Bessie Awards announce 2016 nominees
The NY Dance and Performance Awards, known as “The Bessies”, are New York City’s premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field. The nominees for the 2015−16 Season were recently named at a press conference.
The 38 nominees were selected by the Bessie Awards Selection Committee, an independent committee of 40 dance industry professionals. Produced in partnership with Dance/NYC, Bessie Award categories include: Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition or Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design. (See the full list of nominations below.)
The 32nd annual Bessie Awards, presented in association with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, will take place on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, at 7:30 pm, at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.
“After five glorious years at the Apollo, we are thrilled to be bringing the awards to BAM’s historic opera house,” says Lucy Sexton, executive director of the Bessies. “It is in some sense a homecoming—BAM hosted the awards from 1985 to 1990—and it is especially meaningful as Brooklyn is home to so many artists.”
Three 2016 awards were already presented at the press conference on July 13. The Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Award was presented to Joya Powell for her passionate choreographic engagement with issues of justice and race in our communities and our country; for connecting with the audience in ways that make it clear that these concerns belong to all of us—and action is required.
The award for Outstanding Revival was given to Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder, choreographed by Donald McKayle. Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder was recognized for giving a classic modern dance new and powerful life, transforming the midcentury portrayal of an African American prison chain gang into a searingly resonant cry for our current times, performed with humanity, craft and beauty by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, produced by Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance as part of its 2016 season at the David H. Koch Theater.
This year’s Bessie Jury—Yoshiko Chuma, Liz Gerring and Bill T. Jones—named Pam Tanowitz the recipient of the 2016 Juried Bessie Award. Tanowitz was recognized for using form and structure as a vehicle for challenging audiences to think, to feel, to experience movement; for pursuing her uniquely poetic and theatrical vision with astounding rigor and focus.
The 2016 Bessie Nominations:
Outstanding Production:
– An Epilogue for OTRO TEATRO: True Love by luciana achugar (Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center)
– Yimbégré: Replanting roots in the name of freedom by Souleymane Badolo (BAM Fishman Space)
– Black Girl: Linguistic Play by Camille A. Brown (The Joyce Theater)
– Chambre by Jack Ferver and Marc Swanson (The New Museum co-presented by FIAF)
– Girl Gods by Pat Graney (Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University)
– PLASTIC by Maria Hassabi (MoMA)
– dead, disappears by Heather Kravas (American Realness at Abrons Arts Center)
– Scaffold Room by Ralph Lemon (The Kitchen)
– Swan Lake by Dada Masilo (The Joyce Theater)
– Heatscape by Justin Peck, performed by Miami City Ballet (David H. Koch Theater)
– For Claude Shannon by Liz Santoro & Pierre Godard (The Kitchen)
– Sleeping Beauty by Safi A. Thomas with H+ | The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory (Flamboyán Theater)
Outstanding Revival (* indicates award recipient):
– get dancing by Andy de Groat & Catherine Galasso (Danspace Project)
– Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder * by Donald McKayle, performed by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, produced by Paul Taylor American Modern Dance (David H. Koch Theater)
Outstanding Performer:
– Ephrat Asherie (sustained achievement with Dorrance Dance, Doug Elkins, Bill Irwin, Gus Solomon jr., Rennie Harris, Cori Olinghouse and many others)
– Nicolas Bruder (in Custodians of Beauty by Pavel Zuštiak at New York Live Arts)
– Omar Edwards (in FLY at New Victory Theater)
– Paul Hamilton (for his body of work including Ralph Lemon’s Scaffold Room and the work of Jane Comfort, Keeley Garfield and others)
– Parisa Khobdeh (for her body of work with Paul Taylor Dance Company)
– Kazunori Kumagai (for his body of work including Live at the Blue Note Late Night Groove Series)
– Jennifer Lafferty (in Catacomb by Beth Gill at The Chocolate Factory)
– Molly Lieber (for her body of work with several artists including luciana achugar, Maria Hassabi and Donna Uchizono)
– Aaron Mattocks (in Big Dance: Short Form by Big Dance Theater at The Kitchen)
– Gillian Murphy (sustained achievement with American Ballet Theatre)
– Aakash Odedra (in Rising at Skirball Center for the Performing Arts)
– Jamar Roberts (sustained achievement with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
Outstanding Emerging Choreographer (* indicates award recipient):
– John Heginbotham
– Jillian Peña
– Joya Powell *
– Larissa Velez-Jackson
Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design:
– Admanda Kobilka for Clap Hands by Jen Rosenblit (Invisible Dog Art Center/New York Live Arts)
– Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste for #negrophobia by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko | anonymous bodies (Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center)
– Dan Trueman, Sō Percussion and Mobius Percussion for There Might Be Others by Rebecca Lazier (New York Live Arts)
– Ustatshakirt Plus for Dream’d in a Dream by Seán Curran (BAM Harvey Theater)
Outstanding Visual Design:
– Holly Batt for the visual and set design of Girl Gods by Pat Graney (Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University)
– Design Team: F. Randy deCelle, Ralph Lemon, Roderick Murray, Naoko Nagata, R. Eric Stone, Mike Taylor, and Philip White for the visual design of Scaffold Room by Ralph Lemon (The Kitchen)
– DD Dorvillier and Thomas Dunn for the lighting and visual design of Extra Shapes by DD Dorvillier (The Kitchen)
– Eamonn Farrell for the new media scenography of Forgiveness by Emily Berry | B3W Performance Group (BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center)
For more information, visit www.bessies.org.
Photo: Donald McKayle’s Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder being performed by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Photo by Paul B. Goode.