Rosina Bonsu Bursary 2026 – Announced!
We’re delighted to introduce Kemono Lebe-Riot as the 2026 recipient of the Rosina Bonsu Bursary. In collaboration with Project X, this bursary honours Rosina Bonsu and her incredible influence on Scotland’s dance scene. Rosina was an inspiring dance artist, choreographer and educator who generously nutured and encouraged dance artists of all ages throughout her career.
Kemono Lebe-Riot is a multidisciplinary artist working across hip-hop dance theatre, music, spoken word and community practice. His work explores lived experience, identity and everyday urban spaces, using movement, rhythm and storytelling to reflect the realities of working-class and Black communities.
Rooted in hip-hop, his practice brings together choreography, voice and sound to create performances that feel both personal and collective. He is personally interested in how ordinary environments, such as public transport spaces become sites of connection, memory and transition.
Alongside his artistic work, Lebe is committed to community engagement, creating spaces for people of different generations to share stories and experiences that can interconnect, and shape lived work.
“Being supported by The Work Room through the Rosina Bonsu Bursary means a lot to me at this stage in my journey. It gives me the time and space to develop my practice more deeply and to begin shaping ideas that come directly from my lived experience.
Through this support, I will be developing a new work titled Last Bus Home, which explores the bus stop as a place of movement, connection and everyday life. The project draws on personal memories as well as stories from the community, reflecting on growing up, relationships and the different journeys people are on and how we can all be at one space and time but still live different realities.
I’m particularly looking forward to working in a more research-led way, experimenting with movement, sound and storytelling and connecting with others through workshops and shared experiences. This opportunity allows me to build something meaningful, while also laying the foundation for future work.”
Kemono Lebe-Riot
Background
The Rosina Bonsu Bursary supports a Scotland-based dance artist from the African/Caribbean diaspora. It aims to provide paid time, financial and practical support at a critical stage of their career, enabling them to refresh practice and instigate their own creative project over the next 6 months. To kick start this, Lebe is spending this week at the Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival in Leicester, produced by Serendipity Institute for Black Arts & Heritage.