For Immediate Release
Contact: Mona Baroudi, 415.615.2735
Mona.baroudi@sbcglobal.net
The Best in Dance Celebrated at the
5th Annual Bay Area Dance Awards
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Monday, April 28
Reception 6pm, Ceremony 7pm
Free
SAN FRANCISC0—April 14, 2008—On Monday, April 28, the best in Bay Area dance will be celebrated
at the fifth annual Bay Area Dance Awards, a cornerstone event of Bay Area National Dance Week.
The Bay Area Dance Awards are presented by Dancers’ Group in partnership with the 22nd Annual
Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (“The Izzies”), Bay Area National Dance Week, Voice of Dance, and
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The evening will begin with a reception at 6pm at the Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts Theatre Lobby (700 Howard Street at 3rd) and the ceremony will begin at 7:00pm
in YBCA’s Forum space.
Isadora Duncan Awards (“Izzies”) will be awarded in nine categories to dancers, choreographers,
their collaborators, composers, and others contributing to the vitality and advancement of the Bay
Area’s dance community. The Sustained Achievement and Special Awards will be given as listed
below; the awardees in each of the other categories remain confidential until their announcement at
the BADA ceremony in April. This year, in celebration of its 10th Anniversary, Bay Area National
Dance Week presents its first annual Dancers’ Choice Award. Nominations come from members of
the dance community, the Dancers’ Choice Award recognizes significant contributors to the Bay Area
dance community, and will be given as listed below:
Music/Sound/Text
* Imani's Dream, Shout, 2007 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
* Abbos Kosimov, Shodiana, 2007 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
* Andrew Wass, Coping Mechanisms
* Under the Radar team with musical direction by Matthias Herrmann, Under the Radar
* Sean Dorsey, Ben Kessler (with Alex Kelly, Jeffrey Alfonsus Mooney), Bullied, 2007 Fresh Meat
Festival
Visual Design
* Sabrina Hou, Xiaomu Hou, Ping Zhao, Dynasties, Peony Performing Arts
* Elaine Buckholtz, Lucy H G, paige starling sorvillo, thirty-seven isolated events, blindsight
* Matthew Antaky, Eimaj Designs, Flood, Liss Fain Dance
* Michael Bernard Loggins, Kim Epifano, Ron Reisner, Michael Stasiuk, Fears of Your Life, Kim
Epifano's Epiphany Productions & AXIS Dance Company
* Jo Kreiter, David Fredrickson & Stephen McCaffery/Figureplant, Sean Riley, Live Billboard Project,
Flyaway Productions
Ensemble Performance
* Andrea Flores, Brandon Freeman, Anne Zivolich, Scissors Paper Stone, Brenda Way/ODC Dance
Company
* Brett Conway, John Michael Schert, Benjamin Wardell, Keelan Whitmore, The Hierarchical
Migration of Birds and Mammals, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet
* Jennifer Bishop-Orsulak, Kara Davis, Julian DeLeon, Heidi Schweiker, Nol Simonse, 10 Studies on
the Vicissitudes of Grief, Janice Garrett & Dancers
* Danny Luong, Peter Luong, Lion Leaping Through the Plum Blossom Mountain to Reach the High
Green, Leung's White Crane Lion and Dragon Dance Association
* Kara Davis, Nol Simonse, Exit Wound
Individual Performance
* Alison Hurley, Full Evening, Savage Jazz Dance Company
* Amara Tabor Smith, Give Your Hands to Struggle, Urban Bush Women
* Hearan Chung, Shin Kal Deh Shin Mu, Hearan Chung
* Ibrahima Diouf, JUSAT, Diamono Coura West African Dance Company
* Nol Simonse, Full Evening, Janice Garrett & Dancers
* Tara Catherine Pandeya, Shodiana, Tara Catherine Pandeya
Company Performance
* Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, The Hierarchical Migration of Birds and Mammals
* Jess Curtis/Gravity, Under the Radar
* LIKHA-Pilipino Folk Ensemble, Kadayawan
* Loco Bloco Drum & Dance Ensemble & Fogo Na Roupa Drum & Dance Ensemble, Bateria Bay-Lleza
de San Francisco y Grupo los Locos por Samba
* Scott Wells & Dancers, Gym Mystics & Wrestling with Affection
Restaging
* 3 Epitaphs, Patrick Corbin, Company C
* Aunis, Jean-Claude Ciappara, San Francisco Ballet
* Blue Suede Shoes, Dennis Nahat, Ballet San Jose
* Misa Flamenca, Miguel Santos, Theatre Flamenco
* Sleeping Beauty, Helgi Tomasson, San Francisco Ballet
Choreography
* Janice Garrett, 10 Studies on the Vicissitudes of Grief
* Under the Radar team with direction by Jess Curtis, Under the Radar
* Margaret Jenkins (with Melanie Elms), Waypoint
* paige starling sorvillo, thirty-seven isolated events
* Scott Wells, Gym Mystics & Wrestling with Affection
Special Award
* Gabriela Shiroma, Diaspora Negra
* Pandit Chitresh Das, Kathak at the Crossroads
Sustained Achievement
* Miguel Santos, retired in 2007 after 20 years as Artistic Director of San Francisco's Theatre
Flamenco
* Pam Hagen, co-founder of Alonzo King's LINES Ballet in 1982
* Pick School of Ballroom Dancing, teaching ballroom dancing to San Francisco since 1961
Bay Area National Dance Week Dancers’ Choice Award
* Jessica Robinson, Executive Director, CounterPULSE
In 2004, the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (“The Izzies”) joined forces with Bay Area National
Dance Week (bayareandw.org), Voice of Dance ( www.VoiceofDance.com ) and Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts to present the Bay Area Dance Awards, now one of the City’s major cultural dates.
Member profiles and lists of this year’s nominees and past winners are available online at
www.izzies-sf.org.
The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee seeks to honor local dance artists and promote
their visibility, primarily by acknowledging outstanding achievements within a 12-month cycle of
performances, running September 1 through August 31. The “Izzie” awards, formed as part of
Dance Bay Area in 1984 with awards first given in 1985, are designed to celebrate the unique
richness, diversity, and excellence of Bay Area dance. In 1994, the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards
Committee regrouped and teamed up with the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum.
The committee members are choreographers, dancers, teachers, critics, writers, and arts
administrators who serve one- or three-year terms.
VoiceofDance.com was founded in 1997 and has been a true pioneer in bringing the community of
dance onto the Internet. Initially a vehicle for dance enthusiasts to voice their opinions about dance
performances and reviews, it rapidly blossomed into a much broader resource, providing not just
message boards but reviews from the top dance critics, calendar listings for dance performances
around the country, a Local Class Finder to find information on dance classes, discount tickets, and a
Global Dance Directory to find basically anything you are looking for in the dance world. Today,
VoiceofDance.com has become a major conduit between dance organizations and dance fans,
funneling calendar listings, discount tickets, reviews, images, movies, links, features and discussion
groups all together into one location on the Web.
Bay Area National Dance Week, celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year, is a ten-day festival of
free dance classes, open rehearsals, performances and festivals celebrating all kinds of dance
throughout the Bay Area. This year's Bay Area National Dance Week will kick-off at 12noon on
Friday, April 25 with the third annual “West Coast’s Longest Conga Line” at Union Square and run
through Sunday, May 4. For more information go to www.bayareandw.org
Founded in 1982, Dancers’ Group assists and supports the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) dance
community by creating a nexus of resources, expertise and knowledge. Working to advocate for
dance in the SFBA and beyond, we assist in the creation and production of engaging, original dance.
Dancers’ Group serves artists at multiple stages in their careers, and assists dancers,
choreographers, teachers, funders, dance companies, students, writers, critics and audiences in the
passionate pursuit and enjoyment of art. www.dancersgroup.orgsss
Bay Area National Dance Week and the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee are fiscally
sponsored projects of Dancers’ Group. The 2008 Bay Area Dance Awards are supported by grants
from the J.B. Berland Foundation and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.
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