2010 Tony Awards: Bill T. Jones Wins 'Best Choreography'

The American Theatre Wing's 64th Annual Antoinette Perry "Tony"® Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 13, 2010 and broadcast on the CBS Television Network. For more information visit tonyawards.com.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 64th Annual Antoinette Perry "Tony"® Awards were announced on May 4, 2010 by Broadway Star Lea Michele and Tony Award Nominee Jeff Daniels.

The Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards are bestowed annually on theatre professionals for distinguished achievement. The Tony is one of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry and the annual telecast is considered one of the most prestigious programs on television.

To view the complete list of 2010 Tony Award winners, click here.

BroadwayWorld Congratulates
Bill T. Jones
2010 Tony Award Winner
'Best Choreography'

Bill T. Jones (Fela!) Bill T. Jones is a 2007 Tony® Award winner and the recipient of the 2007 Obie Award and 2006 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation CALLAWAY Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening, the recipient of the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship, the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven, the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the prestigious 2005 Wexner Prize, and the Aaron Davis Hall Harlem Renaissance Award. He is also a MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient in 1994, named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2000, and was awarded The 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for which recipients are considered trailblazers who have redefined their art and reshaped the cultural landscape. He began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living in Amsterdam, Mr. Jones returned to SUNY, where he became co-founder of the American Dance Asylum in 1973. Before forming Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, Mr. Jones choreographed and performed nationally and internationally as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane. In addition to creating more than 100 works for his own company, Mr. Jones has received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Axis Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berkshire Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and Diversions Dance Company, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s The Flight Project. He has also received numerous commissions to create new works for his own company, including premieres for the American Dance Festival, the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music and for St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra. In 1995, Mr. Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, commissioned by Lincoln Center’s Serious Fun Festival and with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do! which premiered at New York’s City Center in 1999 as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers New Visions series. The Breathing Show, Mr. Jones’ evening long solo, toured for three years, and his second solo show, As I Was Saying…, toured for more than two. He has directed and choreographed for theatre and opera, most recently choreographing Off-Broadway for the New York Theatre Workshop’s production of The Seven for which he was awarded the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Choreography and for the Broadway musical Spring Awakening. Mr. Jones has received honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College and Yales as well as the SUNY Binghamton Distinguished Alumni Award.

'Best Choreography'
2010 Tony Award Nominees

Rob Ashford (Promises, Promises)
Mr. Ashford’s Broadway credits include Cry-Baby (Tony® nomination), Curtains (Tony® nomination), The Wedding Singer (Tony® nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002 Tony® Award, Best Choreography), and The Boys From Syracuse (Roundabout). In London, the current production of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Rachel Weisz at the Donmar Warehouse, Parade  at the Donmar Warehouse (Olivier nominations for Direction and Choreography), Evita (Olivier nomination), Guys and Dolls  (Olivier nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Olivier nomination), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Once in a Lifetime (National Theatre). Other credits include Parade  (Mark Taper Forum), Candide (La Scala, Milan, Chatelet, Paris), Tenderloin, Bloomer Girl, A Connecticut Yankee… and Pardon My English (Encores!). He provided choreography for the film Beyond the Sea directed by and starring Kevin Spacey. Mr. Ashford just won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for his work on the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

Lynne Page (La Cage aux Folles)
"Recently: Pet Shop Boys 2009 Pandemonium tour; Pet Shop Boys Lifetime Achievement performance at the Brit Awards 2009; and Kanye West 2009 festival tour.

Lynne Page’s theatre credits include: A Little Night Music (Garrick Theatre, Menier Chocolate Factory); Never So Good (National Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Menier Chocolate Factory, West End and 2009 UK tour); Bad Girls the Musical (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Assassins (Crucible, Sheffield); There Came a Gypsy Riding and The Late Henry Moss (Almeida); Fabulation (Tricycle Theatre); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC); Bat Boy-the Musical (West End); Blonde Bombshells of 1943 (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Tell Me On A Sunday (West End); The Merchant of Venice (National Theatre); Meat (Theatre Royal Plymouth); Jesus Christ Superstar (European tour).

Television and film credits include: Hippie Hippie Shake (Working Title); Fred Claus (Warner Bros); “Phoo Acton,” “Billy Goat,” “Brazen Hussies,” “The History of Tom Jones“ (BBC); “The Last Detective” (ITV); “That’s So Graham Norton” (Channel Four).

As an Associate to Peter Darling, credits include: the movies of The Phantom of the Opera and Billy Elliot; Our House in the West End; Candide at the National Theatre; and Merrily We Roll Along at the Donmar Warehouse. Lynne has also worked extensively in music and commercials."

Twyla Tharp (Come Fly Away)
"One of the most accomplished and versatile artists working today, Twyla Tharp has created groundbreaking work in ballet, modern dance and on Broadway,  in addition to her successes in film and television.  She is also the author of three books. Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Ms. Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred thirty-five dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed four Broadway shows.  She received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor.  Her many grants include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1965 Ms. Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Ms. Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway in 1980 with When We Were Very Young, followed in 1981 by her collaboration with David Byrne on The Catherine Wheel at the Winter Garden. Her 1985 production of Singin' in the Rain played at the Gershwin and was followed by an extensive national tour. In 2002, Ms. Tharp’s award-winning dance musical Movin' Out, set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel, premiered at the Richard Rodgers, where it ran for three years. A national tour opened in 2004 and also ran for three years. For Movin' Out Ms. Tharp received the 2003 Tony Award, the 2003 Astaire Award, the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater; and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. For the London production Ms. Tharp won Best Choreography (Musical Theatre) Award of the UK's Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 2006. In 2006 Ms. Tharp worked with Bob Dylan’s music and lyrics to create The Times They Are A-Changin’ which played at the Brooks Atkinson.

In film Ms. Tharp has collaborated with director Milos Forman on Hair in 1978, Ragtime in 1980, and Amadeus in 1984, with Taylor Hackford on White Nights in 1985 and with James Brooks on I'll Do Anything in 1994.

Her television credits include choreographing Sue's Leg for the inaugural episode of PBS' “Dance In America,” co-producing and directing “Making Television Dance,” which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award; and directing “The Catherine Wheel” for BBC Television. Ms. Tharp co-directed the television special “Baryshnikov By Tharp,” which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Director's Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement.

In 1992 Ms. Tharp wrote her autobiography Push Comes To Shove. In 2003 she wrote, The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life. In 2009 she wrote, The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together both of which were published by Simon and Schuster. Today Ms. Tharp continues to create."