2008 New York Dance and Performance 'Bessie' Award Recipients

New York Dance and Performance 'Bessie' Awards

For over 20 years, THE BESSIES have honored outstanding innovative achievements in contemporary dance and performance, spanning a period of monumental artistic productivity in spite of a variety of economic, social, and political challenges. The annual awards ceremony serves a dual purpose: to recognize exceptional artistic achievements and to reflect upon the issues and challenges that face artistic communities in New York and nationally. The climate of the times has always been reflected in the work of the Bessies recipients, reinforcing the connection between art and society. 2007 - 2008 Bessie's Committee

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2008 New York Dance and Performance 'Bessie' Award Recipients

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Ensemble

For a continuous display of magnificent individual dancers who have always created a transcendent whole since their company’s inception; for taking dance and American culture to the corners of the world as eloquent ambassadors, and for an unforgettable 50th anniversary season that had audiences reveling in the aisles.

Back to Back Theatre

For “Small Metal Objects,” a work that revealed the choreography of commuter ebbs and flows in the Staten Island Ferry terminal; for presenting an ordinary story in an extraordinary way.

Kris Bauman

For creating music infused with charm and playfulness, that helped bring characters and stories from rural America to life with his band, The Dang-It Bobbys, in Tom Pearson and Zach Morris' “Vanishing Point,” presented at Danspace Project.

Nora Chipaumire

For a testament to a troubled state, and state of mind, in “Chimurenga,” a work that stormed the barricades of our hearts and minds with humanity, humor, and striking sensuality, presented at Dance Theater Workshop.

Hilary Clark

For a mesmeric body of work as a fearless and magnanimous performer, whose gorgeous, astute, “take no prisoners” interpretations of experimental work-- ¬ most notably that of Tere O’Connor, Luciana Achugar, and Fiona Marcotty-- ¬ enliven the very evolution of the form itself.

Aaron Copp

For creating a multi-verse of lighting effects, a living luminescence in visual harmony with the photographic motifs of Jonah Bokaer's “The Invention of Minus One,” presented at The Abrons Arts Center.

Jennifer Dunning

For her exceptional range and depth of commitment, and for her service to dance in all its diversity as an author and New York Times dance critic for more than 30 years.

Doug Elkins

For creating a tender, rollicking excursion at Joe’s Pub called “Fraulein Maria,” which took us from the snow-capped peaks of Hollywood through the worlds of “downtown” dance, Martha Graham, Willi Ninja, Balanchine, hip-hop, voguing, stepping, stomping, whirling, and flying like wild geese with the moon on their wings.

William Isaac

For the daring physicality of an attenuated body through space; for a touching blend of power, vulnerability, and caring precision that supports and extends his own and his partners' bodies in Karole Armitage's “Connoisseurs of Chaos,” presented at The Joyce Theater.

Deborah Jowitt

For her decades of eloquence as the chronicler of our community; for her unflagging commitment to justice and revelation in her dance writing; and for the unquenchable vitality of her dancer's soul, a special 2008 New York Dance and Performance Award goes to Deborah Jowitt.

Joe Levasseur

For lighting a vast range of work this season and providing deeply integral visual environments, textures, moods, and effects, in projects of every scale, at nearly every venue in the city.

Juliette Mapp

For a movingly eloquent dance meditation, an autobiographical “travelogue” on the forging of a dance artist and, in its loving largesse, a celebratory invocation of legendary spirits through a brilliant intergenerational lineage of creators and performers in “Anna, IKEA and I,” presented at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church.

Maguy Marin

For creating an acoustically challenging indictment of humanity's absurdist, animalistic impulsiveness, delivered in rhythmic loops of various mundane actions by ordinary people coming and going from behind mirrors in “Umwelt,” presented at The Joyce Theater.

Jodi Melnick

For her unparalleled technical prowess as a performer, coupled with a pure beauty and ease of movement; for inspiration as a muse and a stellar presence in the works of Susan Rethorst, Vicky Shick, John Jasperse, and Donna Uchizono.

David Michalek

For underscoring the diversity and grandeur of dance and bringing people together in awe of monumental images of a world of dancers moving very, very, very slowly, in his “Slow Dancing” video installation at Lincoln Center Festival.

Leah Morrison

For colorful, fluid dancing that captures the choreographer's spirit with lightness, passion, and a precise edge, rendering an unforgettable performance in Trisha Brown's “If You Couldn't See Me,” presented at The Joyce Theater.

Zeena Parkins

For setting the standard of excellence for original live music for contemporary dance; and for not resting on her laurels but continually and consistently raising the bar on her own achievements.

Tom Pearson and Zach Morris

For creating a work suffused in memory and remembrance, at once universal yet quintessentially American, informed by love, wisdom, and humor, and expressed in luscious movement and music by virtuosic performers in “Vanishing Point,” presented at Danspace Projec.

Susan Rethorst

For her masterful ability to make us feel at home by bringing her living room-with-a-view to the stage; for an invitation to witness in impeccable detail a rich, personal environment that elucidates the power of quiet juxtapositions of movement within a single body and between bodies in “208 East Broadway, Part 2: Suitcase Dreams,” presented by Danspace Project.

Nitin Shawhney

For composing a score embodying a synchronicity of ideas, as eclectic and borderless as those imagined by the dance; for an emotional and versatile multi-instrumental convergence of East, West, North, and South, in Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's “Zero Degrees,” presented at City Center.

Richard Siegal

For production design that evoked a dark, virtual world inhabited by a lone dancer—data in human form-- in service to media, waiting to be accessed, uploaded, and remembered, in “As If Stranger,” presented at Danspace Project.

Meg Stuart

For an influential body of work that encompasses possibilities, risk, and excellence; and for going boldly into the future with works such as “Forgeries, Love, and Other Matters” and “Maybe Forever”.

Layard Thompson

For igniting new possibilities of physical existence and personal expression, in performance that manifested singularities on stages, sidewalks, and beyond, with the Pixie Harlots, and in solo performances inspired by Deborah Hay.

Laurie Uprichard

For loving, nurturing, and challenging generations of dance artists; for giving a robust life to contemporary dance and performance; and for keeping New York City at the forefront of the global dance community through impeccable leadership at Danspace Project for over 15 years.