Writer Deborah Jowitt accepts two awards

Dance writer, author and criticHighly esteemed veteran dance writer Deborah Jowitt recently received two awards honoring her career and her many accomplishments. On Friday, November 18, she received the 2016 “Educational Visionary” Lifetime Achievement Award from Mark DeGarmo Dance (MDD.) Then on Monday, November 21, the Martha Hill Dance Fund bestowed its 2016 Lifetime Achievement Awards to her and researcher Ann Hutchinson Guest.

 

Across her historic career, Jowitt danced with notable names such as José Limon and Anna Sokolow, choreographed works shown in venues in both the United States and overseas, published articles in The New York Times and The Village Voice, and has lectured, taught and conducted workshops at universities in the U.S. and abroad. Her dance career spans more than 60 years as she first danced professionally in 1953 and she continues to serve as a leading dance critic and expert.

 

Her articles on dance have been published in two collections: Dance Beat (1977) and The Dance in Mind (1985). Her third book, Time and the Dancing Image, won the de la Torre Bueno Prize for 1988. In 1997 she edited Meredith Monk for Johns Hopkins University Press. Her critical/historical writing has appeared in numerous journals and books, including Reinventing Dance in the 1960s, as edited by Sally Banes. Her Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance was published by Simon and Schuster in 2004. 

 

Jowitt is presently working on a critical biography of Martha Graham. Her awards include two Bessies from Dance Theater Workshop (1985 and 2008), an “Ernie” from Dance/USA (1998), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2002). The American Dance Guild honored her in 1991 and The Congress on Research in Dance in 2001. In addition to lecturing and giving workshops both in the U.S. and abroad, she taught in the Dance Department of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts until June of this year.

 

Her recent award from MDD was presented to her by a fellow dance writer, dancer and choreographer – Gus Solomons, Jr. The award goes to “visionaries who have promoted innovation in education through the arts.

 

For more information on Deborah Jowitt, visit her online journal at www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat. To learn more about MDD, head to www.markdegarmodance.org. To find out more about the 2016 Martha Hill Awards Gala go to www.marthahilldance.org.

 

Photo: Deborah Jowitt. Photo by David Dashiell, courtesy of MDD.