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The 2015 Bessie Recipients

Lifetime Achievement in Dance:

Steve Paxton

“For a relentless curiosity into the possibility of movement, from the redefinition of modern dance with the movers who gathered at Judson Church in the 1960s, to the development of contact improvisation now practiced around the world, and for his ongoing rigorous and surprising choreographic investigations.”

Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance:

Movement Research

“For nearly four decades as a creative incubator for innovation, enquiry, and dialogue. For providing a range of platforms to disseminate ideas about dance, art, and civic life via its classes, publications and weekly performance gatherings. For championing the importance of artistic process.”

Outstanding Production:

Dorrance Dance with Toshi Reagon and BIGLOVELY
The Blues Project | The Joyce Theater

“For a symphonic dialogue between a stellar company of tap artists and a groundbreaking blues band; a true fusion of dance and music, expanding the boundaries of two great American traditions.”

Roger Guenveur Smith
Rodney King | BRIC Arts Media

For a powerful and timely performance using gesture, voice, and historical document to link the personal tragedy of Rodney King’s life to our national tragedies of racism and police brutality. For extending that conversation into the street in an improvised post-show town hall that evolved into a peaceful demonstration in reaction to the Eric Garner case unfolding in New York City.”

David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group
I Understand Everything Better
Abrons Arts Center co-presented by The Chocolate Factory

“For creating a mysterious and whimsical world in which to explore the dual devastations of personal loss and public destruction, taking the audience on a visceral journey through internal and external storms.”

Justin Peck
Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes
New York City Ballet | Lincoln Center

“For a bracing new interpretation of a well-known score, wiping it clean of prior associations and using it as the springboard for an entirely new ballet marked by wit, surprise, poignant intimacy, and robust ensemble energy.”

Outstanding Revival:

Alexei Ratmansky
The Sleeping Beauty | American Ballet Theatre

“For recapturing the spirit and style of Petipa from 19th-century ballet notation starting with simple steps to reconstruct that world’s ideas about movement, musicality, aesthetics, and storytelling in dance.”

Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design:

Tei Blow
for I Understand Everything Better by David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group
Abrons Arts Center co-presented by The Chocolate Factory

“For a virtuosic live audio performance mixing recorded sounds, percussive rhythms, a live mic, and spinning vinyl to transport the audience from the mountains of Japan to the hurricane-ravaged shores of New York.”

Outstanding Performer:

Lawrence Cassella
Sustained Achievement in the work of Ivy Baldwin

“For the ability to be smooth, strong, fast, fearless, dangerously sexy, and bizarrely hilarious. For more than a decade of creation in a richly intertwined collaboration with choreographer Ivy Baldwin.”

Lauren Grant
For her overall body of work with Mark Morris

“For nearly two decades’ work gracing Mark Morris’ choreography with invigorating spontaneity, expansive phrasing, and robust musicality. For bringing to life an extensive and varied repertory, embodying the essence and individual tone of each work.”

Amar Ramasar
New York City Ballet

“For his natural ease and contemporary presence on the classical stage. For his ongoing contributions to a wide range of new ballet work, and for his sensitivity and skill in the demanding and sometimes unseen art of partnering.”

Ryoji Sasamoto
in OQ by Kota Yamazaki | Japan Society

“For his mastery and presence in a dance palace filled with extraordinary movers. For a never-ending flow of movement merging an ingrained sense of lock and pop with a contemporary sense of fluid release.”

Melissa Toogood
For her body of work during the 2014−15 season in the work of Kimberly Bartosik, Merce Cunningham, Rashaun Mitchell, Stephen Petronio, Sally Silvers, Pam Tanowitz, among others.

“For dancing so precise and fluid, elegant and electric, it captivates the viewer in each work in which she appears. For committing herself so completely to enhancing and transforming the vision of an astounding number of unique choreographers.”

Outstanding Visual Design:

Design Team: Geoff Sobelle (Creator), Steven Dufala (Scenic Installation Designer), Christopher Kuhl (Lighting Designer), Nick Kourtides (Sound Designer), Jamie Boyle (Integrated Archive Designer), Rachel McIntosh (Specialty Props Designer)
for The Object Lesson by Geoff Sobelle | BAM Fisher

“For creating an immersive environment built from the material debris of an individual life. For sparking curiosity in the audience about the need, meaning, and weight of their own lives’ objects.”

Outstanding Emerging Choreographer:

Storyboard P

“For fusing various styles of hip-hop with elements of modern and jazz dance, creating a cinematic choreographic vision for new dance narratives and abstract movement-based works.”

2015 Juried Award Recipient:

Pavel Zuštiak

“For his poetic layering of movement and visual imagery, and conceiving of the stage space as a decentralized world in which the corporeal body is the focus and canvas for a wide range of human expression.”

Read the list of the 2015 nominees & their citations
Search the archive of Bessie Awards from 1984 to the present