Local dancer/choreographer Kane Walcott wins £1,000 to bring professional dancers to Milton Keynes.
At the start of 2024 a new bursary was set up in Milton Keynes: the Helen Parlor Dance Bursary for dancers or choreographers at any stage of their career. After a 1-month crowd-funding campaign and an open call for applications. Local dancer/choreographer Kane Walcott has been awarded the bursary.
Kane applied along with other hopefuls, articulating a desire for the growth of professional dance in our city. He was born and bred in Milton Keynes with a career seeing dance in multiple TV shows such as "Britain's Got Talent" (2017), "Alan Carr: It's All About the Movie" (2019), and the Brit Awards (2020). He also danced on Netflix's "Dance 100" and in films like "Captain Marvel 2" and "Better Man."
His work so far has mostly taken him outside of Milton Keynes with his dance journey beginning at the age of 16 when he joined the hip-hop dance crew ZKMO, founded by Zec. He later expanded his skills by attending camps like HDI and joining the Empire Dance Crew in London, focusing on commercial dance.
The panel were taken by Kane’s passion for dance and his keenness to bring his international connections to Milton Keynes. Chair of MÓTUS Dance Lucy Davies said, “we have created this bursary as a legacy project for our founder/artistic director Helen Parlor. She believed passionately in giving opportunity to the people of Milton Keynes through dance. I think the panel made an excellent choice awarding Kane”.
Upon receiving the bursary, Kane Walcott said, “I am pleased to be the recipient of this bursary because it allows me to develop my skills and find mentors who will help me grow in my career. I plan on using the award to better my skills, training, and engage in choreographic projects, as well as to bring more talented creatives to Milton Keynes to educate our local talent.
He continues, “It is important that we support artistic talent in Milton Keynes because sometimes our careers take us outside of Milton Keynes, and people forget this is where we came from. It is important to support and showcase that creative talent can come from Milton Keynes."
The bursary was established through £5,000 donated via crowd-funding, a grant from MK City Council and support from MK Community Foundation who doubled each donation received. The fund, managed by the Community Foundation, has been invested and the annual interest from the fund will be used each year to support a new dancer or choreographer.
