Emerging Artist Award 2025/26

We’re really excited to announce the two Emerging Artist Award recipients for 2025/26!

The BUZZCUT Emerging Artist Award is a year-long opportunity for two Scotland-based performance makers. Our 2025/26 Awardees are Marios Ento-Engkolo and Charneh Watson and each artist will present their work at BUZZCUT Festival 2026.

The Emerging Artist Award supports emerging artists and performance makers. Providing funding, residency space and mentorship to allow them to create the work they want to make. Carried out in partnership with Take Me Somewhere, Centre for Contemporary Arts & London Performance Studios.

Marios Ento-Engkolo (he/him) is an Afro-Mediterranean, queer, Glasgow-based dance artist passionate about storytelling and emotional expression through movement. His journey began in 2017, and dance has become his primary medium for connection and self-expression.

Marios has diverse experience, working with artists across various styles, from street dance genres like hip-hop and afrobeats to contemporary and experimental dance. His particular focus on experimental dance and contemporary performance reflects his love of movement and ritualistic practices, influenced by the mentorship of Divine Tasinda.

Marios’s practice is heavily influenced by his training in Street Dance styles, which is evident by making it very musicality-led. In addition, he uses different foundations from Hip-Hop, Afrobeats and Dancehall to inform his movement vocabulary, as well as combining his Somatic training to add depth and character to his movement quality.

Charneh Watson (she/her) Is a performance maker, community artist and anthropologist. Her practice combines live art, theatre and participatory arts. The form of her work is varied, but it is always collaborative. Charneh loves to create ensemble pieces with fellow artists, audiences, and communities.

Charneh’s work is informed by being a carer and growing up in a single-parent household. Her ideas are often a mix of personal experiences, responses to social and political issues, and her frequent whimsical daydreams! Evolving her ideas into shared and collaborative processes.

In her work, she aims to break down barriers by deconstructing artistic forms through experimentation with duration and interactivity. Whilst exploring recurring themes of anger, grief, care and intimacy.