“You have to love dancing to stick with it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.” Merce Cuunningham
Last night at the Bessies the community came together to honor these ‘fleeting moments’, the dance performances in aggregate that were presented in New York last year. This was the award show’s second year under the direction of Lucy Sexton, who has worked ardently to revitalize the event. This year Lucy and her team brought a full house uptown to the legendary Apollo Theater. The evening, hosted by Bebe Neuwirth, was a celebration of the diversity of dance in New York City. Many awards were presented recognizing the performance, creation, and service to the field from individuals including Frederic Franklin, Trisha Brown, Violeta Galagarza, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Walter Dundervill, Savion Glover, Marcelo Gomes, Rashaun Mitchell, Wendy Whelan, Karen Brown and many more.
There was an exciting new award presented to Beth Gill. The Jurried Bessie Award was given by a team of seasoned choreographers whose “only mission is to decide on a single work or a choreographer that they feel exhibits some of the most interesting and exciting ideas happening in dance in New York City today. The honored dance maker will then tour their work to one or more regional theaters outside the city.” I think this award is a great addition to the award show and provides a much needed service to the field, it promises to create a network of national support to help the work of the chosen individual reach a larger audience.
The Bessies provide an evening where dancers and choreographers from every genre can sit in one incredible theater and celebrate our craft. Beth Gill noted in her acceptance speech that this evening was an expression of the size of the field and the variety of creative voices within it. Genres and geographic locations often separate dance into categories but we all live to dance, let us not forget our commonality and the sacrifice we all make to participate in this community. And as Bebe Neuwirth reminded us: “Dancing is the most fun.”
Cheers to the Bessies and the future of dance in NYC.
-Hollis Bartlett
.jpg "The national service organization for professional dance.")
Pingback: Honoring NYC’s Diverse Dance Community « The State of Dance in the Union
Pingback: The return of the Bessies, reaching the Apollo and beyond « The Hidden Language of the Soul
I really love the comment on this! (: I totally agree. I do Greek dancing and when i’m dancing i feel happy and i feel free.But for everyone else,if you don’t now what were talking bout…try dancing im sure you will feel the same!