28th ANNUAL ISADORA DUNCAN DANCE AWARDS CEREMONY WAS HELD AT THE BRAVA THEATER ON MARCH 24, 2014 WITH A STELLAR LIST OF HOSTS AND PRESENTERS
San Francisco, California, March 25, 2014 - - The winners of this year’s Izzies were announced at the 28th Annual Isadora Duncan Dance Awards ceremony held on March 24, 2014 at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. The evening’s festivities began with a reception from 6 to 7pm, followed by the awards ceremony from 7 to 8pm. Dessert was served after the ceremony. The public event was free, and it was open to the whole community.
The ceremony was hosted by Joanna Haigood and Rob Bailis. Awards were presented by Joe Goode, Alex Conde, Patty Ann Farrel, Andy Mogg, Mythili Kumar, Kimi Okada, Kawika Alfiche, Carlos Carvajal, Sam Weber, Anita Paciotti and Michael Lowe. The ceremony also featured performances by Daiane Lopez Da Silva in collaboration with Yannis Adoniou, Kara Davis and Nicholas Korkos, Babatunji Johnson, Laszlo Tihanyi, Dexandro Montalvo, Ryan Fuimaono, and Grant Avenue Follies.
The "Izzies" awards, created in 1984, are designed to celebrate the unique richness, diversity and excellence of Bay Area dance. The Izzies Committee honors local dance artists and promotes their visibility, primarily by acknowledging outstanding achievements within a twelve-month period of performances, running September 1st through August 31st.
Awards are given in nine categories to honor the dancers, choreographers, designers, composers, dance companies, dance scholars and other individuals who have made important contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area’s thriving dance community.
During each 12-month performance cycle, the Committee collectively views over 400 eligible performances. The final nominees and honorees are selected at an annual voting meeting held in September after the close of the viewing cycle. The Izzies Committee members are choreographers, dancers, teachers, critics, writers, and arts administrators who serve one- or three-year terms. Member profiles and lists of previous nominees and award winners are available online at www.izzies.org.
The Izzies operates as a non-profit volunteer association, currently under the fiscal sponsorship of the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, CA, and is supported by donations from individuals, groups, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.
The following is the list of Nominees and Honorees by award category with the winners highlighted in bold type:
Outstanding Achievement in Choreography
Jess Curtis & Jorg Muller, Performance Research Experiment #2:Paradox of the Heart (phase 1), Gravity, CounterPULSE, San Francisco
Jo Kreiter, Niagara Falling, Flyaway Productions, West Wall of the Renoir Hotel, San Francisco
Hsiang Hsiu Lin & Raphaël Boumaïla, Keyed, sjDANCEco, The California Theater, San Jose
Robert Moses, NEVABAWARLDAPECE, Robert Moses Kin, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
KT Nelson, Brenda Way, Kate Weare, Triangulating Euclid, ODC/Dance, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Amy Seiwert, The Devil Ties My Tongue, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery presents SKETCH 3: Expectations, ODC Theater, San Francisco
Outstanding Achievement in Performance – Individual
Joel Brown for his 2013 Season, Axis Dance Company, Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland
Frances Chung for her 2013 Season, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Robert Dekkers for his 2012-2013 Season, Diablo Ballet, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek
Robert Henry Johnson, Psalm # 5, Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now, Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco
Lavinia Mitchell, Dimensions Dance Theater presents Down the Congo Line, Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland
Outstanding Achievement in Performance – Ensemble
Laura Dunlop & Michael Galloway, Being Served, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek
Brandon Freeman & Katherine Wells, The Devil Ties My Tongue, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery presents SKETCH 3: Expectations, ODC Theater, San Francisco
Karen Gabay & Maykel Solas, Amour Gitan, Ballet San Jose, San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose
Lonnie Weeks & Luke Willis, The Rite of Spring, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Aidan DeYoung, Ashley Flaner, Domenico Luciano, Jane Hope Rehm, Christian Squires, Raychel Weiner & Ricardo Zayas, field the present shifts, Post:Ballet, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Outstanding Achievement in Performance – Company
Los Lupenos de San Jose, Alma de Mexico, Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater, San Jose
Flyaway Productions, Niagara Falling, West Wall of the Renoir Hotel, San Francisco
Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Collaboration with Edgar Meyer, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Smuin Ballet, Petal, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Project Thrust, Kingdom, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance Summer Dance Series, Z Space, San Francisco
Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text
De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association, music; Ritmos Negros Del Peru, Ethnic Dance Festival, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Robert Henry Johnson, text; Psalm # 5, Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now, Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco
Patrick Makuakane, text; Birth Certificate Hula, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, The Hula Show, The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco
Edgar Meyer, music; Collaboration with Edgar Meyer, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Carl Hancock Rux, music; NEVABAWARLDAPECE, Robert Moses’ Kin, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Marvin K. White, text; He Moved Swiftly but Gently Down the Not too Crowded Street: Ed Mock and Other True Tales in a City that Once Was, multiple locations, San Francisco
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design
Jim Campbell, set design; Constellation, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, LAM Research Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Blake Manship, lighting and video; Karl Gillick, scenic design; Simone van der Meer, costume design; Ophelia, created by Carte Blanche, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
Gretchen Jude, graphic score; Les Stuck, video artist; Imprint, directed by Peiling Kao, Temescal Arts Center, Oakland
Basil Twist, set design; Cinderella, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Ann Woo, costume design; The Court Dance of Tang Dynasty, Chinese Performing Arts of America, Spring Festival Silicon Valley, International Performing Arts Center, San Jose
Outstanding Achievement in Restaging / Revival / Reconstruction
Hilary Cartwright, restaging of Les Rendezvous by Sir Frederick Ashton (1933), Ballet San Jose, San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose
Holley Farmer, reconstruction of Event with Canfield by Merce Cunningham (1969), The Mills Repertory Dance Company, Haas Pavilion, Mills College, Oakland
Gary Masters and Raphaël Boumaïla, restaging of The Moor’s Pavane by Jose Limon (1949), sjDANCEco and Diablo Ballet, The California Theater, San Jose & Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek
Maina Gielgud, restaging of Suite En Blanc by Serge Lifar (1943), San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Special Award Honorees
Sean Dorsey Dance Co. - The Secret History of Love - for revealing the underground ways that the LGBT community survived and found love in decades past, based on extensive archival research and Dorsey’s two-year national LGBT Elders Oral History Project, in which he conducted and recorded oral history interviews with LGBT elders across the United States.
Anna Halprin, Morton Subotnick, Berkeley Art Museum - Parades and Changes - for a stellar final staging of this iconic, ground-breaking work, presented in its original setting at the Berkeley Art Museum, and reuniting Halprin with original composer Subotnick.
The De Young Museum, Department of Costume and Textile Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, in collaboration with the Centre National du Costume de Scene, Moulins, France, for its exclusive and only U.S. exhibition of "Rudolph Nureyev: A Life in Dance,” which celebrated the life of this renowned dancer, choreographer, ballet master, and company director, by presenting more than 70 costumes from various ballets danced or choreographed by Nureyev, as well as a selection of photographs, videos, and ephemera that chronicled his life.
Sustained Achievement Honorees
Janice Ross, PhD, for enriching and bringing visibility to Bay Area Dance via her current role as Director of the Dance Division at Stanford University, her many publications (including the books Anna Halprin, Experience as Dance and San Francisco Ballet at 75), her ten years as staff dance critic for the Oakland Tribune, her twenty years as a contributing editor of Dance Magazine, her service as past president of both the international Society of Dance History Scholars and the Dance Critics Association, and her unflagging public service.
Judith Smith, Artistic Director and Founding Member of Axis Dance Company - an ensemble that includes dancers with and without disabilities - for her high artistic standards, innovative programming and deep commitment to community outreach and education. Smith has not only helped to bring physically integrated dance to the center of the Bay Area dance scene but she has also contributed to making the Bay Area an international center for physically integrated dance.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet, for over 30 years of visionary choreography and dancing that continues to expand the language of ballet for audiences worldwide. An inspired innovator and dedicated part of the Bay Area dance community, King has touched countless artists, students, and nonprofessional dancers. Moreover, as an investor in our community, King set up one of the first arts centers in the Tenderloin District and has been a pivotal part of this neighborhood's vibrancy and generative vibe.