The Bessies: honors to Joan Myers Brown and Louis Mofsie

Joan Myers Brown

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City’s premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, has announced the recipients of two special awards to be given out at its 35th annual ceremony on October 14.

2019 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance:

Joan Myers Brown, Founder and Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO), in recognition of decades of choreographic influence on and support of the work of Black American dance artists.

Louis Mofsie

2019 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance:

Louis Mofsie, Director of Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, whose work has kept Native American dance forms alive for generations of young people.

Join the celebration at Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, October 14 (7:30pm). Get information and tickets here.

See the full list of nominees and previously-announced awards here.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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New video series on Black Philadelphians in ballet

Portraits of Black ballerinas
From top:
Judith Jamison, Delores Browne and Joan Myers Brown
(photos: Eva Mueller)

We are still like unicorns, and I wanted to make the invisible visible.

Theresa Ruth Howard, keynote address, Dutch National Ballet's Positioning Ballet Conference 2017

Theresa Ruth Howard--founder of MoBBallet, dedicated to the reinstatement and preservation of the history of Black artists in ballet--announces the launching of a video documentary series on its website. Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, And Still They Rose: The Legacy of Black Philadelphians in Ballet will feature legendary Judith Jamison, Joan Myers Brown (Philadanco) and Delores Browne (Ballet Americana/New York Negro Ballet) discussing their early training and barrier-breaking experiences in the field. To view the series, starting October 22, click here.

Watch an excerpt:

On Saturday, October 28, join Howard for a panel with Joan Myers Brown, Delores Browne and current Black ballet performers at Philadelphia's The Painted Bride Center (3-5pm). There will also be an exhibition of Eva Mueller's portraits of Black ballet dancers. This event is free or by donation with an RSVP here. To visit the Facebook event page, click here. For directions to The Painted Bride Center, click here.

Watch Theresa Ruth Howard's excellent keynote address on diversity issues in ballet at the Dutch National Ballet's Positioning Ballet Conference (Amsterdam, February 2017).  Click here.

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Walter Rutledge talks with Joan Myers Brown and Brenda Dixon Gottschild

a video conversation (22:49) moderated by Walter Rutledge

with Joan Myers Brown, founder, Philadanco

author and dance historian, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, author of Joan Myers Brown and The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina, a Biohistory of American

Philadanco's Joan Myers Brown among arts and humanities medal awardees

Philadanco founder, landscape architect to receive medal
by Stephan Salisbury, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 2013

Philadanco troupe in jeopardy

The Philadelphia Dance Company – National Treasure May Close
by Marsha Gilbert, Ballet/Jazz/Tap at Suite101, August 15, 2012