Princess Grace Award winners announced

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) recently announced the winners of the 2016 Princess Grace Awards. The annual gala will continue the legacy of Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco, who helped emerging artists pursue their artistic goals during her lifetime. In total, the foundation is awarding over $1 million to artists in theater, dance and film.

In the presence of The Prince and The Princess of Monaco, this year’s gala will be held at Cipriani 25 Broadway on October 24, 2016. The evening will be co-chaired by Lisa and Richard Plepler, Sidney and Katia Toledano, and Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel. Major gala supporters include Christian Dior Couture as Presenting Sponsor and Lily Safra as Crown Sponsor.

PGF-USA Executive Director Toby Boshak shared, “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s incredibly talented award winners into the Princess Grace Foundation-USA family. Each year we enthusiastically support a passionate new group of emerging talents who will one day be at the forefront of the arts. We look forward to watching them grow as artists in the same way we have watched this year’s Statue Award winners, Leslie Odom Jr. and Camille Brown, evolve.  We are incredibly proud of all of them.”

For the eighth year in a row, celebrated artist Alex Soldier, known for his mastery of precious miniatures, has created an objet d’art to represent the Princess Grace Awards. The award symbolically combines the three art forms lauded by the foundation: theater, dance and film by using precious metals and Swarovski crystal accents. Presented as a distinctive sculpture to the Prince Rainier III Award honoree, this creation is transformed for each recipient to wear as a pin, a special reminder of their award for the world to see.

Past award winners are eligible for the foundation’s Princess Grace Statue Award. This year, Leslie Odom Jr., who starred as Aaron Burr in Broadway’s hit musical Hamilton for which he received a 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and 2016 Bessie-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown will each receive Princess Grace Statue Awards. In addition to a $25,000 unrestricted cash gift, both will be presented with a bronze statue of Princess Grace created by the Dutch artist Kees Verkade. To date, 63 artists have received this award.

In addition, Brown has also been announced as the recipient for the 2016 Choreography Mentorship Co-Commission (CMCC) Award and previous award winner Kyle Abraham is a recipient of a Special Project Award.

See below for this year’s Princess Grace Award winners for Dance Performance and Choreography. To see the winners for Film and Theater/Playwriting, head to www.pgfusa.com.

– Danielle Agami, Visceral Dance Chicago, Choreography Fellowship

– Tyson Clark, Boston Ballet, Dance Scholarship, Chris Hellman Dance Award

– Marc Crousillat, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Dance Fellowship

– Jeffery Duffy, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Dance Fellowship

– Paige Fraser, Visceral Dance Chicago, Dance Fellowship

– Tamisha Guy, Abraham.In.Motion, Dance Fellowship

– Riley O’Flynn, The Juilliard School, Dance Scholarship

– Penny Saunders, Whim W’him, Choreography Fellowship

– Honoraria: Chrystyn M. Fentroy, Dance Theatre of Harlem

Photo (top): Paige Fraser. Photo by Gina Uhlmann. Photo (left): Riley O’Flynn. Photo by Yodai Yasunaga. Photo (right): Hubbard Street dancer Jeffery Duffy in N.N.N.N. by William Forsythe. Photo by Todd Rosenberg. Photo (bottom): Danielle Agami. Photo by Cheryl Mann.