The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City’s premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, announce the lineup of special guests for the 33rd annual Bessie Awards. The ceremony, hosted by performance artist/entertainer Shernita Anderson and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer James Whiteside, will be held on Monday, October 9, at 7:30pm, at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Arts. Doors open at 6:30pm for red carpet and pre-show celebrations.
This year’s Bessie Awards presenters include notable members of the dance and performance community including Reid Bartelme, Paul Bartlett, Yanira Castro, Gray Davis, Thomas DeFrantz, Lauren Grant, Carl Hancock Rux, Jerron Herman, Dianne McIntyre, Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles, Pamela Sneed, and Cassandra Trenary.
The evening will include performances by Bessie Award-winning choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in an excerpt from her 1987 solo Bitter Tongue, the Trisha Brown Dance Company in an excerpt from Groove and Countermove (2000), with a score by jazz composer Dave Douglas, and a musical tribute to Baba Chuck Davis, performed by Abdel Salaam and Forces of Nature.
This year’s Bessie Awards will be live-streamed on The Bessie Awards Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thebessies/
Tickets for the 2017 Bessie Awards start at $12 and can be purchased online here. NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is located at 566 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012.
Tickets for this year’s pre-ceremony Angel Party honoring Mikki Shepard are available at www.bessies.org.
The annual Bessies After-Party will be held at Judson Memorial Church directly following the ceremony, featuring DJ LVJjay (Larissa Velez-Jackson) and sponsored by Two Boots Pizza.
Produced in partnership with Dance/NYC, The Bessies recognize exceptional and groundbreaking work in choreography, performance, music composition, and visual design. A list of 2016−17 Bessie nominees can be found here: nominees.