Katherine Crockett Joins Fini Dance Festival

Director/producer ANTONIO FINI, native of Calabria and recent guest artist with the Martha Graham Dance Company, announces the closing event of his International Dance Festival - a Gala Celebration of Italian and International Artists, with performances by guest companies from Florence, Marche, Pescara and Turin, Italy, along with U.S. based companies with an Italian connection. The evening will also include awards to outstanding dance figures from Italy. The Lifetime Achievement Award will go to choreographer Gianni Santucci, born in Arezzo, Tuscany; the Extraordinary Dancer Award to ABT's Luciana Paris; and Milan native Virginia Lensi, a new corps member of ABT, will receive the Rising Star Award. Thursday, August 30 at 8 PM at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street.

Katherine Crockett has joined the cast of performers this year, and will dance the Fini solo "Black Flame," a tribute to Louise Filippelli, an Italian-American who lost her two children and, in their honor, created the Angel Dancing Foundation, a non-profit organization that gives scholarships to young dancers. Among Crockett's many credits was appearing as a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, and as Queen of the Night in the off-Broadway hit of the same name. In film, Crockett appeared as Cate Blanchett's dancer double in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. She currently choreographs and performs internationally.

The full summer festival of classes and performances is held in Italy, Bulgaria and New York: July 10-29 in Villapiana Italy; performances August 4 & 5 at the Stara Zagora Opera Theater in Bulgaria; and August 19-30 in New York at the Creative Cultural Center on Christopher Street. The Festival concludes with the performance and presentation of awards August 30th at the Ailey Citigroup Theater.

The evening will include performances by:

EMOX BALLETTO of Florence Italy

PERLA DANCE COMPANY of Marche Italy

Soloist from BALLETTO DI PESCARA of Italy

New York area companies:

FINI DANCE NEW YORK

MICHAEL MAO DANCE

ABARUKAS

GIANNI SANTUCCI (Lifetime Achievement Award), choreographer of dozens of operas, films, TV productions and movies in his native Italy, as well as the U.S., France, Israel, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Finland, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Oman, Russia, and Japan. Former recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are Luigi, Elena Albano, Edward Villella, Alessandra Corona, Alessandra Ferri, Jacqulyn Buglisi, and Terese Capucilli.

Luciana Paris (Extraordinary Dancer Award), former principal dancer with Julio Bocca's Ballet Argentino, currently soloist with American Ballet Theatre.

VIRGINIA LENSI (Rising Star Award), trained in her native Milan at the La Scala Ballet School, danced with ABT Studio Company and joined the ABT corps in January 2018.

www.danceaward.org