Dalman, who is teaching at Taipei National University of the Arts until early February, was awarded the prize – $1000 and a porcelain bowl by artist Avi Amesbury – for her works Fortuity and L, with which she celebrated her 50th anniversary as a trailblazer in the field of contemporary dance. The two pieces contained many of her signature pieces from her early career, along with recently choreographed works for Mirramu Dance Company, which she co-founded in 2002.

The citation said, "Both were beautifully curated evenings of dance and were supplemented by day-time performances in several of Canberra's cultural institutions. In addition to this extraordinary outpouring of creativity throughout 2015, Dalman also handed on a number of her works to dancers in her present company, and to Taiwanese dancers with whom she had been collaborating for some years, thus ensuring the preservation of these works to inspire future generations."

The convenor of the Canberra Critics' Circle, Helen Musa, said the contribution of the 82-year-old Dalman to the world of dance was "extraordinary" and noted that this year marked the 50th anniversary of Australian Dance Theatre, which Dalman founded in Adelaide.

In other awards, Musa said one area that was particularly strong this year was film – "not so much a matter of quantity as quality".

She said: "We were very impressed by the feature films."

The critics cited Simon Cunich for his "mystery documentary" Maratus, concerning the Peacock Spider (Maratus Volans), a garbage collector and a journey of self-discovery for a citizen-scientist, and Declan Shrubb, Christian Doran and Daniel Sanguineti for Me and My Mates Vs the Zombie Apocalypse, written and directed by Shrubb, which saw the use of a new and untested distribution platform, tugg.com, that crowd-sourced audiences and booked venues, achieving more than 30 screenings around the country.

Muss said: "We predict this might be at the forefront of a new era in film distribution."

In musical theatre Ben O'Reilly was cited for his performance in La Cage Aux Folles, Will Huang for his role in High Fidelity, and Bronwyn Sullivan for her two roles in Mary Poppins, while Jacquelyn Richards was cited for her choreography of Mary Poppins and Chris Neal for his technical achievement in lighting and sound for the arena production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

Other awards went to visual artists Alison Jackson, Phoebe Porter, John Pratt, Alison Alder and Danny Wild; dance artist Ruth Osborne, theatre artists David Atfield, Karen Vickery, Liz Bradley, Michael Sparks and Pip Buining; musicians Katie Cole, Coro Chamber Music, Tom Woodward and Sally Greenaway; and writers Owen Bullock, Robyn Cadwallader, Marion and Julian Davies with illustrator Phil Day.