quick report-back from the Metro DC Dance Awards

A few impressions from the 9th annual Metro DC Dance awards…

Had a great time the other night and hope you did too. Congratulations to all of the winners (list of them here) and those who were nominated as well. Both the performances and the award presentations were beautifully done and moving.

–Really lovely to see the community out in full force and beautiful diversity. There was a packed house for both the Millennium Stage portion of the evening and the section held in the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center. Both productions were strong and professional.

–As a dance history buff, I was happy to see Richard Move, the Martha Graham re-enactor, subtly interweave little bits of dance history into his/her performance. Humorous, educational, and a satisfying way of paying homage to our dance ancestors.

–The DC Cowboys reminded me of the Kilgore Rangerettes, whom I guiltily adore. Just transplant the Rangerettes from east Texas to DC, make them male, and gay, subtract the homophobia, and you have the DC Cowboys! Am now fantasizing about a joint performance… which would be amazing.

–ARKA Ballet. Wow. A performance so clean I would feel safe eating off of it. And when the ending came with Sona Kharatian and Jonathan Jordan ensconced in separate pools of light, I felt like I had been on a short but powerful journey with both of them.

–I was also super-impressed with the performance by Furia Flamenca. Really made me wish I could have seen the entire Lorca: Flamenco Poetry, but I’m glad to have seen this excerpt.

–Estella Velez of Furia Flamenca was awarded the Excellence in Costume Design and gave one of the most powerful speeches of the evening as she explained how her mother had taken off the beads from her own wedding dress in Puerto Rico so they could be used for the matador costume.

–Virginia Johnson, the new artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, eloquently expressed her love for dance, describing it as a “continuing chain of giving, from one generation to the next” and concluding with “dance is life, life is beauty.”

–The recipients of the Dance Metro DC’s Forward 5 were announced. Forward 5 is a pilot program “intended to help dance-makers identify and realize their next steps artistically – from studio to performance to marketplace.” The organization decided there were more than 5 that deserved the opportunity, and so here are the 8 chosen:

Kelly Bond (see our interview below!)
Dancenow Productions/Stephen Clapp and Laura Schandelmeier
Deviated Theatre/Kimmie and Enoch Chan
Edgeworks/Helanius J. Wilkins
Jane Franklin Dance/Jane Franklin
Cassie Meador
Life Rhythm Move Project/Aysha Upchurch
The Playground/Daniel Burkholder

Congratulations to you all! Look forward to seeing the work that you’ll make in 2010.

(For images from the evening, hop on over to Tony Powell’s blog. Love his photo of Virginia Johnson and one of her early teachers, Therrell Smith.)