Misty Copeland to Open 2018 Dance Magazine Awards

Misty Copeland will open the 61st annual Dance Magazine Awards. The evening will honor Ronald K. Brown, Lourdes Lopez(presented by Darren Walker), Crystal Pite, and Michael Trusnovec (presented by Patrick Corbin). A special Leadership Award will be presented to Nigel Redden. Since 1954 the Dance Magazine Awards have recognized outstanding men and women whose contributions have left a lasting impact on dance. This year's Awards will take place on Monday December 3, 2018 at The Ailey Citigroup Theater at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $50 and can be purchased by emailing dmawards@dancemedia.com.

A new award, The Harkness Promise Award, will shine a light on two emerging young artists for the promise of their artistic work. The inaugural awardees are Raja Feather Kelly and Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie. The Harkness Foundation For Dance received proceeds from last year's Dance Magazine Awards for this grant. The award showcases innovative thinking and how to be an effective artist-citizen who positively impacts dance and the broader community through performance, education, organization, and activism. Proceeds from this year's Dance Magazine Awards will be applied to next year's Harkness Promise Awards.

"All of us at Dance Magazine are excited to partner with The Harkness Foundation For Dance for a second year and to benefit these two deserving artists. This year's Dance Magazine Awards has once again chosen a stellar group of honorees and we are thrilled to have Misty Copeland join us. We are confident that the 61st Dance Magazine Awards will be our best yet." - Frederic Seegal, CEO/Chairman Dance Media

About The 2018 Dance Magazine Honorees

Ronald K. Brown - At only 18 years old, Ronald K. Brown founded Evidence, A Dance Company, out of a desire to tell the stories of the communities around him. Thirty-three years later, Evidence is now a mainstay in the modern dance world and Brown, as a choreographer, is a vanguard among choreographers fusing Western modern dance with movement from the African diaspora. In addition to running his own troupe, he's choreographed on such companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (including 1999's much-beloved Grace) and won an Astaire Award for his choreography on Broadway's Porgy & Bess in 2012.

Lourdes Lopez - Since becoming artistic director of Miami City Ballet in 2012, Lourdes Lopez has successfully built upon its Balanchine legacy while also embracing Miami's unique cultural identity. She first rose to prominence as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, performing featured roles in works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Her wide-ranging career has also included stints as a cultural arts reporter on WNBC-TV, a faculty member at such institutions as Barnard College and Ballet Academy East, the executive director of The George Balanchine Foundation, and a co-founder of The Cuban Artists Fund and of Morphoses.

Crystal Pite - Since creating her company Kidd Pivot in 2002, choreographer Crystal Pite has become a critical darling for her dark, mysterious works that powerfully explore the human condition. Her increasingly ambitious productions, some featuring more than 60 dancers, span dance theater to contemporary ballet. A former dancer with Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt, Pite has created more than 50 works for companies like Paris Opéra Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Cullberg Ballet. Today, she is an associate choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, associate dance artist of Canada's National Arts Centre and associate artist at Sadler's Wells in London.

Michael Trusnovec - As a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 20 years, Michael Trusnovec has commanded the repertory with authority and artistry. He has excelled in roles as diverse as the tormented and tormenting preacher in Speaking in Tongues; the lyrical central figure in Aureole; the dogged detective in Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal); and the corporate devil in Banquet of Vultures. His work has been honored with a Bessie Award and he was named the Positano Premia La Danza Dancer of the Year in 2016. Having created 26 roles in Taylor premieres, he now serves as company rehearsal director in addition to being one of PTDC's central performers.

Nigel Redden - Nigel Redden's expansive, globalist vision has guided performing arts institutions across the country. At only 25, he became director of the performing arts program at the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota, where he launched a festival called New Dance America. From 1991 to 1995, he served as executive director of the Santa Fe Opera. For two decades (1998-2017), Redden served as the director of New York City's wide-ranging Lincoln Center Festival. Today, he continues to direct the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, which he has led since 1995.

About the 2018 Harkness Promise Award

Created by the Harkness Foundation for Dance in a unique partnership with Dance Magazine, the Harkness Promise Award recognizes talented choreographers for the quality of their innovative work and for their demonstrated commitment to being an involved artist-citizen. The grant will directly benefit the awardees during the first decade of their creative careers.

Raja Feather Kelly will be honored with the inaugural 2018 Harkness Promise Award for his innovative dance-theatre works which mine popular culture to examine assumptions related to gender, race, and our shared contemporary experience; for consistently challenging performative norms; and for his efforts to build a community of radical artists through his work with large ensembles of collaborators and through his thoughtful teaching.

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie will be honored with the inaugural 2018 Harkness Promise Award for her experimental but accessible choreography, which investigates the complexities and narrative qualities inherent in various street and club dance styles to arrive at new modes of expression; for her support of women's unique contributions to house dancing; and for her commitment to teaching as a form of collaborative creativity and community-building.

About The Harkness Foundation for Dance

The Harkness Foundation for Dance is a private grant-making foundation dedicated to invigorating and supporting the dance art-form, predominantly in New York City. Since 1959, the Harkness name has been synonymous with dance philanthropy. The Foundation carries forward the lifelong dedication to the dance art form of the great American dance patron Rebekah Harkness. Over many decades, this support has taken the form of funding, rehearsal and theater space, technical assistance, and guidance-an unrivaled legacy that has touched countless dance artists and companies in all dance styles and genres. With a broad focus that spans dance creation, presentation, education, medicine and other vital services to the dance field, from 1986 to the present the Harkness Foundation has contributed over $30 million to more than 560 organizations across the industry. For more information: harknessfoundation.org

About Dance Magazine

Dance Magazine was first published in June 1927 under the name The American Dancer. Produced by a Hollywood-based team of editors under the leadership of Ruth Eleanor Howard, it cost a quarter and was dedicated to readers who "love the dance." In the 1920s and 30s, the magazine offered monthly news of the changing dance world in Europe and America. In 1942 New York publisher Rudolf Orthwine purchased both The American Dancer and another publication, Dance, which had begun in 1936, and combined the two into what would become Dance Magazine. The magazine expanded internationally under Lydia Joel, editor from 1952 to 1970, and enjoyed continued success under long-time editors William Como, Richard Philp and Wendy Perron.

Today, under editor Jennifer Stahl, the magazine reaches dance students, dance professionals and dance lovers around with world with its monthly print and digital editions, and its website. Written by accomplished journalists and active dancers, Dance Magazine tells the stories behind the most exciting dance artists working today and keeps readers up to date with news on the buzziest projects in the field. Dance Magazine is owned by DanceMedia, which also publishes Dance Spirit, Pointe, Dance Teacher and Dance Retailer News.

Photo by Jayme Thornton