The NY Dance and Performance Awards (“The Bessies”), New York City’s premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, recently announced the nominees for the 2016−17 season at the Bessies press conference. The nominees were selected by the Bessie Awards Selection Committee, an independent committee of 38 dance industry professionals. Bessie Award categories include Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revived Work, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition or Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design. The list of nominations follows.
Will Rawls. Photo by AK47 Division.
The 33rd annual Bessie Awards will take place on Monday, October 9, 2017, at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
Two 2017 awards were presented at the press conference on July 12. The Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Award was presented to Will Rawls for creating “astute, genre-eluding work that explores the relationship between movement and language and delves deeply into ideas of transmission, translation, and authorship; and for his multifaceted artistry as choreographer, writer, editor and curator, expanding the presence of dance and performance.”
Abby Zbikowski was presented with the 2017 Juried Bessie Award. This year’s Bessies Jury—Kyle Abraham, Brenda Bufalino and Beth Gill—recognized Zbikowski for her “rigorous and utterly unique development of an authentic movement vocabulary, employed in complex and demanding structures to create dances of great energy, intensity, surprise and danger.” The award provides her with touring and residency opportunities outside of New York City through a partnership with the New York State DanceForce, a statewide network of arts organizers and presenters.
“The city’s dance world this season was incredibly vital, brave and engaged with the issues of our time, featuring boundary-stretching explorations of hip-hop, African and African-American dance traditions, as well as political cabaret and searingly relevant balletic work,” said Bessies Executive Director Lucy Sexton. “I offer my congratulations and gratitude to all the nominated artists for their work.”
Abby Zbikowski. Photo by AK47 Division.
The 2017 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, Lane Harwell, Jeanne Linnes, Stanford Makishi, Nicky Paraiso, Carla Peterson, Tamia B. Santana, Laurie Uprichard, and Martin Wechsler.
The 2016−17 Bessie Awards Selection Committee includes: Diana Byer, Tymberly Canale, Leah Cox, Maura Donohue, Boo Froebel, Angela Fatou Gittens, Diane Grumet, Joseph Hall, Caleb Hammons, Zhenesse Heinemann, Jerron Herman, Iréne Hultman, Celia Ipiotis, Robert LaFosse, Matthew Lopez, Matthew Lyons, Harold Norris, Craig Peterson, Rajika Puri, Susan Reiter, Walter Rutledge, Sue Samuels, George Emilio Sanchez, Risa Shoup, Sally Sommer, Risa Steinberg, Carrie Stern, Kay Takeda, Catherine Tharin, Muna Tseng, Kay Turner, Tony Waag, Eleanor K. Wallace, Edisa Weeks, Ryan Wenzel, Adrienne Westwood, William Whitener and Tara Aisha Willis.
The 2017 Bessie Awards Nominations:
Outstanding Production:
Vanessa Anspaugh
The End of Men; An Ode to Ocean
Joyce Unleashed at Abrons Art Center
Kader Attou of CCN de la Rochelle/Cie Accrorap
OPUS 14
Fall for Dance at New York City Center
Bridgman / Packer Dance
Voyeur
Sheen Center
Nora Chipaumire
portrait of myself as my father
BAM Fisher
Antony Hamilton
Meeting
La MaMa and Performance Space 122, COIL 2017
Jessica Lang
Thousand Yard Stare
The Joyce Theater
Ligia Lewis
minor matter
American Realness at Abrons Art Center
Taylor Mac
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
St. Ann’s Warehouse/Pomegranate Arts
Crystal Pite
The Statement
Performed by Nederlands Dans Theater New York City Center
Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang
Monchichi
BAM Fisher
From left, Denica Abdur-Razzaaq (Forces of Nature), Angela Fatou Gittens (Bessie Committee), Daaimah Taalib-Din (Forces of Nature), Brandon Albright, Abdel R. Salaam (Forces of Nature/Dance Africa BAM) and Zakiyah Harris. Photo by AK47 Division.
Abdel Salaam
Healing Sevens
Featuring Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Asase Yaa African American Dance Theatre, Ill Style & Peace Productions, and Dyane Harvey Salaam
DanceAfrica at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Adrienne Truscott
THIS
New York Live Arts
Outstanding Revived Work:
Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other works by John Bernd
Conceived by Ishmael Houston-Jones. Co-directed by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez. John Bernd’s music compositions arranged and re-mixed by Nick Hallett. Consultation by Jennifer Monson.
Danspace Project Platform 2016: Lost and Found
About Kazuo Ohno
By Takao Kawaguchi
Japan Society
Stephen Petronio Company
For Trio A (1966), Chair Pillow (1969), and Diagonal (1963) by Yvonne Rainer; Goldberg Variations (1986) by Steve Paxton; The Courtesan and the Crone (1999) by Anna Halprin
The Joyce Theater
Outstanding Performer:
Yeman Brown
In Citizen by Reggie Wilson
BAM Harvey
PeiJu Chien-Pott
In Virginie Mécène’s reimagining of Martha Graham’s 1933 solo, Ekstasis
The Joyce Theater
Sean Donovan
For his body of work with The Builders Association, Faye Driscoll, Witness Relocation, Jennie MaryTai Liu, and Jane Comfort
Jonathan Gonzalez
In minor matter by Ligia Lewis
American Realness at Abrons Art Center
Julie McMillan
In KO-BU by Benjamin Kimitch
Danspace Project
Cast of Riff this, Riff that
By Ephrat Asherie Dance
River to River Festival, Atrium Plaza
Anna Schön
In Citizen by Reggie Wilson
BAM Harvey
Nicholas Sciscione
In excerpts from Steve Paxton’s Goldberg Variations
Presented by the Stephen Petronio Company
The Joyce Theater
Ensemble of the skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds: Maria Bauman, Sidra Bell, Davalois Fearon, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Melanie Greene, Kayla Hamilton, Jasmine Hearn, Marguerite Hemmings, Nia Love, Paloma McGregor, Sydnie L. Mosley, Rakiya Orange, Leslie Parker, Angie Pittman, Samantha Speis, Charmaine Warren, Marýa Wethers, Ni’Ja Whitson, and others*
Curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Danspace Project Platform 2016: Lost and Found
*Edisa Weeks and Tara Aisha Willis also appeared in the cast, but are ineligible to vote on or receive awards as current Bessie Awards Committee members.
Daaimah Taalib-Din
In Eclipse: Visions of the Crescent and the Cross by Abdel Salaam
Aaron Davis Hall
Diana Vishneva
For Sustained Achievement with American Ballet Theatre
Cast of we free: DJ BLKWYNTR, Arielle Rosales, and Solo Woods, as well as Courtney Cook, Marguerite Hemmings, Jessica Phoenix and Italy Welton
By Marguerite Hemmings
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
Outstanding Emerging Choreographer (* indicates award recipient):
Lela Aisha Jones and Joya Powell. Photo by AK47 Division.
Lela Aisha Jones
Niall Jones
Will Rawls*
Katarzyna Skarpetowska
Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design:
ICTUS ensemble/ROSAS
For Vortex Temporum
By Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
BAM Next Wave Festival, Howard Gilman Opera House
Chris Kuklis and Will Rawls
For The Planet-Eaters: Seconds
By Will Rawls
River to River Festival, National Museum of the American Indian
Ryan MacDonald
For The End of Men, Again
By Vanessa Anspaugh
Danspace Project
Alisdair Macindoe
For Meeting
By Antony Hamilton
La MaMa and Performance Space 122, COIL 2017
Outstanding Visual Design:
Nora Chipaumire
For set design for portrait of myself as my father
By Nora Chipaumire
BAM Fisher
Taylor Mac (creator), Niegel Smith (director), Machine Dazzle (costume), Mimi Lien (set), John Torres (lights), Eric Avery (puppetry), Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (choreography)
For all design elements for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
By Taylor Mac
St. Ann’s Warehouse/Pomegranate Arts
Paulina Olowska
For costume design for Slavic Goddesses–A Wreath of Ceremonies
By Paulina Olowska
The Kitchen
Mark Ryden and Brad Fields
For costume design for Whipped Cream
By Alexei Ratmansky
Performed by American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
For more information, visit www.bessies.org.
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