2025 Chita Rivera Awards Sets May Date; Ben Vereen to Receive Lifetime Achievement

The 2025 Chita Rivera Awards will take place on Monday, May 19 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
 
At this year’s Awards, Tony Award winner and theater and dance icon Ben Vereen will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his life-long commitment to dance in the theater.
 
The nominations for the 2025 Chita Rivera Awards will be announced Tuesday, April 29. This year’s cut-off for nominators to see eligible shows is Sunday, April 27.
 
Carrying the name of one of the great dance icons of the American musical theater, the Chita Rivera Awards celebrate dance and choreographic excellence - past, present and future. The awards honor the superb achievement of each nominee, while recognizing the talents and passion of every theatrical choreographer and dancer. Additionally, through education and scholarships, the awards are committed to nurturing future generations, as well as preserving notable dance history.
 
Nominators will consider outstanding choreography, featured dancers and ensembles in productions on Broadway and Off Broadway as well as outstanding choreography in film, that opened in the 2024-2025 season. Nominations will be determined by the designated nominating committees. There are separate nominating committees for Broadway and Film. There is also an awarding committee for Broadway, which determines recipients that are received from the Broadway nominations committee.
 
The off-Broadway honors won't have competitive categories with nominees, and as was the case last year, will be chosen by the Awarding committee.
 
As has been the case for the past two years, the Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show category is gender-free. This category will have twice as many nominees as the former gendered categories. There will be two winners.
 
The awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts and Humanities, as well as when tickets go on sale, will be announced in the coming weeks.
 
“We are thrilled to honor Ben Vereen with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Joe Lanteri. “Over his unprecedented career, Ben has starred on stage and screen, performed around the world, and has been a public speaker and humanitarian for causes close to his heart including black history and continuing education. Ben’s performance on Broadway in Pippin as the Leading Player won him a Tony Award and he’d go on to have a four-decade career in the theater. We look forward to celebrating him on May 19.”
 
The NYC Dance Alliance Foundation College Scholarship Program will be the beneficiary of the event. Since the inception of the Foundation, over $5 million has been awarded to over 500 dancers attending 50 of the most prestigious college dance programs in the country. See the winners of the 2024 Chita Rivera Awards HERE!