2015

(2013-2014 Season)

The winners were honored in an awards ceremony, free to the public, held on Monday, March 24, 2015 at the Brava Theater, San Francisco, California.

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

Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text

Rosemary Hannon, text, Gallus Gallus Domesticus, The Garage, San Francisco
Richard Howell and the Richard Howell Quintet, music, birds eye view, Black Choreographers Festival, Laney College, Oakland
Krissy Keefer, text, Hemorrhage: an Ablution of Hope and Despair, Dance Brigade, Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco
Mark Izu, music composition, Brenda Wong Aoki, text, MU, First Voice, Jewish Community Center Theater, San Francisco

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design

Mary Armentrout, Erin Malley and Ian Winters, video, scenic design, reveries and elegies, Milk Bar, Oakland
John MacFarlane and David Finn, scenic design, light design, Hummingbird, San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Scott Marlowe, visual design, Soar, LEVYdance, Z Space, San Francisco
Randee Paufve and Beth Harris, visual design and direction, Soil, Paufve|dance, ODC Theater, San Francisco
Sewam American Indian Dance, visual design (regalia), Origins, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco

Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Individual

Marc Brew, Remember When, Axis Dance Company, Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland
Lindsey Renee Derry, Portraiture, Kunst-Stoff Arts, San Francisco
James Graham, Entire Season, Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco
Jesse Hewit, We Have This, West Wave Dance Festival, Z Space, San Francisco
Daria Kaufman, In Her Tower, Spring Season, Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco
Randee Paufve, Soil, Paufve|dance, ODC Theater, San Francisco

Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Ensemble

Natasha Adorlee Johnson and Jeremy Smith, Two if by Sea, ODC Dance Company, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Fanny Ara, Devon LaRussa, and Timo Nunez, La Traviata, San Francisco Opera, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Mathilde Froustey and Tiit Helimets, Giselle, San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
SALTA Collective, Entire Season, Various Bay Area Locations
Damian Smith and Yuan Yuan Tan, After the Rain, San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco

Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Company

Academy of Hawaiian Arts, He Mele No Kamohoali'i, Hole Waimea Waika, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco
Ballet Folklorico Compania Mexico Danza, El Alingolingo; El Toro; Mariquita; Las Amarillas; La Iguana, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco
Caminos Flamencos, Nuevas Tendencias, Yoshi's, San Francisco
San Francisco Ballet, Borderlands, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Zhukov Dance Theatre, Product 06, SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco

Outstanding Achievement in Restaging/Revival/Reconstruction

Luigi Bonino and Gillian Whittingham, revival of Carmen by Roland Petit (1949), Ballet San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose
Betsy Erickson, revival of Maelstrom by Mark Morris (1994), San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
David Fonnegra, restaging, Nuestros Valses by Vincente Nebrada (1976), Ballet San Jose, Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose
Joy Gim, Ronn Guidi, Julie Lowe and Michael Lowe, restaging of Trois Gymnopedies by Ronn Guidi (1961), Fall Season 2013, Menlowe Ballet, Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, Menlo Park
Charles Anderson, Alexis Drabek, and Charles Moulton, revival of Nine Person Precision Ball Passing by Charles Moulton (1986), Company C, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco

Outstanding Achievement in Choreography

James Graham, Guilty Survivor, James Graham Dance Theatre, Joe Goode Annex, San Francisco
Dexandro "D" Montalvo, Impulse, Robert Moses' Kin in Association with Black Choreographers Festival and ODC, ODC Theater, San Francisco
Kimi Okada, Two if by Sea, ODC Dance Company, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco
Alexei Ratmansky, Shostakovich Trilogy, San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Liam Scarlett, Hummingbird, San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Sheldon B. Smith and Scott Wells, Father On, Scott Wells & Dancers, ODC Theater, San Francisco

Special Award Honorees

Art Behind Bars: Co-produced and co-directed by Andrew Evans, Jeff Kessler, Myrton Running Wolf, and Mona Thompson in partnership with Stanford’s Arts Institute, Design School, and Theater and Performance Studies Department as well as SHN Theatricals and the U.S. National Park Service. This site-specific dance performance was the first of its kind at the site of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Inhabiting several locations throughout the prison, the performance ignited a dialogue with history and the site itself. Hospital choreographed by Mary Carbonara and Dining Hall choreographed by Dexandro “D” Montalvo.
Bjorn Amelan, Betti-Sue Hertz, Bill T. Jones, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The 30th anniversary celebration of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Counterpulse. This multifaceted and inspiring presentation included performances, Story/Time, a master class, visual art exhibition, and post-performance conversation. This honors the creativity, intelligence and perseverance of these artists and acknowledges the tremendous achievements of this 30th anniversary celebration.

Sustained Achievement Honorees

Damian Smith. His extraordinary career with the San Francisco Ballet spans eighteen years, thirteen of which he was a Principal Dancer. One of its most distinguished male artists, he shone bright in technique, characterization, artistry and was one of the most coveted partners by the company's ballerinas. Respected by his peers, he is one of the finest artists to grace the War Memorial Opera House stage.

Julie Mushet. She has more than 20 years of experience in the arts field and has been the Executive Director of World Arts West since 2002. The festival has received critical acclaim under her leadership. Ms. Mushet began her career in arts management at Cal Performances while a student a UC Berkeley and spent a decade serving as Executive Director for several California arts agencies and events, as well as curating over fifty gallery exhibitions. She serves as a consultant for arts organizations and has traveled the world studying diverse dance forms.
Margaret Jenkins, artistic associate and collaborator Michael Palmer, and The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Margaret Jenkins and The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company have been a major force in the San Francisco Bay Area community, nationally and internationally for 40 years. Her artistic work, rigorously developed and refined, has been critically acclaimed and honored nationally and created in collaboration with her main collaborator, poet and translator Michael Palmer, as well as with respected artists Alexander V. Nichols, Rinde Eckert, Paul Dresher, Naomie Kremer, Terry Allen, Yoko Ono and many others. Margaret Jenkins has been a leader in our dance community by organizing meetings to protest, at that time, the use of very limited local funds to bring New York artists to the Bay Area in the 1970’s. These meetings helped establish the Dance Coalition, an advocate for Bay Area dance for over a 20 year period. Her creation of alternative performance spaces, such as, Bryant Street Studio, Mission Street and the New Performance Gallery, as well as her work to bring the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to fruition gave choreographers and dancers a chance to show and develop their work when there was little opportunity to do so. Her creation and establishment of CHIME has helped to further the choreographic skills of emerging and established choreographers as well as create a larger community of artistic sharing and dialogue with renowned choreographers from other parts of the country.