Dance historian Nancy Reynolds receives Bessie for Service to the Field

Nancy Reynolds interviews Edward Villella
(George Balanchine Foundation video archives)

The New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies) announced another award in advance of its October 7 awards ceremony. Dance historian Nancy Reynolds has received the 2013 award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance.

Nancy Reynolds, former New York City Ballet dancer, will be honored for profoundly altering and enriching the field of dance preservation and archival research. Reynolds currently serves as Director of Research at the George Balanchine Foundation, where she manages the Balanchine video archives, giving new life to his works by filming former ballet stars coaching Balanchine’s work on current dancers—an invaluable resource for educational institutions. This groundbreaking project, started in 1994, is a masterful conservation for future generations of dancers, often recreating dances that have been lost. To date more than 50 sessions have been filmed – accessible at more than seventy libraries around the world, including the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Reynolds has simultaneously published authoritative dance history books such as No Fixed Points, a nine-hundred page history of Western dance in the twentieth century, and Repertory in Review, a history of City Ballet’s repertory from 1935–1976. She edited Lincoln Kirstein’s book Movement and Metaphor and contributed to the International Encyclopedia of Dance. She directed research for Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works. Each of her books is considered an essential addition to any serious dance lover’s library.

The 2013 Bessies will be presented on Monday, October 7 (8pm) at Harlem's historic Apollo Theater.

For a list of the 2013 Bessies nominees and winners, click here.

For program and ticket information for the awards ceremony, click here.