12 Choreographers Announced For The A.W.A.R.D Show 2009 9/4-9/19

The Joyce Theater Foundation (New York), in association with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and On the Boards (Seattle), is pleased to announce the 12 choreographers in each of the four cities who will participate in The A.W.A.R.D Show! 2009. The 48 participants were selected from a total of 218 applicants from across the country; one from each city will take home a $10,000 award to use toward the creation of a new dance work.

The twelve Philadelphia-based artists selected to participate in The A.W.A.R.D. Show! presentation at the 2009 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (September 4 - 19) are: Nichole Canuso (Nichole Canuso Dance Company), Devynn Emory (Devynn Emory/Beast Productions), Kirsten Kaschock, Braham Logan Crane, Megan Mazarick, Jen McGinn, Jumatatu Poe, Gabrielle Revlock, Jenn Rose, Zornitsa Stoyanova (Here[begin] Dance Co.), Kathryn TeBordo, and Kate Watson-Wallace (anonymous bodies).

The Live Arts Festival presentation will be held September 15 - 17 and September 19 at 8pm at the Arts Bank at the University of the Arts (601 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia). Tickets are $25 - $30; discounts are available for multiple ticket buyers. Tickets will be available for purchase beginning in late May through livearts-fringe.org or by calling (215) 413-1318.

Each series of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! will present the work of the 12 promising contemporary choreographers selected over four nights of performances. Three preliminary evenings will feature the work of four choreographers per night. Each dance piece will be 15 minutes or less 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 again on the fourth and final night of the series. Each night The Audience and the artists will be invited to a post-performance reception where further informal dialogue about the work is encouraged. On the final night, a panel of experts in dance and other cultural arts fields, along with The Audience, will choose the winner of the award in that city.

The first place winners in each of the four participating cities will receive $10,000 cash awards. The two runners-up in each city will receive $1,000 each. These awards are to be used toward the creation of new dance work. Awards in Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle have been generously underwritten by The Boeing Company. The awards in New York City have been generously underwritten by Scott Kasan.

A national panel of distinguished dance experts evaluated the applications for The A.W.A.R.D. Show! series taking place in Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle. The panelists included Nick Stuccio, Producing Director of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival; Martin Wechsler, Director of Programming of The Joyce Theater Foundation; Phil Reynolds, Executive Director of the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago; and Lane Czaplinski, Artistic Director of On the Boards. 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 13 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 four first-place winners and the eight runners-up of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 will report back on their progress in creating new work with the prize money that they receive, and when performances of the work are scheduled, they will be advertised on The Joyce Theater website and on each company's website as well. In this way, The Audience will have a chance to attend a performance and see a dance work that they ultimately helped to fund.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! was created 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 their work.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 is administered by The Joyce Theater Foundation.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! was founded in 2006 by Neta Pulvermacher/Neta Dance Company with original co-production by Marisa König Beatty.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 Philadelphia Artists

Nichole Canuso, is the artistic director of Nichole Canuso Dance Company. She has been a company member of Headlong Dance Theater since 1997, and has also performed and collaborated with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Theatre Exile, and co-directed Moxie Dance Collective from 1999-2004. Recently, Canuso performed with Bill Irwin in The Happiness Lecture at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. She has received fellowship support from the Bessie Shoenberg First Light Commission, the Leeway Foundation, the Independence Foundation, Dance Advance, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She will be a choreographic resident at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) in the summer of 2009, working on her next project, TAKES. TAKES will premiere at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in September 2010. www.nicholecanusodance.com

Braham Logan Crane creates fresh, innovative work that encompasses intense emotion and passion, blending modern, jazz, hip hop, and contemporary movement. Braham has set works on dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, and collaborated with recording artist Angela Ai. Braham choreographed and performed at the Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary, along with the band The Killers. He recently set original versions of Altar Boyz and Cats at the Roxy Regional Theatre in Tennessee. Braham served as founder, artistic director, and choreographer for ASH Contemporary Dance pieces alongside Mia Michaels, touring the East Coast, Canada, and Europe. Braham was the youngest choreographer to win a Gold Leo Award for excellence in jazz choreography at the Jazz Dance World Congress in Buffalo, NY. www.BrahamCrane.com

Devynn Emory is a Philadelphia-based choreographer and mover. Devynn is currently working in Headlong Dance Theater's collaboration with Tere O'Connor, and is a recent Fresh Tracks artist at Dance Theater Workshop in New York. Devynn is a 2003 CEC New Edge Mix recipient, a three year resident choreographer of the Susan Hess Choreographers Project, and a recipient of an Independence Foundation fellowship. Ongoing projects include curating the annual 48hour dance project, making dance films, and choreographing music videos for the band Plastic Little. Devynn's work has been shown in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Philadelphia Dance Project's Motion Pictures, International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven), The London International Film Festival at The Place, and Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research, BAX, and DTW in New York.

Kirsten Kaschock is a poet and a choreographer. Her first book of poems, Unfathoms, is available from Slope Editions. She has received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in both her chosen art forms. She recently moved back to the Northeast after spending her artistic time and energies during the past decade in the Deep South and the Midwest. Kirsten is currently a PhD fellow in dance at Temple University.

Megan Mazarick received her BFA in dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her MFA in dance from Temple University. She has produced shows in the 2005, 2006, and 2007 Philly Fringe. Her choreography has been presented at Silkwerks Theatre Outlet (Allentown, PA), Glue Dance Series 2006 (Philadelphia), CEC's New Edge Mix Series 2008 (Philadelphia), and as a resident artist for nEW Festival 2007-2008 (Philadelphia), Bickett Gallery (North Carolina), at Goose Route Dance Festival (West Virginia), and Dance New Amsterdam (New York). In 2009 she became a resident artist for the Community Education Center's New Edge Residency Program. Megan taught for four years at Temple University and is currently adjunct faculty at Rowan University. She is also a dance filmmaker. www.mazaricknation.com

Jen McGinn began dancing in the womb of an incredible ballerina, while listening to the Scottish limericks and songs whispered to her by her father, a painter. Today, she makes works with her friends and family as an independent dance artist and as part of map dance collective. She received her BA from Hollins University in dance and arts management in 2005 and went on to receive her MFA in dance from Hollins in partnership with the American Dance Festival in 2006. She has been an artist-in-residence at Hollins University, Booker High School Visual and Performing Arts Center, the American Dance Festival School for Young Dancers, the West Coast Civic Ballet, and currently as a nEW Festival artist. She has shown her work primarily in New York and in Philadelphia, where she lives. Her interests include Cecchetti ballet, magical thinking, and logic problems. www.jenmcginn.org

Jumatatu Poe directs and performs with Idiosyncrazy Productions, a physical theater company producing work that synthesizes vivid narrative imagery with bold physicality in the creation of contemporary, urban psychological fables. Frequent performers include Lindsay Browning, Krystle Henry, John Luna, Shavon Norris, and Michele Tantoco. All company works are generated collaboratively and directed by Jumatatu. Other collaborators include Simon Harding (set/lighting design) and Marquise Lee (videography). Jumatatu Poe hails from California, by way of Philadelphia, PA. He is an alum of Swarthmore College and a graduate of the MFA program at Temple University. Jumatatu has trained at Philadanco and Jacob's Pillow and Illadelph Legends festivals. In 2008, Jumatatu became one of the resident choreographers of Susan Hess Modern Dance Choreographers Project (Philadelphia). www.jumatatudance.net

Gabrielle Revlock is a multidisciplinary artist working in Philadelphia. She is a resident choreographer with the nEW Festival and a 2009 grantee from the PA Council on the Arts. In 2006 she received a New Edge Mix grant and in 2005 she was selected as the Vassar College Alumnae Choreographer. Her films have been shown two consecutive years (2007, 2008) at Motion Pictures, the dance film festival programmed by Philadelphia Dance Projects. She is a company member of Jeanne Ruddy Dance and recently returned from a tour in Holland with Isabelle Chaffaud and Jérôme Meyer. Her photographer has been published in Smithsonian and Bust magazines. Gabrielle also originated Wear Your Wig to Work Day, an annual holiday on the last Friday in January. www.manodamno.com

Jenn Rose is the founder/artistic director/choreographer of Loose Screws, a contemporary tap dance company in the Philadelphia area. Founded in 2007, the company has performed at the Chester County Cultural Center and the Philly Fringe. Jenn has served as choreographer in residence for the Summer Performing Arts Project at West Chester University and a guest artist for the University Dance Company. She received a National Commendation for Choreography from the American College Theater Festival for her work on the production of Hair! Regional theater choreography credits include: Avenue X (11th Hour Theatre Company), The Irish . . . And How They Got That Way (Walnut Street Theatre), 42nd Street (Ocean City Theatre Company), The Who's Tommy (Academy Theatre), and Aida (Media Theatre). www.loosescrewstap.com

Zornitsa Stoyanova, director of Here[begin] Dance Co., is a Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. A native of Bulgaria, she went on to earn her BA in dance and sound design from Bennington College. She has danced for Brigitta Herrmann's Ausdruckstanz, Eiko & Koma, Paul Matteson, Amnesiac Music and Dance, and Willi Dorner, amongst others. She was a cofounder of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd, an improvisational company. Zornitsa then launched Here[begin] Dance Co., and produces the Current: an evening of dance and art and DANCE CINEMA PROJECTS series. Her work explores traditional and not-so-traditional mediums and integrates installation into the performance. Her choreography is interactive, sprinkled with fast and contrasting movements, subtle expressions, make-believe characters, and grand events set up to disappoint and ridicule. www.herebegindance.com

Kathryn TeBordo is the artistic director of Workshop for Potential Movement, a body-based performance company in Philadelphia. With founding members Debra Disbrow and Betsy Herbert, she co-wrote and performed in the comedies Speak! Mascot (2006) and Meet Your Replacement (2005). Other recent projects include dancing with devynn emory/ beast productions, and performing in the dance film Wanna Kiss Myself by J. Makary, and Jérôme Bel's The Show Must Go On. Kathryn was educated at Bard College and SUNY Brockport. Kathryn is one of six American choreographers accepted into the 2009 danceWEB Europe scholarship program, affiliated with ImPulsTanz Festival, Vienna. She serves on the advisory board of Dance/USA Philadelphia, and lives with her husband Christian, a novelist, in Center City. www.potentiallymoving.org

Kate Watson-Wallace is a choreographer and director of anonymous bodies, an interdisciplinary performance company that creates site-based installation. Projects include Car, a performance for 4 audience members who sit in the backseat of a moving car, and House, a show inside a row home. She was a 2007 Pew Fellow in the Arts in choreography. Her work has been funded by the Rockefeller MAP Fund, Dance Advance, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Independence Foundation. She has been presented throughout the US, including at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Joyce SoHo, ODC Dance (San Francisco), and Velocity Dance (Seattle). She has danced with Myra Bazell (2000-06) and Group Motion Company (1998-2002), and is performing in Headlong Dance Theater's 2009 Live Arts Festival show. www.katewawa.com

The twelve participants in each additional participating city

New York City

Vanessa Justice (Vanessa Justice Dance); Sidra Bell (Sidra Bell Dance New York); Shannon Gillen & Elisabeth Motley (DOORKNOB COMPANY); Andrea Miller (Gallim Dance); Makiko Tamura (small apple co.); Isabel Gotzkowsky (Isabel Gotzkowsky and Friends); Anthony Whitehurst; Vershawn Sanders (Red Clay Dance Company); Ximena Garnica (Garnica LEIMAY); Monica Bill Barnes (Monica Bill Barnes & Company); Emery LeCrone; Tami Stronach (Tami Stronach Dance).

Tickets - Joyce SoHo (New York City) Performance: June 18-21, 2009 at 7pm, 155 Mercer Street, New York, NY. Performance Tickets: $15. Ovation Tickets: 212-352-3101 or visit joyce.org. Tickets are available May 15, 2009.

Chicago

Francisco Aviña; Rachel Bunting (The Humans); Archana Kumar; Julia Rhoads (Lucky Plush Productions); Lisa Gonzales and Darrell Jones; Lizzie MacKenzie (NoMi LaMad Dance Company); Enid Smith (Enid Smith Dance); Jessica Miller Tomlinson; Allyson Esposito and Megan Schneeberger (The Space/Movement Project); Carrie Hanson (The Seldoms); Molly Shanahan (Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak); Joel Valentin-Martinez.

Tickets - The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago: June 24-27, 2009 at 8pm, 1306 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL. Performance Tickets: $15. Columbia Ticket Center: 312-369-6600 or visit colum.edu/dancecenter. Tickets available May 18, 2009.

Seattle

Catherine Cabeen; Sonia Dawkins (SD Prism Dance Theatre); Lauren Edson; Hannah Lagerway (Coriolis Dance Collective); Ricki Mason (LAUNCH dance theater); Shannon Mockli; KT Niehoff (Lingo); Amelia Reeber; Molly Scott (Scott/Powell Performance); Olivier Wevers (Whim W'Him); Daniel Wilkins (DASSdance); Deborah Wolf.

Tickets - On the Boards (Seattle): December 10-13, 2009 at 8pm, Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance, 100 W. Roy Street, Seattle, WA. Performance Tickets: $12. On the Boards Box Office: 206-217-9888 or visit ontheboards.org

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is an annual 16-day performing arts Festival now in its 13th year. The Live Arts Festival features curated local, national and international experimental and contemporary performing arts events. It also plays host to the Philly Fringe, a platform which provides the opportunity for artists from any discipline, independent of a selection process, to self-produce their work. Each year, hundreds of performances take place in diverse venues: traditional theaters, private homes, warehouses and moving vehicles. The Festival maintains a commitment to Philadelphia-based artists, regularly presenting world premieres from local artists such as Headlong Dance Theater and Pig Iron Theatre Company.

The Festival has also grown into a leading presenter of contemporary international performance. In the past six years, the Live Arts Festival has presented work from 40 internationally-based artists, including The show must go on (Jérôme Bel, France, 2008), The Convent, 2006 and The European Lesson, 2008 (Jo Strømgren, Norway); Drought and Rain Vol. 2 (Ea Sola, Vietnam, 2007), and HELL (Emio Greco | PC, Spain/The Netherlands, 2006).

The Joyce Theater Foundation, a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences since 1982. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to establish the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant New York home for more than 290 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000. Additionally, for the last five years The Joyce has co-produced Evening Stars as part of the River To River Festival in Battery Park.

 

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