2023 Bessie Awards
*notes recipients
Lifetime Achievement in Dance:
*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, 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:
*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, Michele 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 them within Hip-Hop’s legacy.
Outstanding Choreographer/Creator:
Vanessa Anspaugh
mourning after mornings
New York Live Arts
With a moving table, cycling through layers of fabric, and exquisite movement, Anspaugh creates a world holding grief, hope, care and authenticity. Together with an intergenerational ensemble, whether formal or cathartic, this deeply feminine work invites us to evolve together in response to our current era.
*LaTasha Barnes
LaTasha Barnes presents The Jazz Continuum
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.
Sidra Bell
REP: Introspection
Gibney
From exhilarating, thought-provoking performance, to futuristic fashion, and capturing the complexities of humanity, Bell’s work is a staple of dance innovation.
Jessica Chen
NüWa (女媧)
Arts on Site
For her innovative, risk-taking and thought-provoking work that uses movement as a vessel for education, storytelling, and healing generational wounds.
*Dormeshia
Dormeshia Tap Collective: Rhythm Is Life
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.
Rennie Harris
Lifted
The Joyce Theater
For sharing a timeless message while masterfully combining multiple disciplines and lifting up many communities.
Deborah Hay
Horse, the solos
The Joyce Theater
For a beautiful and emotional meditation on the climate crisis, with an eerie and laconic choreographic composition. Created in collaboration with Cullberg’s gorgeous dancers, the work resembles invisibly interconnected vessels that are living, breathing, and colliding to shape a quiet space of contemplation and dialogue.
*Benjamin Akio Kimitch
Tiger Hands
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 a shimmering novelty in a tribute to a beloved mother.
Jordan Demetrius Lloyd
Blackbare in the Basement
Danspace Project
For a joyful and enigmatic use of rhythmical “compress and release” sequences that shape movement as a counterpoint to the architecture inside the cavernous St. Mark’s Church. An ensemble of eight dancers displays the stunning play of movements, while the duet between Lloyd and Prum is destabilizing with its double gestures and releases.
Shamel Pitts
Black Hole: Trilogy and Triathlon
New York Live Arts
For creating an immersive and transporting experience with sound, projections, and movement. The work pushes the boundaries of movement art with a distinct multi-disciplinary vision. It is a visceral ride in the world of Afro Futurism that stimulates the audience’s every sense.
Lia Rodrigues
Encantado
Brooklyn Academy of Music
With simplicity and humor, this work features a creative, democratic portrayal of singular bodies and a meticulous aspect of technical prop manipulation. It is an impressive gift of fresh energy for the New York City audience.
*Omari Wiles
New York Is Burning
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, its current cultural relevance, and prioritizes the diversity of dancers’ bodies, bringing out the power within Black dance and music.
Outstanding “Breakout” Choreographer:
Bryan and Shaina Baira of BAIRA
For creative work that is breaking new boundaries shared through live performance and immersive virtual reality experiences. For a unique physical methodology that is rooted in improvisational forms and evolves in physical partnering, reflex and response practice to challenge and shape creative movement instincts. For movement research that continues exploring these techniques which delve into an embodiment addressing trust, vulnerability, and responsibility with the weight one gives and receives.
*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.
Soles of Duende: Amanda Castro, Brinda Guha, Arielle Rosales
For a unique blend of dance genres, performed by a powerfully dynamic trio. For the creation of bold, one-of-a-kind performances combining the rhythmic-based dance forms of tap, flamenco, and kathak, danced with excellence and collaborative invention, leaving the audience feeling passionately empowered.
marion spencer
With deep explorations in movement, sound, and design, spencer creates keenly nuanced work.
Outstanding Sound Design or Musical Composition:
Roman Bestion, Fouad Boussouf, and Marion Castor
Näss
By Fouad Boussouf
The Joyce Theater
Drums, beat, and inner rhythms are all magnified, the audience unable to keep from moving while experiencing this palpable work.
Graham Reynolds
Horse, the solos
By Deborah Hay
Cullberg
The Joyce Theater
For vibrant sound composition that unfolds as a silent underscore of the movement and layering of atmospheric design elements. The score creates character on the stage, and sets a sustaining mood for the proceedings. It is rich, meditative, and made of contrasting, ethereal electronic sounds. The blasts or rumbles of percussion are present, earthy, and laced together.
Evil Tracy The International Showoff and DJ Razor Ramon
Rome & Jewels
By Rennie Harris
The Joyce Theater
Two committed Hip-Hop musicians and DJs, they artfully create live music deeply connected with the unfolding story on the stage, supporting the arc of the whole. The audience is inspired to witness the duets and solos by these virtuosos, whose contributions are impactful to the music field and beyond.
*Charles Turner & Sean Mason
LaTasha Barnes presents The Jazz Continuum
By LaTasha Barnes
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 in Harlem to the playgrounds in Brooklyn, the arrangement is a true delight to the magic of the Jazz Continuum.
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 that will contribute to the evolution of Kathak dance and its place in the dance world at large.
Outstanding Revived Work:
Pina Bausch & Tanztheater Wuppertal
Água (1995/2023)
Brooklyn Academy of Music
A fantastical, surreal reimagining of dance in the forest and on the beach in Brazil. With joy and light-hearted sensuality, the dancers’ physicality engulfs the entire space and transports the audience to a jungle. This work is a powerful visual marathon that centers on women’s agency and self-expression.
Camille A. Brown & Dancers
Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012/2022)
The Joyce Theater
For creating a work that exemplifies how Black American performance stems from places of profound pain and suffering yet transcends into places of humor, joy, and resilience. This work examines both the tenderness and indefatigability of the human spirit.
Garth Fagan & Garth Fagan Dance
Prelude (1981/2022)
The Joyce Theater
For its style, long lasting imagery, and zeal, this work is generous and inviting. It introduces the audience to individual dancers with overarching artistic visions. It is a hallmark of Fagan’s great choreographic mind, full of athleticism, grace, power, exuberance, restraint, and technical mastery.
*Twyla Tharp
In the Upper Room (1986/2022)
New York City Center
For a masterly 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 Performer:
Billy Barry
Hora
By Ohad Naharin
The Joyce Theater
Barry’s work has inner motivation in every movement, using impressive elasticity and explosive expression. There is a fierceness in this master technician who makes Gaga his own.
*j. bouey
A Message from Mx. Black Copper
By j. bouey
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. Thoughtful, unapologetic performance celebratory of life, self, and ancestry.
*Amanda Castro
Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic
By Ayodele Casel
The Joyce Theater
Casto’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
Grace, The Equality of Night and Day, and Open Door
By Ronald K. Brown
The Joyce Theater
For bringing presence and identity into an exquisite embodiment of the Ronald K. Brown’s work. Joyce exudes irrefutable strength, depth, warmth, reverence, conviction, and connection.
Timothy Edwards
Mr. TOL E. RAncE
By Camille A. Brown
The Joyce Theater
By bringing nuance, sensitivity, and exceptional attention to detail in uniquely emotive storytelling, Edwards exudes bravery, integrity, immense strength, and beauty throughout.
Rachel Harris
Mr. Withers
By David Parsons
The Joyce Theater
Harris portrays malleability in time and space, while weaving a seamless and simple connection to everyone and everything.
Niall Jones
C O M P R E S S I O N
By Niall Jones
Performance Space New York
Jones pushes boundaries and explores spaces to locate new performance modes, using immersive, liminal sites for practicing incompleteness and refusal. Jones’ Queer and dramatic aesthetic articulates Queerness, the other, the spaces in between, a Queer fantasy.
*Albert Silindokuhle Ibokwe Khoza
And so you see… our honourable blue sky and ever
enduring sun… can only be consumed slice by slice…
By Robyn Orlin
New York Live Arts and FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival
A uniquely bombastic, outrageous and gorgeous performance that transcends genres, this is an unforgettably commanding performance that reveals deeper truths.
Maleek Washington
Mr. TOL E. RAncE
By Camille A. Brown
The Joyce Theater
With humanity, electricity and excellence, Washington’s performance has pristine technical command and unbridled power. There is undeniable magnetism on stage, deeply embodying a choreographic and artistic vision.
Ensemble: Anand Bolder, Louise Dahl, Freddy Houndekindo, Eliott Marmouset, Adam Schütt, Johanna Tengan, Vincent Van Der Plas
Horse, the solos
By Deborah Hay
Cullberg
The Joyce Theater
With exacting and deliberate gestures, these outstanding dancers embody a sense of urgency and the climate crisis to build inner lives that collide.
Ensemble: Bree Breeden, Wendell Gray II, José Lapaz Rodriguez, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Mia Martelli, Mykel Marai Nairne, Owen Prum, Kennedy Thomas
Blackbare in the Basement
By Jordan Demetrius Lloyd
Danspace Project
For an outstanding ensemble of eight dancers showcasing significant movement sequences of improvisational gestures built on listening, kinesthetic responses, and interspersed throughout the dialogue with quick-freezing balletic poses and double gestures.
Ensemble: Marielys Burgos-Meléndez, Rafael V. Cañals Pérez, Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez
The Circle or Prophetic Dream
By Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez
Danspace Project
A profoundly personal and emotional movement exploration inspired by nature sounds, voice, and ancestral music, these performers’ ritualistic movement sequences are subtle, powerful, and gentle, allowing a raw and naked emotionality to surface.
Outstanding Visual Design:
Isabela Dos Santos (Animation)
Mr. TOL E. RAncE
By Camille A. Brown
The Joyce Theater
For crafting unforgettable animations that introduce context, tone, and feel that are integral to understanding the live work. For introducing the audience to deeply important references, inspirations, and the historical landscape for the work. For its memorable, apt aesthetic style and technical prowess. This work provides a poignant prelude and counterpoint to a live dance theater work, calling upon myriad American theatrical and entertainment traditions that beautifully tie into the live work itself.
Sarai Frazier (Lighting)
all things under dog, where two things are always true
By Monica Mirabile
Performance Space New York
With the creation of new worlds through inventive lighting shifts within the sprawling performance space, Frazier sensitively creates unique spaces and rooms with a distinctive presence.
Zane Pihlström (Costume and Stage Design)
Company XIV: Seven Sins
By Company XIV
Théâtre XIV
For innovative and captivating theatrical creation that draws from years of experience and inspiration. The audience is immersed as soon as one sets foot through the theater door with handcrafted burlesque, circus, and operatic design. Visually stunning and inventive, the experience expands the mind on what immersive theater can be.
*Tina Tzoka and Loukas Bakas (Set Design), Stephanos Droussiotis (Lighting Design), Nektarios Dionysatos (Props) Dimitris Korres (Mechanical Inventions)
Transverse Orientation
By Dimitris Papaioannou
Brooklyn Academy of Music
For a team of designers that 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.