Lucy Sexton News

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, announces partnerships with Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) and the American Dance Festival (ADF), and renews partnerships with the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) and the New York State DanceForce, creating new platforms of support and professional opportunities for Bessie artists.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) inducted three arts luminaries into its Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on April 11 at Capitale.

On January 6th, 2019, Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director of the Japan Society, was awarded the 2019 Bessies Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating, an annual honor bestowed by The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies in recognition of achievement of the work of a presenter or curator of programming performed in the New York City area. The recipient is chosen jointly by the Bessies Selection and Bessies Steering Committees.

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, announced today that Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director of the Japan Society, is the recipient of the 2019 Bessies Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating. Ms. Shioya will receive the award at the Bessies Presenters Gathering on Sunday, January 6, 2019 (5:00-7:00pm), at La MaMa La Galleria, 47 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10003

As part of its Live Feed creative residency program, New York Live Arts presents the world premiere of DANCENOISE; Lock 'em Up!, a new full evening length work marking the 35th year of creative collaboration between the legendary NYC performance staples and Bessie Award winners Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton. Since 1983 the team has created across genre and performed across venues, including nightclubs, experimental black boxes, theaters and museums. In response to the current political climate, the enthralling duo takes the audience captive, delving into their experience of living, resisting, and trying to hang on to a shared humanity in their signature no-holds-barred feminist stage show escapade.

As part of its Live Feed creative residency program, New York Live Arts presents the world premiere of DANCENOISE; Lock 'em Up!, a new full evening length work marking the 35th year of creative collaboration between the legendary NYC performance staples and Bessie Award winners Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton. Since 1983 the team has created across genre and performed across venues, including nightclubs, experimental black boxes, theaters and museums. In response to the current political climate, the enthralling duo takes the audience captive, delving into their experience of living, resisting, and trying to hang on to a shared humanity in their signature no-holds-barred feminist stage show escapade.

The night remained forever young at this year's Bessies, what with live performances, videos, tearful and grinning thank you's, hugs and cheers for the new slew of winners, and a costume sashay thrown into wild mix of celebration that took place tonight, October 8, at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.  As a prelude to the goings-on inside, impromptu dance performances, including Simone Forti's "Huddle," took place outside.  Ayodele Casel and Shernita Anderson hosted the evening.

Two groundbreakers, Brooklyn Arts Exchange founder/director Marya Warshaw and avant-garde choreographer and dancer Simone Forti, have been tapped to receive The Bessies' highest honors. Warshaw, who will receive the 2018 NY Dance and Performance Award for Service to the Field of Dance and Forti, selected for the 2018 NY Dance and Performance Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance, will be honored during the October 8 ceremony at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), an unprecedented model for collaboration between the City University of New York (CUNY) and New York City dance artists, announces its Fall 2018 calendar of events.

Glasses clinked and cheers crowded the air as this year's 43 Bessie nominees were announced and celebrated today, July 11, at a cocktail party/press conference at Gibney 280, along with the winners of 2018 Juried Bessie Award and the 2018 NY Dance and Performance Award for Outstanding "Breakout" Choreographer.  (See attached for list of selected nominees)

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, have announced that Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), is the recipient of the 2018 Bessies Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating.

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, announced the complete list of the 2017 award recipients tonight at the 33rd annual Bessie Awards ceremony. Awards were presented in the categories of Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design, with additional awards presented for Lifetime Achievement in Dance and Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. The full list of 2017 Bessie Award recipients follows.

In honor of National Constitution Day, Maya Ciarrocchi will hold an eight-hour reading of the United States Constitution, read in multiple languages by over 25 artists.

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, announced today that Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, choreographer and founding artistic director of Urban Bush Women, will be the recipient of the 2017 NY Dance and Performance Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance, and writer Eva Yaa Asantewaa will receive this year's award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance.

The NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, New York City's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, today announced the nominees for the 2016?17 season at the Bessies press conference. The nominees were selected by the Bessie Awards Selection Committee, an independent committee of 38 dance industry professionals. Bessie Award categories include Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revived Work, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition or Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design. The list of nominations follows. 

In August 1960, the choreographer Anna Halprin taught an experimental workshop attended by Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer on her dance deck on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, north of San Francisco.

REAL TALK / KIP TALK is a series of live talk shows about the state of contemporary performance in New York City, conceived and conceptualized by Kippy Winston, media mogul, Internet sensation, and citizen of the world. 

Rave reviews and audience popularity have resulted in an extension for the hit show DAVID'S FRIEND at The Club at La MaMa.

Rave reviews and audience popularity have resulted in an extension for the hit show DAVID'S FRIEND at The Club at La MaMa. Three additional performances, starring veteran downtown performer Nora Burns, will take place through February 12.

A powerful new comic memoir about the electrifying joy and intoxicating madness of New York City in the 1980s will take the stage at The Club at La MaMa from tonight, January 27, through February 5, created by and starring veteran downtown performer Nora Burns.