Izzie dance awards marked by unusual number of ties
Dexandro “D” Montalvo, Liam Scarlett and the Lily Cai Dance Company were among the winners of the 31st annual Isadora Duncan Awards. The “Izzies” ceremony was held Monday, March 27, at San Francisco’s Brava Theater Center and honored dance activities seen during the 2015-16 season.
There were an unusual number of tie votes this year. In the outstanding achievement in choreography category, Montalvo’s “Pent” (Dance Theatre of San Francisco) shared honors with Scarlett’s “Fearful Symmetries” for the San Francisco Ballet. In outstanding achievement in performance — ensemble, Crystaldawn Bell and Norma Fong (“First Stab at Closure”) tied with Sebastian Grubb and James Graham in Graham’s “Homeroom.” In the category of outstanding achievement in performance (company), both Lily Cai Dance and CounterPulse’s “An Open Love Letter to Black Fathers: A Choreopoem” scored the prize.
Carolina Czechowska took the individual performance award for her contributions to Garrett+ Moulton and Capacitor. The laurels for outstanding achievement in music/sound/text went to Valerie Troutt and MoonCandy for the Embodiment Project’s “Chalk Outlines.” The prize for visual design was picked up by Matthew Antaky, Miranda Caroligne, Jo Kreiter and Sean Riley for “Needles in Thread.” Outstanding achievement in revival/ reconstruction went to Montalvo and Robert Moses for the latter’s “Toward September” (Dance Theatre of San Francisco).
The special award nominees were “Erasing Time” (Sara Shelton Mann, David Szlasa and Norman Rutherford; designer Sean Riley) and “Shiva” with the Chitresh Das Dance Company and Chhandam Youth Dance Company.
The sustained achievement honorees were teacher Augusta Moore; retired San Francisco Ballet principals Joan Boada, Pascal Molat and Gennadi Nedvigin; Patrick Makuakane on the 30th anniversary of his company, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu; and San Francisco Performances founding president Ruth Felt.