Red Sky Performance’s Sandra Laronde, actor Graham Greene among Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards

Jeremy Dutcher also receives the National Arts Centre Award as part of the announcement

Sandra Laronde with Red Sky Performance.

THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S Performing Arts Awards Foundation has just announced the laureates of the 2025 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement—the country’s highest accolade in the performing arts. And several names will be familiar to Vancouver audiences.

They include Sandra Laronde, director, producer, choreographer, author, and executive and artistic director of the dance troupe Red Sky Performance; composer Denis Gougeon; actor Graham Greene; and comedian, film and television actor, host, screenwriter, and producer Patrick Huard. The honour comes with a $25,000 cash prize, contributed by the Canada Council for the Arts, and a commemorative medallion struck by the Royal Canadian Mint.

In addition, the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts, which recognizes outstanding contribution to the performing arts in Canada, has gone to April Hubbard, a Halifax-based performance artist, arts administrator, and Mad Disability advocate.

Meanwhile, composer, musician, language carrier, ethnomusicologist, and activist Jeremy Dutcher has received the National Arts Centre Award as part of the announcement. The prize recognizes work of an extraordinary nature by an individual artist or company in the past performance year.

And under the national Mentorship Program also unveiled today, filmmaker Atom Egoyan will offer guidance over the next year to Joshua Odjick, a rising star of Algonquin-Anishinabe/Cree heritage from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation.

The awards ceremony takes place June 14 in Ottawa.

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