Joyce Theater Foundation Announces 12 NY Participants in The A.W.A.R.D. Show!

The Joyce Theater Foundation, in association with The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, REDCAT (Los Angeles), Dance Affiliates (Philadelphia), ODC Theater (San Francisco) and On the Boards (Seattle), is pleased to announce the 12 choreographers who will participate in The A.W.A.R.D Show! 2010: New York City, taking place at Joyce SoHo from November 17-20, 2010 at 7 p.m. One choreographer will take home a $10,000 award to use toward the creation of a new dance work. The winner will be chosen through a process of performance, moderated discussion and audience voting.

The 12 choreographers selected to participate in New York City at Joyce SoHo will have their work performed on the following schedule (biographies of these participants are below):

Wednesday, November 17:
Julie Bour-Compagnie Julie Bour
Eunkyungkim-gogovertigoat dance and/or performance
Yin Yue
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Thursday, November 18:
Helen Simoneau
Lauri Stallings-gloATLANTA
Aaron McGloin-Aaron McGloin Dance
Alejandro Chavez-Compañia Ciudad Interior

Friday, November 19:
Michel Kouakou-Daara Dance
Christopher Williams
Satoshi Haga-binbinFactory
Roger Celedonio and Esther Mayda-Alma Boliviana

Saturday, November 20:
Program to be determined based on the finalists from the first three nights.

Each of the 2010-2011 series-in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle-presents the work of 12 promising contemporary choreographers (full schedule of the 2010-2011 performances is below). The three preliminary evenings will feature the work of four choreographers per night. Each dance piece will be 12-15 minutes of a completed work, excerpt or work-in-progress. After each performance, a moderated artist and audience discussion will take place, followed by an audience vote to select a finalist to perform on the fourth and final night of the series. Each night, the audience and the artists will be invited to a post-performance reception to encourage further informal dialogue about the work. On the final night in each city, a panel of experts in dance and other cultural arts fields, along with the audience, will choose the winner of the award.
The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2010: New York City performances will take place at Joyce SoHo from November 17-20, Wednesday through Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18. Performance tickets may be purchased online at www.joyce.org or via phone at 212-242-0800. Please note: Joyce SoHo tickets may be purchased onsite at the theater one half hour before curtain (subject to availability). Joyce SoHo is located at 155 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince) in Manhattan. Via Subway: B/D/F/M to Broadway - Lafayette; 6 to Bleecker; R to Prince. For additional information please call 212-431-9233.

The applicants for The A.W.A.R.D. Show! series taking place in New York City at Joyce SoHo were evaluated by a group of thirteen panelists that included dance artists, arts administrators and dance enthusiasts. Each applicant was evaluated according to the P.O.E.M. criteria: Potential, Originality, Execution and Merit.

The first place winner in each of the six participating cities will receive a $10,000 cash award. The two runners-up in each city will receive $1,000. The winners and runners-up will use these awards toward the creation of new dance work. This expansion into Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle is made possible by a generous grant from The Boeing Company. The awards in New York City are underwritten by Scott Kasen.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! was created in 2005 by choreographer Neta Pulvermacher/The Neta Dance Company, Scott Kasen and producer Marisa König Beatty in response to a need for a lab-like space in which working dance artists can engage in an open dialogue with the audience about the work presented. It is dedicated to nurturing new work, discussion, exploration, creativity and the free exchange of ideas, thoughts and opinions.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2010-2011 is administered by The Joyce Theater Foundation.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2010: New York City: Participant Biographies

Julie Bour, a native of France, trained in ballet and modern dance at the Conservatoire de Paris where she performed the works of Maguy Marin, Dominique Bagouet and Jennifer Muller. In 1994 she joined the Ballet Preljocaj, where she danced major roles with the company and received a Bessie Award for her interpretation of Annonciation. She then performed for Cave Canem Company in France, Inbal Pinto Dance Company in Tel Aviv and relocated to North America several years ago. She started exploring the theatrical aspect of dance through different crossover works like Julie Taymor's Opera Grendel and started her own choreographic work. She is the cofounder of The Flying Mammoth, a Production Company created in 2006 as a bridge between art worlds, consulting and linking people at different stages of a creation process. She currently assists Angelin Preljocaj restaging his repertory and lives in New York City where she choreographs and teaches. www.juliebour.com

Roger Celedonio and Esther Mayda are choreographers and performers with the Alma Boliviana Company in Arlington, V.A. Alma Boliviana- which means "Bolivian Soul" in English-was founded in 1991 under the guidance of Mrs. Maria DeMartini. Alma Boliviana is an inclusive Bolivian dance organization with members born in the USA and across the Americas, seeking as its main goal to cultivate and expose the diverse and rich number of folkloric Bolivian dances to the general population in the DC metropolitan area and other parts of the country. Alma's participation is exposed through stage presentations, parades and other venues. www.almaboliviana.org

Alejandro Chavez's company Ciudad Interior, since its beginning in 2006, has differed for exhibiting a vision of avant-garde in the choreographic language. The stagings that the company has realized reveal an aesthetic perspective to much of the culture and the art in Mexico as of global problematic, aiming its proposals to the depth of thought and feeling of the human being.

The company presents a repertoire of more than 20 works realized by the choreographer and artistic director Alejandro Chávez, whose work changes between the electrical thing and the subtle thing, the intimate thing and the superficial thing. During its short trajectory the company has realized numerous presentations in festivals of international character and has been recognized by the award of the VII International Contest of Choreography Burgos - New York 2008. This company has benefited from the artistic consultancy of such renowned figures of dance on a global scale as Christine Dakin and Kasuko Hirabayashi.

Satoshi Haga grew up in rural Japan, where he never thought he would become interested in dance. He studied mime and dance in New York. He has performed theater with The American Mime Theatre, New York Pantomime Theater, Jeanette Stoner and Dancers and many independent artists. His works have been presented by venues including Aaron Davis Hall, The Madarts, Joyce Soho, P.S.122, Movement Research, 92nd Street Y, Mulberry Street Theater, DanceNow, Downtown Dance Festival, Dance Conversation@Flea, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, the Japan Society in New York, Jacob's Pillow and The Yard in M.A. He started a quarterly experimental performance series with Rie Fukuzawa at the Giacobetti Paul Gallery at DUMBO in February, 2010 and he is currently collaborating with Jen Shyu, a vocalist and composer. He has also choreographed and directed an exhibition at the Tokyo Motor show. Mr. Haga has studiEd Balinese dance with Nyoman Cerita in Bali, is currently practicing Yang and Chen style Tai Chi and for the past 10 years has joyfully taken up the practice of juggling. He teaches movement linked to Qi energy and Tai Chi and conducts healing sessions. www.binbinfactory.org

Michel Kouakou, a native of the Ivory Coast, is an active performer of both traditional and contemporary dance. He has made appearances in numerous European countries, as well as in Japan, Africa and the United States. He began his career studying dance, acrobatics and marionette theater in his home country. After receiving several prizes in Abidjan for dance, he continued his study of contemporary dance with Germaine Ac in L'ecole des Sables in Senegal. As a dancer, he has worked with choreographers such as Reggie Wilson, Seydou Boro, Bud Blumenthal and Kota Yamazaki. In 2003, he formed his own company, Daara Dance, which has performed his pieces in the US as well as Holland, France, Chad, the Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Italy, Israel and the Czech Republic. As a teacher, Michel has given several workshops throughout Europe, the US and Japan, including work as a guest teacher at UCLA and Bates Dance Festival. Michel is a recipient of the 2007 NYFA artist fellowship.

Aaron McGloin was born and raised in Arizona and graduated with honors from Arizona State University with a BFA in Dance (Choreography). Over the past few years he has had the privilege of performing with companies such as Dance Arizona Repertory Theater, Scorpius Dance Theatre, Temenos Dance Collective, CONDER/Dance, and AMEBA Acrobatic and Aerial Dance of Chicago. He was the winner of the Arizona Choreography Competition in 2006, was awarded merit scholarships to attend the Bates Dance Festival in both 2006 and 2008 and recently won Dance Magazine's Video of the Month - Critics' Choice Award. The Chicago Tribune has called his choreography "quirky" and "whimsical" and has been compared to work by great artists such as Susan Marshall. His work has recently been commissioned by groups such as Scottsdale Community College Moving Company, Scottsdale Arizona Jazz Ensemble, Paradise Valley Community College, Scorpius Dance Theater, CONDER/dance and AMEBA. www.aaronmcgloindance.com
Helen Simoneau is a native of Québec. She has had the pleasure of creating and restaging her work for the Swiss International Coaching Project (SiWiC), the Bessie Schönberg Residency at The Yard, the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA), the Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, The University of Oklahoma, and Hollins University. Last June, her work was performed at PACT-Zollverein in Essen as one of three finalists for the Kurt Jooss Prize. In 2009, she was awarded 1st Place for Choreography at the 13th Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. Her choreography has been presented at Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place, DUMBO Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Inside/Out), and Movement Research at Judson Church, as well as in Austria, Canada, France, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, and has toured throughout Germany. This past summer, she joined the faculty at the American Dance Festival (six-week school) and was an artist-in-residence at Bates Dance Festival. Simoneau earned a BFA from the NCSA and a MFA from Hollins University/ADF. She is a recipient of the 2010 North Carolina Arts Council Choreographic Fellowship. www.helensimoneau.com
Lauri Stallings' company gloATL is a collaborative platform for incubating contemporary performance art, based in Atlanta. Amidst a breadth of fresh movement of extracted classical elements with the complexity and groove of today's rhythmic culture, in its inaugural season gloATL has created work on the architectural campus of Renzo Piano, in the Richard Meier atrium of the High Museum, Brooklyn's White Wave Festival and, in June 2010, an evening work commissioned by the Do Theatre in NYC. In just four seasons as a full time dancemaker, Hubbard St. alumnus and gloATL founder Lauri Stallings has compiled a substantial body of work. Commissions include American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Augsburg, Hubbard St. and Atlanta Ballet, where Stallings was Resident Choreographer from 2006-2009. Highly influenced by the gaga movement system and the desire for genuine exchange between the public and performer, Stallings has garnered recognition for her work, most recently a nomination for the Benois de la Danse. www.gloATL.com

Takehiro "Take" Ueyama, a native of Tokyo, Japan, studied at the Juilliard School in New York. Upon graduation, Take joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company and, in 2003, made his choreographic debut Tsubasa, performing with fellow Taylor dancers Amy Young, Julie Tice, Orion Duckstein and James Samson at the McKenna Theatre at SUNY New Paltz in New York. In 2004, after eight years with the Taylor Company, he founded TAKE Dance.

Featuring powerful athletic movement contrasted with delicate gesture and sensitivity, TAKE Dance has performed in New York City at Central Park SummerStage, Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce SoHo, Columbia University's Miller Theater, Downtown Dance Festival, the Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, the Ailey Citigroup Theater, and as part of the DanceNOW [NYC] Festival. The Company has also appeared at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The New Noises Festival at Perry Mansfield in Colorado, PS/21 in Chatham New York, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center , Nort Maar Fete de Danse, the Lewis Center at Princeton University and SaratogaArtsFest.

Takehiro Ueyama was the first choreographer to win the S & R Foundation's Washington Award in the spring of 2010. His SAKURA SAKURA was a prize winner at the 2005 International Modern Dance Choreographic Competition in Spain. www.takedance.org

Christopher Williams is a dancer, choreographer and puppeteer. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He has since danced for Tere O'Connor, Douglas Dunn, John Kelly, and Yoshiko Chuma, among others, and has performed for puppetry artists Basil Twist and Dan Hurlin. His works have been shown at City Center, Danspace Project, DNA, DTW, P.S. 122, La Mama and internationally in Bogota, Colombia. In 2005 he received a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award and has since continued collaborations with singers from two acclaimed vocal ensembles, The Anonymous 4 and Lionheart. He has been commissioned to make new works by The Dream Music Puppetry Program, Second Avenue Dance Company at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and Princeton University, among others, and has held creative residencies through Movement Research, DNA, Joyce SoHo, Djerassi, The White Oak Plantation, Yaddo and the Yard. www.christopherwilliamsdance.org

Jessica Womack (eunkyungkim) was born in Pusan, South Korea. She has studied Korean dance and drumming, Javanese dance and Hula, as well as Western dance forms such as performance art, contact improvisation, postmodern contemporary dance and ballet. She teaches yoga and Pilates in New York City. She holds a BS in resource conservation and a BFA in dance from the University of Montana, and an MFA from the University of Utah.

She received accolades for her graduate creative research at the National American College Dance Festival in New York, which was supported by the University of Utah Fine Arts Fee Grant. She cofounded GoGoVertigoat Dance Project in 2005. Since arriving in New York in 2008, she has shown work at Dancespace/St. Marks, Dance New Amsterdam, Chen Dance Center and, most recently, 3rd Ward. www.gogovertigoat.org

Yin Yue was born in Shanghai, China. She studied Chinese classical dance and Chinese ethnic dance at Shanghai Dance School from 1995 to 2001 and contemporary modern dance at Shanghai Normal University from 2001 to 2005. Yin has appeared in festivals throughout China and was ranked in the 2005 top ten dancers in the National Contemporary Dance Competition held in Yunnan. In 2008, Yin Yue graduated from New York University's Tisch School of The Arts with an MFA in dance.

Yin Yue performed for Doug Elkins & Friends, Ivy Baldwin, Curt Haworth, Christopher Williams, Debroah Jowitt and many others. She currently dances for White Wave Young Soon Kim Dance Company, Urban Dance Collective and Stefanie Nelson Dance Group.

Since 2006, Yin Yue has presented works in dance venues such as Dancenow[NYC] Festival at DTW, Food For Thoughts at St. Marks Church, DUMBO DANCE Festival, Cool New York Festival, La MaMa Moves New York International and FAB Festival at DMAC-DUO Theater. www.yinyuedance.com

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2010-2011 Schedule of Events:

1) The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago
July 28-31, 2010 at 8 p.m.
1306 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL
The Dance Center: 312-369-8330 or colum.edu/dancecenter

2) Joyce SoHo
November 17-20, 2010 at 7 p.m.
155 Mercer Street, New York, NY
Tickets: $18
Joyce Charge: 212-242-0800 or joyce.org
Tickets available September 2010

3) ODC Theater
January 12-15, 2011 at 8 p.m.
3153 17th Street, San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $18 single tickets (advance sale) or $60 for all four shows (advance sale)
ODC Theater Box office: 415-863-9834 or odctheater.org

4) REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
January 13-16, 2011 at 8:30 p.m.
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA
Tickets: $18
REDCAT Box Office: 213-237-2800 or redcat.org

5) On the Boards
January 27-30, 2011 at 8 p.m.
Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance
100 W. Roy Street, Seattle, WA
Tickets: $15
On the Boards Box Office: 206-217-9888 or ontheboards.org

6) Dance Affiliates
May 18-21, 2011
The Arts Bank at the University of the Arts
601 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
danceaffiliates.org