Oklahoma’s dream ballet star Gabrielle Hamilton received an Outstanding Performer Bessie Award October 14 at the 35th Annual NY Dance and Performance Awards.
The ceremony, hosted by Obie and Bessie Award winner Justin Vivian Bond, celebrated the best of dance performance at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
In addition to Hamilton, this year’s winners for Best Performance are Taylor Stanley in The Runaway; Leslie Cuyjet for Sustained Achievement with Jane Comfort, Niall Jones, Juliana F. May, Cynthia Oliver, and Will Rawls; and Shamar Watt for Sustained Achievement in the work of nora chipaumire.
The winners for this year’s Best Production are Nick Cave (The Let Go); nora chipaumire (#Punk 100% POP* N!GGA); Merce Cunningham with stager Patricia Lent and Merce Cunningham Trust (Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event); and Tania El Khoury (As Far As My Fingertips Take Me).
Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done won Outstanding Revival; Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher won Outstanding Sound Design/Music Composition for their work on More Forever; and the creative team behind Oba Qween Baba King Baba won Outstanding Visual Design.
Joan Myers Brown was presented with the Lifetime Achievement in Dance honor while Louis Mofsie received the award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. Laurie Uprichard received the Bessies Angel Award for her stewardship of the awards and their recognition of outstanding dance. Previously announced award recipients Alice Sheppard and Daina Ashby were honored in July.
All of the awardees and nominees received a $500 honorarium, courtesy of a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
The ceremony, which will air November 17, at 8 PM on WNET’s ALL ARTS, featured a performance by Camille A. Brown and dancers in Migration, the finale from Brown’s acclaimed 2017 work ink, along with several other performances.
