekistan, we can better appreciate the significance of the seeds sewn by our cultural exchange with Central Asia,” said Ms. Gray.

Known as the 'the pioneer of Uzbek dance in America,' Gray's efforts to preserve and present traditional Central Asian and Persian dance make her a true cultural diplomat. In 2007, she was awarded on honorary doctorate by the Ministry of Culture of Uzbekistan for her work in promoting and preserving Central Asian dance.

She is the recipient of the 2006 Metro DC Dance Award for Excellence in Costume Design; the 2005 Distinguished Service Award from the Embassy of Uzbekistan; the 2003 Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Award; and the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance (IAMED) Awards for Best Choreographer (2003) and Best Ethnic Dancer (1999).

More detailed biographical is available by clicking on 'About Laurel Victoria Gray.'

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