On September 7, 2021, Tamisha Guy, lecturer of dance at Barnard, was announced as one of three winners awarded the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance. The Vilcek Foundation Prizes recognize “outstanding immigrants for their contributions to intellectual and cultural life in the United States.” Recipients are selected for the professional rigor and aesthetic quality of their work. Creative Promise Prize recipients each receive a cash award of $50,000, and a commemorative certificate.
Guy, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, is new to the Barnard Dance Department. Since 2014, Guy has danced with A.I.M, a New York-based dance company which aims to honor Black culture and history through dance-based multimedia work. She previously danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company, and taught masterclasses around the world, including London, Berlin, Haiti, and Colombia.
In addition to receiving the prestigious Princess Grace Award in 2016, Guy was also selected as one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch, and the following year, Dance Europe named her one of the Best Dancers of the Year.