Twyla Tharp to Receive 2013 Capezio Dance Award

According to published reports, Tony winner Twyla Tharp will receive the 2013 Capezio Dance Award.

In 1980, Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway with Twyla Tharp Dance performing When We Were Very Young, followed in 1981 by The Catherine Wheel, her collaboration with David Byrne at the Winter Garden. "Wheel" was broadcast on PBS, and had its soundtrack released on LP. In 1985, her staging of Singin' in the Rain, played at the Gershwin for 367 performances. Tharp premiered her dance musical Movin' Out, set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel in Chicago in 2001. The show opened on Broadway in 2002. Movin' Out ran for 1,331 performances on Broadway. A national tour opened in January 2004. Movin' Out received 10 Tony nominations and Tharp was named Best Choreographer.

Tharp opened a new show titled The Times They Are a-Changin', to the music of Bob Dylan in 2005 at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The Times They are A-Changin' set the records or the highest grossing show and highest ticket sales as of the date of closing (March 2006). In 2009, Tharp worked with the songs of Frank Sinatra to mount Come Fly with Me, which ran at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta and was the best selling four-week run as of the date of closing in 2009. Renamed Come Fly Away the show opened on Broadway in 2010 at the Marquis Theatre in New York and ran for 26 previews and 188 performances.

Established in 1952, the Capezio Dance Award is presented annually in recognition of significant contributions to dance in the United States. Initially presented to individual dancers, choreographers, critics, teachers, producers and administrators, as selected by an independent committee, the program was restructured and broadened in 1992 and new guidelines developed.

Candidates are nominated form a group identified by the Trustees, in cooperation with a committee of distinguished national advisers (which is likewise selected each year). The award is presented to an individual, a company or an institution and is accompanied by a $10,000 honorarium. Highly regarded by the dance community for its prestige and pragmatic value, the Capezio Dance Award is presented at a ceremony honoring the awardee.

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