On Wednesday July 12, 2017, the nominations for this year's Bessie Awards and well as the award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer were announced at Gibney Dance. La MaMa is happy to announce that Antony Hamilton's Meeting (presented with Performance Space 122 as part of COIL) was nominated for two awards: Outstanding Production and Alisdair Macindoe for Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design. 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 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
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 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, Grace Osborne,
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
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
Nora Chipaumire For Set Design of 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 A 24-Decade History of Popular Music By Taylor Mac St. Ann’s Warehouse/Pomegranate Arts
Paulina Olowska For Costume Design of Slavic Goddesses–A Wreath of Ceremonies By Paulina Olowska The Kitchen
Mark Ryden (set and costume) and Brad Fields (lighting) For Visual Design of Whipped Cream By Alexei Ratmansky Performed by American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House The Bessie Awards will be presented on Monday, October 9, 2017, at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets go on sale on August 1, 2017. For more information about the Bessie Awards, go to: www.bessies.org