Congratulations to the Bessies organization and this year's winners!

 

j. bouey in A Message from Mx. Black Cooper (photo: Rachel Keane)

 

The New York Dance and Performance Awards, the Bessies, tonight announced the 2023 award recipients at the 39th Bessie Awards Ceremony. The Illustrious Blacks hosted this year’s celebratory event, which was held at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park as part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City. A complete list of the 2023 awards follows below.

 

Bessie Awards were presented to artists for outstanding choreographer/creator, performer, sound design/music composition, visual design, outstanding revival, and breakout choreographer—an award that honors an artist who has made an exceptional leap in their career this past year. All of the awardees and nominated artists in these categories received a $500 honorarium, courtesy of a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

 

Renowned dancer, singer, and actor Dionne Figgins presented Virginia Johnson with the 2023 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. Artists and dance advocates Porshia A. Derival and Ms Vee presented Michele Byrd-McPhee with the 2023 Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. Other presenters included Tyler Ashley, Clifton Brown, George Faison, Erin Fogerty, Dyane Harvey Salaam, Karisma Jay, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Abdel Salaam, and Paz Tanjuaquio.

 

Barkha Patel was honored with the 2023 Juried Bessie Award, selected by the 2023 Bessie Jury luciana achugar, Ayodele Casel, and Kyle Marshall. The Juried Award recognizes a choreographer who exhibits some of the most interesting and exciting ideas in dance in New York City today, and whose work deserves to be seen more outside the city. The award comes with touring support and other engagement opportunities from New York State DanceForce.

 

The ceremony also included special remarks from Vicky Capote of Dance/NYC, Alton Murray, Deputy Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lucy Sexton, Executive Director, New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, and Bessies Executive Director Heather Robles.

 

The ceremony included an audience participation dance tribute to O’Shae Sibley. Dance Theatre of Harlem performed Orange, a duet by Stanton Welch, in honor of Virginia Johnson. Fredrick Earl Mosley’s Unbroken, performed by his company Diversity of Dance was also presented, along with an excerpt from Princess Lockeroo’s The Fabulous Waack Dancers Big Show, and Afro-Acro, performed by AbunDancers Youth Ensemble.

 

The Bessies also honored members of the dance community who died this past year. The moving In Memoriam was presented by dancers Mireicy Aquino and Jhailyn Farcon.

 

The celebration continued at the Bessies Silent Disco After-Party with DJ Sabine Blaizin on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza.

 

The 2023 Bessie Awards Ceremony was produced by Torya Beard and Heather Robles.

 

THE 2023 NEW YORK DANCE AND PERFORMANCE AWARD RECIPIENTS AND CITATIONS:

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE AWARD

 

Virginia Johnson

 

For inspiring audiences for 28 years with dynamic performances as a founding member and principal dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem. For her tenure as Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, continuing the company’s legacy of innovation and excellence, while expanding its reach and impact through collaborations with other organizations. For founding Pointe Magazine, and serving as editor-in-chief for nearly a decade. For editorial vision, bringing diverse voices and perspectives to the forefront of the dance community. For a lifelong commitment to the arts, and a career of significant contributions to the world of dance as a celebrated dancer, editor, and artistic director.

 

OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE FIELD OF DANCE AWARD

 

Michele Byrd-McPhee

 

For being an incredible force in the global dance community, especially as an advocate for young girls and women in hip-hop. As the Founder and Executive Director of Ladies of Hip-Hop, Byrd-McPhee has worked for decades to recontextualize spaces and conversations about hip-hop along gender, cultural, socio-historical, and racial lines. Her vision for women of all generations in hip-hop has created opportunities for them to perform on concert dance stages, teach in the most prestigious dance institutions, and create incredible opportunities for themselves within hip-hop’s legacy.

 

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER/CREATOR

 

LaTasha Barnes

LaTasha Barnes presents The Jazz Continuum at The Joyce Theater

 

A joyous celebration of jazz dance throughout history, Barnes flexes the imposed proscenium setting to engage a communal experience, demonstrating community as the center of this form. An offering of (re)embodiment to the audience, this work showcases seamless transitions between styles, demonstrating technical mastery from the cast and deep creativity and thoughtfulness from its creator.

 

Dormeshia

Dormeshia Tap Collective: Rhythm Is Life at The Joyce Theater

 

For crafting stellar interplay between movement, sound, performer, and improvisation. Deeply human, rooted in tradition and joy, Dormeshia shows us where tap dance has been, where it is, and where it is going.

 

Benjamin Akio Kimitch

Tiger Hands at The Shed

 

For a beautiful work with an extraordinarily sensitive exploration of personal and cultural identity. The work creates an entirely new movement vocabulary that holds resonant memories of traditional Peking opera dance forms, and is embedded with shimmering novelty in tribute to a beloved mother.

 

Omari Wiles

New York Is Burning at Works & Process at The Guggenheim

 

For a beautiful representation of intergenerational Black experiences that pays homage to the dancers and artists from the classic documentary Paris Is Burning. This work is a gorgeously joyous, queer collection of dance and music stories. As a timeless tribute, it highlights the Afro Dance, House, Vogue, and Ballroom communities, their current cultural relevance, and prioritizes the diversity of dancers’ bodies, bringing out the power within Black dance and music.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER

 

j. bouey

 

In A Message from Mx. Black Copper by j. bouey at Movement Research at the Judson Church

For an exhilarating performance embodying Black joy. This work is an exploration of emotion and movement that evokes love, trauma, honesty, and progression. The performance was thoughtful, unapologetic, and celebratory of life, self, and ancestry.

 

Amanda Castro

In Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic by Ayodele Casel at The Joyce Theater

 

Castro’s performance capacity and arresting stage presence offer playfulness, dynamism, and mastery, particularly in the connection between percussionist and dancer. Her clear delineation in performance teaches the audience about Afro-Latin influences and intrinsic tap rhythms, with a demonstrated fluency in many styles.

 

Joyce Edwards

In Grace, The Equality of Night and Day and Open Door by Ronald K. Brown at The Joyce Theater

 

For bringing presence and identity into an exquisite embodiment of Ronald K. Brown’s work. Edwards exudes irrefutable strength, depth, warmth, reverence, conviction, and connection.

 

Albert Silindokuhle Ibokwe Khoza

In And so you see… our honorable blue sky and ever enduring sun… can only be consumed slice by slice… by Robyn Orlin at New York Live Arts

 

A uniquely bombastic, outrageous, and gorgeous performance that transcends genres, this is an unforgettably commanding performance that reveals deeper truths.

 

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL

 

In The Upper Room (1986/2022)

By Twyla Tharp at New York City Center

 

For a masterfully crafted and timeless work of dance art. In the Upper Room synthesizes choreography, costumes, music, and lighting into a transcendent experience for both audience and performers. The compelling score intersects with the bold choreography, creating an experience of raw power and grace.

 

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN/ MUSIC COMPOSITION

 

Charles Turner and Sean Mason

 

For LaTasha Barnes presents The Jazz Continuum by LaTasha Barnes at The Joyce Theater

For a New York City sonic dream of musical arrangement that pays tribute to the eras of Black music from authentic jazz to hip-hop classics. The audience is brilliantly taken on a rollercoaster of musical nostalgia that makes one want to cry, dance, and move with joy! From the piano keys to the DJ turntables, and from the jazz clubs of Harlem to the playgrounds of Brooklyn, the arrangement is a true delight showing the magic of The Jazz Continuum.

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL DESIGN

 

Tina Tzoka & Loukas Bakas (Set Design), Stephanos Droussiotis (Lighting Design), Nektarios Dionysatos (Sculptures and Special Constructions), Dimitris Korres (Mechanical Inventions)

For Transverse Orientation by Dimitris Papaioannou at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

 

For a team of designers who create scenes beyond what people might think is possible, and leave them gasping in awe. The team is the ‘David Copperfield’ of the field, possessing wide imaginative abilities that create the magic and make-believe of the theater.

 

OUTSTANDING BREAKOUT CHOREOGRAPHER

 

Symara Johnson

 

For deeply personal and profoundly joyful movement research with a choreographic practice based in American and West Indian heritage. For merging movement practices with rigorous archival research which calls for being in the present moment. For a creation of space within this practice for engagement of many ideas generated on the spot, and the ability to move between them with abandonment.

 

2023 JURIED BESSIE AWARD

 

Barkha Patel

 

For elegantly and magnificently creating, educating, and sharing work that elevates classical Indian and Kathak dance. Patel is deeply rooted in her art form’s spiritual and cultural history and is a contemporary voice who will contribute to the evolution of Kathak dance and its place in the dance world at large. 

 

ABOUT THE BESSIES

 

The New York Dance and Performance Awards have saluted outstanding and groundbreaking creative work in the dance field in New York City for 39 years. Known as “The Bessies” in honor of revered dance teacher Bessie Schönberg, the awards were established in 1984 by David R. White at Dance Theater Workshop. They recognize choreography, performance, music composition, visual design, legacy, and service to the field of dance by independent dance artists and organizations. Nominees are chosen by a selection committee composed of artists, presenters, producers, and writers. All those working in the dance field are invited to join the Bessies Membership and participate in annual discussions on the direction of the awards and nominate members to serve on the selection committee. For more information about The Bessies, visit www.bessies.org.

 

The 2022–2023 Bessie Awards Selection Committee: Tyler Ashley, Elizabeth Burke, Tymberly Canale, Yoshiko Chuma, Donna Costello, Porshia A. Derival, Tiffany Geigel, Valerie Green, Satsu Holmes, William Isaac, Anabella Lenzu, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Shalewa Mackall, Yoko Murakami, Ivan Talijančić, and Kate Thomas.

 

The Bessies Steering Committee: Paz Tanjuaquio (chair), Yvonne H. Chow, Stanford Makishi, maura nguyễn donohue, Nicky Paraiso, Craig Peterson, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, george emilio sanchez, and Charmaine Warren.

The Bessies! 2022 New York Dance and Performance Awards

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Soledad Barrio with Antonio Granjero (photo: Jesse Rodkin)

Nai-Ni Chen in Truth Bound (photo: Sylvia Chiang)

 

New York, NY (December 16, 2022) – The NY Dance and Performance Awards, the Bessies, New York City’s premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, announced tonight the 2022 award recipients at the 38th annual Bessie Awards. Porshia A. Derival, Executive Director of H+ | TOTEM Productions, hosted this year’s event, which was held at Chelsea Factory. A complete list of the 2022 awards follows below.

Derival welcomed artists and supporters of the New York dance community who gathered to celebrate the nominees and awardees. Bessie Awards were presented to artists for outstanding choreographer/creator, performer, sound design/music composition, visual design, outstanding revival, and breakout choreographer—an award that honors an artist who has made an exceptional leap in their career this past year. All of the awardees and nominated artists in these categories received a $500 honorarium, courtesy of a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Tatiana Desardouin was honored with the 2022 Juried Bessie Award, which recognizes a choreographer who exhibits some of the most interesting and exciting ideas in dance in New York City today, and whose work deserves to be seen more outside the city. The award comes with touring support and other engagement opportunities from New York State DanceForce. The 2022 Bessies Jury of three acclaimed choreographers, LaTasha Barnes, Molissa Fenley, and Abby Zbikowski, selected Desardouin.

Emily L. Waters, a senior program associate in the Arts and Culture program at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, was honored with the 2022 Bessies Angel Award for her leadership and advocacy on behalf of dance.

Two previously announced awards were also presented. Choreographer and dancer Nai-Ni Chen was posthumously honored with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement in Dance Award. Christine Jowers, founding editor of The Dance Enthusiast, received the 2022 Award for Service to the Field of Dance.

The ceremony featured a performance of Nai-Ni Chen’s stunning Crosscurrent, performed by Rio Kikuchi and Esteban Santamaria. The evening also included an exhilarating pop-up performance by Passion Fruit Dance Company’s Tatiana Desardouin, with Mai Lê Hô, Lauriane Ogay, and Gyeun "Lobel" Jeong.

The Bessies also honored members of the dance community who passed away since the last Bessies ceremony. The In Memoriam section was presented by Sangeeta Ghosh Yesley and Paz Tanjuaquio.

Other presenters included Abdiel, Marija Abney, Michele Byrd-McPhee, PeiJu Chien-Pott, Natsha Diggs, maura nguyen donohue, Brinda Guha, Anabella Lenzu, Kyle Marshall, Nicky Paraiso, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, george emilio sanchez, Lucy Sexton, Philip Treviño, and André M. Zachery.

The 38th annual Bessie Awards was produced by H+ | TOTEM Productions.

THE 2022 NY DANCE AND PERFORMANCE AWARD RECIPIENTS AND CITATIONS: 

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE AWARD

 

Nai-Ni Chen

Nai-Ni Chen was a force in the dance community with her unique choreographic body of work that fuses Eastern cultural forms of Chinese dance and the Western world of modern dance. Her vision of the immigrant’s journey of crossing cultures and adapting to a new home provided endless inspirations and opportunities for creative expressions that enrich the human experience.

 

SERVICE TO THE FIELD OF DANCE AWARD

 

Christine Jowers

Jowers is an example of generosity, dedication, and commitment in service to the dance field. After her career as a dancer performing in England and the U.S., Jowers devoted herself to supporting dance artists, to writing about them with respect, truth, and love. In times when dance reviews and writers are almost extinct, when publications and dance journalists are disappearing, Jowers and The Dance Enthusiast value and care about dance criticism and documenting performances. She has and continues to ignite the dance community with passion, curiosity, and conversation.

BESSIES ANGEL AWARD

 

Emily L. Waters

Waters is being recognized for her advocacy of dance in times when artists need it the most; for ensuring dance is brought to the table as a former professional dancer; for being a trailblazer for dance in the philanthropic setting. 

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER/CREATOR

 

Leslie Cuyjet

Blur at Open Call at The Shed

Intimate, vulnerable, bold, and enigmatic, this visceral piece is a quiet merging of Cuyjet’s inner worlds. With sequences of highly orchestrated, improvised structures that are exacting, charged, and in the present, Cuyjet creates a vast, living landscape.

 

Bill T. Jones, Janet Wong, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company

Deep Blue Sea at Park Avenue Armory

For a visionary, large-scale work incorporating around 100 dancers and a nontraditional use of space and production elements, culminating in a creation both universal and deeply personal.

 

Anna Sperber

Bow Echo, presented by XØ Projects Inc and The Old American Can Factory

With keen attention to detail in choreographic structures that relate to the environment, Sperber creates a visual, exciting rooftop ritual with movement invention and materials that break the conventional expectations of an audience.

 

Raúl Tamez

Migrant Mother for Limón Dance Company at The Joyce Theater

For creating a tributary piece to the immense grief and emotional pain that migrant mothers endure. From technically complex choreography, using space and bodies to sculpt eye-catching negative and positive space, to the blended use of modern-day sound bites with music, this is a deeply somatic experience.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER

 

Soledad Barrio

in Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca at The Joyce Theater

For stamping the fire and passion of flamenco into the heart of the observer, making everyone want to be from Spain. Barrio’s blended precision, rhythm, and expressiveness do not just move with the music, but sing back to it.

Kayla Farrish

 

Kayla Farrish

in December 8th by Kayla Farrish in collaboration with Belinda McGuire, the Eva Yaa Asantewaa Solo for Solo Showing at Gibney

For a tumble and waterfall of physicality and phrasing that at times takes one’s breath away, and at times quickens the blood. Farrish is in full control from start to finish, and is also able to offer vulnerability and heart through her performance.

 

Nikolai McKenzie Ben Rema

in A Jamaican Battyboy in America by Arthur Avilés at Hemispheric Institute at NYU and  BAAD!

For interpreting and adding to a revival with precision, poise, and evident generosity of spirit. McKenzie Ben Rema becomes at once a channel and a generating vessel with bold and mesmerizing dancing.

 

Antonio Ramos

in Puro Teatro by luciana achugar at The Chocolate Factory Theater

Ramos embraces achugar’s choreographic vision to create a living landscape where bodies are in the present, joyful, courageous, vulnerable, funny, connecting, and intersecting with one another. Ramos’s movements of improvised structures are exacting, highly-skilled, charged, and playful.

 

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL 

 

Set and Reset/Reset (2021)

Choreographed and co-directed by Abigail Yager, co-directed by Jamie Scott with assistance from Diane Madden, performed by Candoco Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music 

For a dynamic, fully embodied vision/revision of Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset (1983). Candoco dancers fully speak Brown’s vocabulary while also creating new ways to speak. With the fabric Brown laid out for them, the dancers create a vibrant tapestry that shimmers and moves with fluidity and grace. Beautiful and moving, the dancers leave the audience with much to rethink.

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN / MUSIC COMPOSITION

 

Marc Álvarez (arrangement)

For Carmen by Johan Inger, performed by Compañía Nacional de Danza at The Joyce Theater

For remixing music using Bizet’s original composition with a contemporary twist. There is a seamless transition from classical to contemporary that makes the music one.

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL DESIGN

 

New Affiliates (Set and Costume Design) – Ivi Diamantopoulou, Jaffer Kolb, and Rashaad Newsome Studio with Truman T. Brown Jr., Howie B., Kimberly Jones, and Randy Rosenthal

For Assembly by Rashaad Newsome at Park Avenue Armory

For an exciting multi-arts spectacle, a true celebration of African culture disseminated into current society supporting dance, music, and poetry through textiles and visual art. An impressive amalgamation of unsuspecting elements making a unified whole.

 

Princess Lockerooo (photo: Ben Hider)

  OUTSTANDING BREAKOUT CHOREOGRAPHER

 

Princess Lockerooo

For artistry that moves the audience from spectator to fellow performer quite seamlessly, teaching about dance culture in the process. Princess Lockeroo is a multifaceted artist who has always been fully dedicated to her craft and does not miss any details in creating a full, immersive experience for her audience.

 

2022 JURIED BESSIE AWARD

 

Tatiana Desardouin

Desardouin’s “groove,” embraces the relationship of time with an individual’s true nature. Each moment becomes fully realized and progresses forward to reveal the dancer's authentic self. Just as her “Passion Fruit Seeds” provide a sourceable root for individuals to create and sustain, she and her works are a galvanized source of inspiration and dopeness for the Street and Club dance community and everyone she encounters.

 

ABOUT THE BESSIES

The NY Dance and Performance Awards have saluted outstanding and groundbreaking creative work in the dance field in New York City for 38 years. Known as “The Bessies” in honor of the late revered dance teacher Bessie Schönberg, the awards were established in 1984 by David R. White at Dance Theater Workshop. They recognize outstanding work in choreography, performance, sound design/music composition, and visual design. Nominees are chosen by a selection committee composed of artists, presenters, producers, and writers. All those working in the dance field are invited to join the Bessies Membership as members and participate in annual discussions on the direction of the awards and nominate individuals to serve on the selection committee. For more information about The Bessies, visit www.bessies.org.         

The 2021–2022 Bessie Awards Selection Committee: Ronald K. Alexander, Maria Baranova Suzuki, Maria Bauman, Charles Vincent Burwell, Yvonne H. Chow, Yoshiko Chuma, Sangeeta Ghosh Yesley, Valerie Green, Anabella Lenzu, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Elgie Gaynell Sherrod, Ivan Talijančić, and Philip Treviño.

The Bessies Steering Committee: Yvonne H. Chow, Stanford Makishi, maura nguyen donohue, Nicky Paraiso, Carla Peterson, Craig Peterson, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, george emilio sanchez, Paz Tanjuaquio (chair), Laurie Uprichard, and Charmaine Warren.

35th Annual Bessie Awards announced at Skirball

2019 NY DANCE AND PERFORMANCE AWARD

RECIPIENTS AND CITATIONS

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE

Joan Myers Brown

For helping shape American dance over six decades spent choreographing, training, and mentoring dancers at Philadanco. For championing and creating spaces for the work of African American choreographers through the formation of such seminal organizations as The International Association of Blacks in Dance. For doing it all with grace, generosity, artistry, and leadership.

OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE FIELD OF DANCE

Louis Mofsie

For his tireless and visionary service for more than half a century: preserving and keeping vibrant the dances, songs, and ceremonies of multiple Native American tribal traditions. Serving as leader, teacher, scholar, and emcee extraordinaire with his Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, he has toured to all 50 states, sharing and collecting dances that would otherwise be lost to history.

BESSIES ANGEL AWARD

Laurie Uprichard

For decades dedicated to dance artists and the creation of new dance works. For her stewardship of The Bessies, aiding in their inception and sustaining them for many years after. For being a leader and beloved member of every dance community she has touched.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTIONS

Nick Cave
The Let Go at Park Avenue Armory

For creating a ritual using colorful full-body masks, a moving stream of mylar, the choral uplift of the Sing Harlem choir, and Francesca Harper’s inspired choreographic structures, the piece invites us to lose ourselves and find each other in this divisive time.

nora chipaumire
#Punk 100% POP* N!GGA at The Kitchen and Crossing the Line Festival

For a radical and passionate blast of sound, movement, confrontation, and choreographed chaos. For working at the intersection of art, politics, and social commentary to create a devastating rendering of the politics of race.

Merce Cunningham with stager Patricia Lent and Merce Cunningham Trust
Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House

For bringing Merce Cunningham’s work to new and expanded life on his centennial. Opening his work to the bodies of brilliant dance artists from all genres to create a mesmerizing event brimming with brilliance, generosity, unity, and trust.

Tania El Khoury
As Far As My Fingertips Take Me at Under the Radar/The Public Theater

For bringing the experience of migration and border control to our most intimate place—the body. For filling the audience’s ears with a story of displacement, while drawing the journey on their arm. reaching unseen and unprotected through a wall: a global crisis is brought home in indelible ways.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS

Leslie Cuyjet
Sustained Achievement with Jane Comfort, Niall Jones, Juliana F. May, Cynthia Oliver, Will Rawls

For her ability to combine technical precision, astonishing energy, humor, and raw theatrical power to consistently illuminate the choreographer’s vision.

Gabrielle Hamilton
in Oklahoma!’s Dream Ballet choreographed by John Heginbotham, at St. Ann’s Warehouse

For bringing her full self to expand the boundaries of a classic American play, and its iconic dream ballet: She is powerfully sensual, fully in control, moving with intelligence, fearlessness, and aplomb.

Taylor Stanley
in The Runaway by Kyle Abraham, New York City Ballet, at the David H. Koch Theater

Combining exceptional technique, clear musicality, and a fierce devotion to the choreography, he brought down the house with a piercingly revelatory solo performed with raw abandon and emotional purity.

Shamar Watt
Sustained Achievement in the work of nora chipaumire

For expressing, embodying, and extending the choreographer’s vision, while remaining forcefully himself. For inhabiting the worlds created with a riveting coiled energy that creates a dynamic and urgent NOW in every work.

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL

Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done
Yvonne Rainer, Deborah Hay, Lucinda Childs, David Gordon, Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, and Simone Forti, curated by Ana Janevski at the Museum of Modern Art

A critical and pivotal exhibit featuring live performances that shined a light on a moment of radical invention in the history of American modern dance. Placing the work in the larger social and political context in which it was made, and giving it new relevance in the current moment.

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN / MUSIC COMPOSITION

Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher for More Forever by Caleb Teicher at Guggenheim Works & Process

Employing an unexpected mix of timbres—a toy piano, a computerized harp, the sound of scraped sand—composer and dancer introduce sophisticated sounds into the tap landscape. The improvised score pays homage to the very roots of the dance form, as it enriches the possibilities for its future.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL DESIGN

Design Team: Jeanne Medina and Ni’Ja Whitson (Costumes), Gil Sperling featuring artworks by Wangechi Mutu and Gavin Jantjes (Video), Tuçe Yasak (Lighting)
for Oba Qween Baba King Baba by Ni’Ja Whitson, co-commissioned by Danspace Project and Abrons Arts Center

For its innovative use of projection and light, using ceiling, wall, floor, audience, and dancers’ bodies as vessel and canvas. For mixing live performance, recorded and live video, and shape-shifting costumes to create a world of beauty, power, myth, and reality.

BESSIES JURIED AWARD (Presented in July 2019)

Alice Sheppard

For boldly and authentically inventing new movement vocabularies full of supercharged physicality and nuanced detail. Working with gravity, mechanics, human connection, and momentum, she creates work of power and empowerment.

OUTSTANDING BREAKOUT CHOREOGRAPHER (Presented in July 2019)

Daina Ashbee

For using the elemental female body itself as a means to excavate and expose layered histories of violence against women. Using repetition, painful ritual, and raw and resilient bodies, her work draws the viewer into a journey of insistence and transformation.

WATCH THE BESSIES!

If you missed the awards show, catch it on Sunday, November 17, at 8pm on WNET’s ALL ARTS, a broadcast channel, streaming platform and website dedicated to arts and culture 24/7.


ABOUT THE BESSIES

The NY Dance and Performance Awards have saluted outstanding and groundbreaking creative work in the dance field in New York City for 35 years. Known as “The Bessies” in honor of revered dance teacher Bessie Schönberg, the awards were established in 1984 by David R. White at Dance Theater Workshop. They recognize outstanding work in choreography, performance, music composition, and visual design. Nominees are chosen by a selection committee comprised of artists, presenters, producers, and writers. All those working in the dance field are invited to join the NY Dance and Performance League as members and participate in annual discussions on the direction of the awards and nominate members to serve on the selection committee. For more information about The Bessies, visit www.bessies.org.

The 2019 Bessie Awards Steering Committee, responsible for setting policy and providing oversight for the Bessie Awards throughout the year, is comprised of Cora Cahan, Beverly D’Anne, Jeanne Linnes, Stanford Makishi, Nicky Paraiso, Carla Peterson, Gus Solomons jr, Paz Tanjuaquio, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Laurie Uprichard, and Martin Wechsler.

The 2018–2019 Bessie Awards Selection Committee: Ronald Alexander, Elise Bernhardt, Charles Vincent Burwell, Diana Byer, Tymberly Canale, Alexis Convento, Parijat Desai, Maura Donohue, Boo Froebel, Angela Fatou Gittens, Diane Grumet, Brinda Guha, Joseph Hall, Mai Lê Hô, Iréne Hultman, Celia Ipiotis, Koosil-ja, Fernando Maneca, Lydia Mokdessi, Harold Norris, Craig Peterson, Doug Post, Rajika Puri, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Susan Reiter, Walter Rutledge, George Emilio Sanchez, Andrea Snyder, Sally Sommer, Risa Steinberg, Carrie Stern, Catherine Tharin, Tony Waag, and William Whitener.

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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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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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The Bessies: Announcing winners and October's nominees

Celebrating 35 extraordinary years, The New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies) organization held its annual reception and press conference yesterday at Gibney. With community luminaries pressed into Gibney's theater at 280 Broadway, the event was so buoyed with feeling that time-conscious announcers repeatedly (sometimes hilariously) cautioned the assembled to wait for all category nominees to be named before applauding. Still and all, we whooped and hollered for each of our faves, proving that nothing can hold back this dance/performance community!

Plan to be at the legendary award ceremony itself on Monday, October 14 at NYU Skirball Center. In the meantime, here's what you need to know about the announced awards and exciting nominations.

2019 Juried Bessie Award

(Jury: Carlota Santana, Pam Tanowitz and Abby Zbikowski)

Alice Sheppard

for boldly and authentically inventing new movement vocabularies full of supercharged physicality and nuanced detail. Working with gravity, mechanics, human connection, and momentum, she creates work of power and empowerment.

2019 Outstanding Breakout Choreographer Award 

Daina Ashbee

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The 2019 Bessie Awards Nominations

Outstanding Production

600 HIGHWAYMEN
The Fever
Co-presented by La MaMa, The Public Theater, and Onassis USA

Kyle Abraham
The Runaway
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater

Nick Cave
The Let Go
Park Avenue Armory

Nora Chipaumire
#Punk 100% POP* N!GGA
The Kitchen

Merce Cunningham with stager Patricia Lent
Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event
BAM Opera House

Tania El Khoury
As Far As My Fingertips Take Me
Under the Radar/The Public Theater

Juliana F. May
Folk Incest
Abrons Arts Center and American Realness

Alexei Ratmansky
The Seasons 
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House

Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (ROKE)
The Art of Luv (Part 6): Awesome Grotto!
Abrons Arts Center

Caleb Teicher
More Forever
Guggenheim Works & Process

Noa Wertheim
One. One & One
Vertigo Dance Company
Baryshnikov Arts Center

Ni'ja Whitson
Oba Qween Baba King Baba
Co-commissioned by Danspace Project and Abrons Arts Center

Outstanding Performer

Xianix Barrera
in Latido by Xianix Barrera
Emerging Choreographers Series at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center

Warren Craft
in Harlequin and Pantalone by Bill Irwin
Dorrance Dance
New York City Center

Leslie Cuyjet
Sustained Achievement with Jane Comfort, Niall Jones, Juliana F. May, Cynthia Oliver, and Will Rawls

Kirsten Davis
in Oba Qween Baba King Baba by Ni’Ja Whitson
Co-commissioned by Danspace Project and Abrons Arts Center

Gabrielle Hamilton
in Oklahoma! choreographed by John Heginbotham
St. Ann’s Warehouse

Samantha Hines
in Attractor by Dancenorth Australia, Lucy Guerin Inc., Gideon Obarzanek, and Senyawa
The Joyce Theater

Tiler Peck
Sustained Achievement with New York City Ballet

Molly Poerstal
Sustained Achievement with Hilary Clark, David Dorfman, Jeanine Durning, Alex Escalante, Juliana F. May, Susan Rethorst, Roseanne Spradlin, and Larissa Velez-Jackson

Nola Sporn Smith
in metamorphosis by Stacy Grossfield
The Kitchen, Dance and Process

Taylor Stanley
in The Runaway by Kyle Abraham
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater

Shamar Watt
Sustained Achievement in the work of Nora Chipaumire

Takaomi Yoshino (aka Varvara Laptopova)
in ChopEniana by Alexandre Minz
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The Joyce Theater

Outstanding Revival

Deuce Coupe
By Twyla Tharp
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House

Hex
By Eleo Pomare, performed by Dyane Harvey
American Dance Guild Performance Festival, Ailey Citigroup Theater

Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done
By Yvonne Rainer, Deborah Hay, Lucinda Childs, David Gordon, Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, Simone Forti
Museum of Modern Art

Outstanding Sound Design/Musical Composition

Joseph Kubera and Adam Tendler for interpretation of music of Julius Eastman, and M. Lamar for original composition inspired by Eastman
for Rambler, Worlds Worlds A Part by Kathy Westwater
New York Live Arts

Leyya Mona Tawil
for Future Faith by Lime Rickey International
Abrons Arts Center

Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher
for More Forever by Caleb Teicher
Guggenheim Works & Process

Outstanding Visual Design

Design Team: Tei Blow, Sean McElroy, Eben Hoffer, and Hyung Seok Jeon for The Art of Luv (Part 6): Awesome Grotto! by Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (ROKE). Abrons Arts Center

Design Team: Jeanne Medina and Ni’ja Whitson (Costumes), Gil Sperling, featuring art works by Wangech Mutu and Galvin Jantejes (Video), and Tuçe Yasak (Lighting) for Oba Qween Baba King Baba by Ni’Ja Whitson. Co-commissioned by Danspace Project and Abrons Arts Center

Mirella Weingarten (Set Design) for Xenos by Akram Khan. Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival at Rose Theater

Outstanding Breakout Choreographer

(* indicates award recipient)

Daina Ashbee*
Jonathan González
Stacy Grossfield
Caleb Teicher

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The 2019 Bessie Awards Steering Committee, responsible for setting policy and providing oversight for the Bessie Awards throughout the year, is comprised of Cora Cahan, Beverly D’Anne, Jeanne Linnes, Stanford Makishi, Nicky Paraiso, Carla Peterson, Gus Solomons jr, Paz Tanjuaquio, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Laurie Uprichard, and Martin Wechsler.

The 2018–2019 Bessie Awards Selection Committee: Ronald Alexander, Elise Bernhardt, Charles Vincent Burwell, Diana Byer, Tymberly Canale, Alexis Convento, Parijat Desai, Maura Donohue, Boo Froebel, Angela Fatou Gittens, Diane Grumet, Brinda Guha, Joseph Hall, Mai Lê Hô, Iréne Hultman, Celia Ipiotis, Koosil-ja, Fernando Maneca, Lydia Mokdessi, Harold Norris, Craig Peterson, Doug Post, Rajika Puri, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Susan Reiter, Walter Rutledge, George Emilio Sanchez, Andrea Snyder, Sally Sommer, Risa Steinberg, Carrie Stern, Catherine Tharin, Tony Waag, and William Whitener.

ABOUT THE BESSIES

The NY Dance and Performance Awards have saluted outstanding and groundbreaking creative work in the dance field in New York City for 35 years. Known as “The Bessies” in honor of revered dance teacher Bessie Schönberg, the awards were established in 1984 by David R. White at Dance Theater Workshop. They recognize outstanding work in choreography, performance, music composition, and visual design. Nominees are chosen by a selection committee composed of artists, presenters, producers, and writers. All those working in the dance field are invited to join the NY Dance and Performance League as members and participate in annual discussions on the direction of the awards and nominate members to serve on the selection committee. For more information about The Bessies, visit www.bessies.org.

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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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The Bessies to honor Japan Society's Yoko Shioya

Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director of Japan Society will receive
a Bessie: the 2019 Presenter Award for Outstanding Curation.

The Bessies organization (New York Dance and Performance Awards) has announced the recipient of its 2019 Presenter Award for Outstanding Curation--Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director of Japan Society. “Yoko has been an amazing force for good in the New York dance world, curating with a bold and discerning eye and bringing important work across cultures,” said Bessies Executive Director Lucy Sexton. “I am so pleased she is being honored with this award.” And I agree!

Celebrate with Shioya at the Bessies Presenters Gathering on Sunday, January 6 (5pm to 7pm) at La MaMa La Galleria. Free and open to all! RSVP here.

La MaMa La Galleria
47 Great Jones Street (between Bowery and Lafayette), Manhattan
(map/directions)

BIO

Yoko Shioya became artistic director of Japan Society in 2006, overseeing the organization’s performing arts and film departments. Since assuming the position of Director of Performing Arts in 2003, she has enlarged the scale and number of commissions for the creation of new works related to Japanese culture by non-Japanese artists, and increased the number of tours of Japan Society-produced works throughout North America. Shioya also launched new initiatives, including co-producing commissioned work by international artists with presenting organizations in Japan, presenting works from East Asian countries, and establishing artists’ residency projects in New York City. Known in Japan as a writer and researcher on the public and private arts support systems in the U.S. and Japan, Shioya has been invited to speak at numerous symposia and lectures and on TV programs presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government, Keidanren, the Academy of Cultural Economics, and the Japan Council of Performers’ Organizations, among others. She has been a regular contributor to arts columns on performing arts and exhibitions for the Asahi newspaper, and has served as a committee member and selection panelist for numerous programs, including the Bessie Awards, Rolex Mentor and Protegé International Program, and the Toyota Choreography Awards. Shioya holds BAs in musicology and dance history from Tokyo National University of the Arts.

About the Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating

Established in 2017, the Bessies Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating recognizes a presenter or curator of work performed in the New York City area. It is presented to an individual or curatorial team whose work has had a palpable impact on artists, audiences, or the dance and performance field in general. While the award can recognize sustained achievement in curating or presenting over time, it can equally recognize a particular project, festival, or season that occurred in the past year. Visiting or guest curators, as well as full-time curators and presenters, are eligible. The recipient is chosen jointly by the Bessies Selection and Bessies Steering Committees. The first Presenter Award (in 2017) went to Judy Hussie-Taylor, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Danspace Project, for her curation of A Body in Places, Danspace Project Platform 2016 by Eiko Otake. The second awardee (in 2018) was Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, for his championing of dance on the stages of BAM.

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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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Our Bessie Awards Winners of 2018

34th Annual Bessie Awards

The New York Dance
& Performance Awards

NYU Skirball Center

October 8, 2018

Marjani Forté-Saunders
in her Bessie-winning production
Memoirs of A . . .Unicorn
The piece also won her creative team
a Bessie for Outstanding Visual Design.
(photos: Maria Baranova) 

OUTSTANDING ‘BREAKOUT’ CHOREOGRAPHER

Mariana Valencia 

Presented in July 2018

For seamlessly blending ethnography, memoir, and observation of cross-cultural identities in choreography that engages from start to finish. For a unique vision that uses humor and sadness, reality and imagination, to push dance and performance into new territory.

2018 BESSIES ANGEL AWARD

Deborah Sale and Ted Striggles

For a lifelong commitment to supporting dance For working to better the lives of dance artists on and off the stage For warmly gathering and connecting the dance-making community across decades.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS

Courtney Cook

For bringing a powerhouse presence and a soulful strength to every performance A riveting performer of searing vocal work and sensuous explosive movement, who brings her rich range of dance forms and unique theatrical power to the work of Urban Bush Women, Maria Bauman and Marguerite Hemmings.

Germaine Acogny

For her fierce, fearless embrace of the “sacrificial one” in a reimagined Rite of Spring created especially for her. No longer doomed, she performs a powerful solo celebrating her heritages in dance, and women, and black women dancing. In Mon élue noire (My Black Chosen One): Sacre #2 by Olivier Dubois at BAM Fisher

Elizabeth DeMent

For her cool, intelligent presence, exquisite dancing, and ability to move seamlessly between spoken text and virtuosic dance. For a brilliantly nuanced performance, comic and serious and continuously captivating as a 17th century woman and the narrator of the piece. In 17C by Big Dance Theater BAM Harvey

Sara Mearns

Sustained Achievement in the work of New York City Ballet, Isadora Duncan, Jodi Melnick, Wang Ramirez and Matthew Bourne.

For her work as a mesmerizing ballet dancer and insatiable dance explorer, known for consummate musicality, imagination, and theatricality. For an extraordinary season in which she boldy immersed herself in work by masters of hip hop, classic modern, experimental post modern, and theater ballet.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTIONS

David Thomson

for he his own mythical beast 

Performance Space New York

For demolishing the idea of a ‘neutral’ body in a revelatory excavation of his own mythological identity as a dancer, performer, artist, man, person. For the team creation of an inexhaustible, ecstatic, sweaty swirl of voice and movement addressing race, gender, and the many selves contained within a body.

Geoff Sobelle

for HOME 

BAM Harvey 

For exploring and exploding the relationship between house and home. For collaborating with a brilliant team using dance, illusion, live music, scenic engineering and audience interaction to create a moving, poignant and zany theatrical work.

Nami Yamamoto

for Headless Wolf 

Roulette

For an entertaining and profound journey through the range of human experience. For interweaving five distinctive performers, a puppet, and yards of paper into a total work of theater, a contemplation of birth and death and all in between.

Marjani Forté-Saunders

for Memoirs of a . . . Unicorn

Presented by New York Live Arts at Collapsable Hole 

For an installation and performance that digs underground to mine memory and mythology; For conjuring family, friends, and ancestors as she navigates a magical landscape, weaving intersecting tales into a collective memoir.

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL 

40th Anniversary Retrospective 

by Jane Comfort & Company 

La MaMa

For a program highlighting four decades of illuminating work delving into politics, family, friendship, and pure dancing. For a pivotal exploration of language, music and movement in pieces addressing social issues in ways that continue to have impact in the current moment.

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN OR MUSIC COMPOSITION

Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste

For mobilizing the technologies of the age to conjure new worlds. For bringing forth hidden languages and primal presences via layered soundscapes in his own work and in collaborations with Jaamil Olowale Kosoko, André M. Zachery/Renegade Performance Group, Jonathan Gonzalez, and Will Rawls.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL DESIGN

Mimi Lien (set), Meena Murugesan (media), Peiyi Wong (installation), Tuçe Yasak (lights), and Richard Forté (set construction)

Memoirs of a . . . Unicorn by Marjani Forte-Saunders

Presented by New York Live Arts at Collapsable Hole

For creating a mythical, multi-sensory and immersive design in the industrial basement space of Collapsible Hole. For beautifully integrating all the visual elements in a way that heightened the emotional impact of the choreographer’s journey through time and memory.



LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE

Simone Forti

For her revolutionary, fearless, and widely influential approach to movement, pushing the boundaries of what dance could be-----in her dance constructions and improvised work. For years of investigation into the human body in motion, finding poetry in gravitational forces, the movement of animals, and the natural world.

SERVICE TO THE FIELD OF DANCE

Marya Warshaw

For her visionary work at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange creating a space for choreographers of all identities and backgrounds, and for students of all ages and incomes. For finding new and comprehensive ways to support the long process of creation through pioneering residencies and by fostering a true home for dance artists and innovators.

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