(2013-2014 Season)
The winners were honored in an awards ceremony, free to the public, held on Monday, March 24, 2015 at the Brava Theater, San Francisco, California.
The awardees are shown in boldface type. The other nominees are listed in regular type.
Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design
Sewam American Indian Dance, visual design (regalia), Origins, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco
Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Individual
Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Ensemble
Outstanding Achievement in Performance - Company
Outstanding Achievement in Restaging/Revival/Reconstruction
Outstanding Achievement in Choreography
Special Award Honorees
Art Behind Bars: Co-produced and co-directed by Andrew Evans, Jeff Kessler, Myrton Running Wolf, and Mona Thompson in partnership with Stanford’s Arts Institute, Design School, and Theater and Performance Studies Department as well as SHN Theatricals and the U.S. National Park Service. This site-specific dance performance was the first of its kind at the site of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Inhabiting several locations throughout the prison, the performance ignited a dialogue with history and the site itself. Hospital choreographed by Mary Carbonara and Dining Hall choreographed by Dexandro “D” Montalvo.
Bjorn Amelan, Betti-Sue Hertz, Bill T. Jones, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The 30th anniversary celebration of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Counterpulse. This multifaceted and inspiring presentation included performances, Story/Time, a master class, visual art exhibition, and post-performance conversation. This honors the creativity, intelligence and perseverance of these artists and acknowledges the tremendous achievements of this 30th anniversary celebration.
Sustained Achievement Honorees
Julie Mushet. She has more than 20 years of experience in the arts field and has been the Executive Director of World Arts West since 2002. The festival has received critical acclaim under her leadership. Ms. Mushet began her career in arts management at Cal Performances while a student a UC Berkeley and spent a decade serving as Executive Director for several California arts agencies and events, as well as curating over fifty gallery exhibitions. She serves as a consultant for arts organizations and has traveled the world studying diverse dance forms.
Margaret Jenkins, artistic associate and collaborator Michael Palmer, and The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Margaret Jenkins and The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company have been a major force in the San Francisco Bay Area community, nationally and internationally for 40 years. Her artistic work, rigorously developed and refined, has been critically acclaimed and honored nationally and created in collaboration with her main collaborator, poet and translator Michael Palmer, as well as with respected artists Alexander V. Nichols, Rinde Eckert, Paul Dresher, Naomie Kremer, Terry Allen, Yoko Ono and many others. Margaret Jenkins has been a leader in our dance community by organizing meetings to protest, at that time, the use of very limited local funds to bring New York artists to the Bay Area in the 1970’s. These meetings helped establish the Dance Coalition, an advocate for Bay Area dance for over a 20 year period. Her creation of alternative performance spaces, such as, Bryant Street Studio, Mission Street and the New Performance Gallery, as well as her work to bring the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to fruition gave choreographers and dancers a chance to show and develop their work when there was little opportunity to do so. Her creation and establishment of CHIME has helped to further the choreographic skills of emerging and established choreographers as well as create a larger community of artistic sharing and dialogue with renowned choreographers from other parts of the country.