2003

(2001-2002 Season)

The awardees in the following categories were announced at the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Ceremony on April 28, 2003. 

The awardees are shown in boldface type. The other nominees are also listed, in regular type.

SOUND/MUSIC/TEXT 

  • Joan Jenrenaud for sound score, Be With (Anna Halprin and Eiko & Koma)

  • Angus Balbernie for text, Rocky vs. Baryshnikov (Scott Wells)

  • Alvin Curran for music, May I Now? (18 Questions in the Space of an Answer) (Margaret Jenkins)

  • Hong Wang for music, Bamboo (Michael Lowe)

  • Jesus Montoya for flamenco singing in Café Flamenco series (Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos)

VISUAL DESIGN

  • Patty-Ann Farrell for visual design, Be With (Anna Halprin and Eiko and Koma)

  • Frank Lee, Nate Fredenburg, Alenka Mullen, Allen Willner, Dan Rathbun for set design and construction,Cockroach (inkboat/Shinichi Momo Koga)

  • Axel Morgenthaler for lights and Robert Rosenwasser for costumes, People of the Forest (Alonzo King)

  • Alexander Nichols for set design and lighting, May I Now? (18 Questions in the Space of an Answer)(Margaret Jenkins)

  • Eeo Stubblefield and Anna Halprin for visual design, Still Dance (Anna Halprin)

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

  • Muriel Maffre for her entire 2002 season with San Francisco Ballet at the War Memorial Opera House

  • Kelly Teo in Diablo Ballet’s Season Opening Gala

  • Erin Yarbrough in Giselle (Coralli/Perrot, staged by Frederic Franklin) with Oakland Ballet

  • Christy Funsch in One or Two, (Sue Roginski), at the Jon Sims Center for the Arts

  • Robert Henry Johnson in When My Strength Is My Weakness (Laura Elaine Ellis), at ODC Theater

  • Damian Smith in Othello (Lar Lubovitch), with San Francisco Ballet

  • Carola Zertuche in Solea (Carola Zertuche) with Theatre Flamenco

ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

  • Joanna Berman, Julie Diana and Katita Waldo in Dances at a Gathering (Jerome Robbins), with San Francisco Ballet

  • Kara Davis, Jenifer Golden, Dana Lawton, Heather Tietsort in Wayfarers (Janice Garrett), with Janice Garrett and Dancers

  • Terry Hatfield, Kerry Mehling in The Sleepwatchers (Deborah Slater), at ODC Theater

  • La Tania, Ledoh in 14 Bells (improvisation conceived by Yannis Adoniou), West Wave Festival at the Cowell Theater

  • Denis Nahat, Raymond Rodriguez in Graduation Ball (David Lichine), with Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley

COMPANY PERFORMANCE

  • Jess Curtis/Gravity Physical Entertainment and Fabrikcompanie in fallen at the ODC Theater

  • Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu in The Hulu Show (Patrick Makuakäne), at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre

  • Oakland Ballet in Moor’s Pavane (José Limon), at the Paramount Theatre

  • Savage Jazz Dance Company, entire season (Reginald Ray-Savage) at the Cowell Theater

  • Nemesio Paredes/Flamenco Ensemble, in Homenaje a José Rizal (Nemesio Paredes) at Theatre Yugen/Noh Space

  • San Jose Ballet Silicon Valley in Red Shoes, or Legs of Fire (Flemming Flindt) at San Jose Center for the Performing Arts

  • San Francisco Ballet in Dances at a Gathering (Jerome Robbins) at the War Memorial Opera House

REVIVAL/ RESTAGING/ RECONSTRUCTION

  • Shelly Senter for the reconstruction of phrase material from Foray Forêt and Glacial Decoy (Trisha Brown)

  • Gary Masters/Oakland Ballet, for restaging of Moor’s Pavane (José Limón)

  • Susan Hendl and Victor Castelli/San Francisco Ballet for restaging of Dances at a Gathering (Jerome Robbins)

CHOREOGRAPHY

  • Michael Lowe, Bamboo, for Oakland Ballet

  • Jess Curtis, fallen, for Jess Curtis/Gravity Physical Entertainment and fabrikCompanie

  • Janice Garrett, Ostinato, for Janice Garrett and Dancers

  • Alonzo King/Barthélemy Etoumba, The People of the Forest, for LINES Ballet

  • Yuri Possokhov, Damned, for San Francisco Ballet

  • Sue Roginski, One or Two, for Sue Roginski and Dancers

SPECIAL AWARDS

  • LINES Ballet‘s extraordinary production The People of the Forest
    presented an unforgettable meeting of cultures to audiences across the country. Bringing the Central African BaAka pygmy musicians to the United States required vision, faith, two years of tireless work, and an exemplary trans-Atlantic cooperation. LINES artistic director Alonzo King, associate director Robert Rosenwasser, and executive director Pam Hagen, joined forces with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts executive director John Killacky and dance curator Nancy Martino to make this remarkable meeting of two cultures a reality. The team brought together ten major funders and seven performance venues, four of which signed on to commission King’s full-length collaboration with the musicians and dancers of Nzamba Lela. The People of the Forest drew sold-out, standing-ovation audiences mesmerized by the pygmies’ rich, polyphonic singing and transformed by a chance to witness a truly cross-cultural collaboration.

  • Throughout its 18-year history Theatre Artaud has been one of San Francisco’s most vibrant dance venues, fostering the development of many now nationally recognized choreographers and encouraging multi-disciplinary collaboration. Founded by Project Artaud, the artists’ collective which owns the cavernous converted can factory, the theater was lead for 11 years by Dean Beck-Stewart. When the Theater Artaud corporation faced financial insolvency in the fall of 2001, a committed team of employees and volunteers stepped in to close the theater responsibly. The following people donated months of time to keep the stage equipment intact and honor contracts with artists, smoothing the transition for Project Artaud to reclaim management of the theater: Lizzy Spicuzza, Benjamin Young, Lynda Rieman, San San Wong, Karen Schiller, Joanna Haigood, Eloise Burrell, Sean Riley, Michelle Mullholland, Deanna Cooper, Donna Stone, Mary Williams, Jack, Carpenter, Tim Pickerill, and the members of Project Artuad, particularly Norman Rutherford, Nicole Sawaya, and Wendy Gillmore. Their work ensures the building’s continued use as a theater as Artaud reorganizes and looks forward to a new era.

SUSTAINED ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

  • Over its eight seasons, the San Francisco Butoh Festival transfixed, entertained, confounded, and shocked audiences. Conceived and founded in 1995 by Brechin Flournoy and launched in partnership with Takami Craddock, the festival pushed to shatter myths about the very definition of the Japanese dance form it celebrated. Since its groundbreaking debut, the Festival was lauded as the largest and most influential Butoh Festival in the United States, and took the lead in popularizing the art form in this country. More than 100 artists from Japan, Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia, and the U.S. either made their Bay Area debuts at the San Francisco Butoh Festival, or premiered new works at the Festival. The San Francisco Butoh Festival established the only ongoing training center for Butoh dance in the U.S. and served as a model for similar festivals in Vancouver, Seattle, San Diego, Olympia, and New York. The festival’s most enduring legacy has been to establish an international network among artists, independent presenters, and students of Butoh dance and to advance the development of Butoh in this country.

  • The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival is one of the country’s oldest and largest multi-cultural celebrations. What began as a series of community center concerts in 1978 has grown to present nine to twelve performances to more than 10,000 audience members annually. In the early years the Festival’s presence at the Civic Center’s Herbst Theater sent a radical message that world dance and music could hold its own alongside the ballet, opera, and symphony. Bay Area legends like Rosa Montoya, Lily Cai, Neva, the Kunirahmins, Dimensions, Cruz Luna, Suhaila Salimpour, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Chitresh Das, Red Thistle, Khadra and Harambee drew overflow crowds. Today the Festival is a launching pad for world dance artists, be they émigrés or American-born students. The Festival’s winter auditions have become a highly anticipated free public showcase, while the Festival’s arts education program, People Like Me, now introduces children ages 6-12 to world music and dance in a theatrical format.

  • Marina Hotchkiss is a founding member of LINES Ballet and as one of its principal dancers created many roles for choreographer Alonzo King. She performed for Pacific Ballet and Berlin Opera Ballet before joining LINES in the early eighties. She danced with LINES for 20 years and also performed extensively with the San Francisco Opera Ballet and as a guest artist for Smuin Ballets/SF. Throughout her career, Marina has been one of the primary dancers shaping the Bay Area’s contemporary ballet scene. She has also served as a dancer’s union representative for the SF Opera Ballet, continues to perform with dance collective The Foundry, and teaches the next generation of dancers at the San Francisco Dance Center.

  • Sally Streets, director emerita of Berkeley Ballet Theater, renowned for her teaching, has been part of Berkeley Ballet Theater since 1981. Ms. Streets grew up in Berkeley where she went to Anna Head School; she studied with Dorothy Pring in Berkeley, and later at the Russian Center. She has had several professional careers, as a performer with Mia Slavenska’s Ballet Variante and with the New York City Ballet before retiring to have children. Her most famous student, her daughter Kyra Nichols, is principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Ms Streets made a comeback to become principal dancer with both Pacific Ballet and the Oakland Ballet. She was also ballet mistress for both those institutions; she has taught for the San Francisco Ballet, for the Royal Ballet in London, and for the New York City Ballet. She continues to teach for BBT, where, incidentally, many modern dancers take her classes. She has been resident choreographer for the Diablo Ballet, and is their Artistic Advisor.