Boston Dance Alliance Names Laura Young and Peter DiMuro 2026 Dance Champions
Lynda Rieman also earns the Unsung Hero Award at the annual BDA gathering.
Veteran dancer, dance teacher and administrator Laura Young, who made her name as a dancer for Boston Ballet from 1960 until her stage retirement in 1989 to become a beloved teacher for three decades, and Peter DiMuro, Executive Artistic Director of The Dance Complex in Cambridge and Artistic Director and Choreographer of Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion, have been named recipients of the 2026 Dr. Michael Shannon Dance Champion Award, presented by Boston Dance Alliance (BDA). Young is a longtime resident of Ipswich, Mass.; DiMuro recently moved to Quincy, Mass.
Additionally, Lynda Rieman is the recipient of BDA's 2026 Unsung Hero Award, in recognition of her two-plus decades in Boston as a lighting designer, production and stage manager, and manager of the Boston University Dance Theater. Alongside Young and DiMuro, Reiman will be honored at the BDA's annual gathering June 28.
The Dr. Michael Shannon Dance Champion Award has been presented annually since 2004, and is voted on by previous recipients based on nominations from the regional dance community. To qualify for the award, nominees must be members of the Greater Boston dance community over age 60 who have made meaningful contributions to Boston's dance landscape, and whose body of work – artistic, administrative, educational or beyond – constitutes a significant legacy.
A charter member of Boston Ballet, and its predecessor organization the New England Civic Ballet, Laura Young (l., photo by Chris Miehl) shaped the company from its earliest years into one of the nation's leading dance institutions. Beginning ballet lessons at age six in North Quincy, Mass., Young came of age during a transformational era for American dance, when ballet companies began to emerge across the United States and redefine an art form long dominated by European and Russian traditions. She joined the company in 1960 and became one of Boston Ballet's longest-serving female principal dancers, performing throughout Europe and Asia, and partnering with celebrated International Artists Rudolf Nureyev and Fernando Bujones.
Following retirement from the stage in 1989, Young continued a decades-long commitment to Boston Ballet as an administrator, mentor and beloved teacher, remaining with the organization until her retirement in 2019. Young's 2018 memoir, Boston Ballerina, written with Janine Parker, chronicles her personal artistic journey and the remarkable evolution of Boston Ballet under founder E. Virginia Williams. Through stories of the company's scrappy beginnings, Balanchine-influenced artistic growth, and landmark international tours, Young's life and career stand as a living testament to the history and enduring legacy of ballet in Boston.
Peter DiMuro (r., photo by Jennifer Magnuson) is a dancer, choreographer, director, educator and arts advocate with a four-decade career in performance, community engagement and cultural leadership. Peter has been Executive Artistic Director of The Dance Complex since 2013, and has guided the organization through a renewed focus on supporting diverse dance forms, emerging artists and community-centered creative practice. DiMuro is the creative force behind Public Displays of Motion, his dance and dance-theater company that develops works to blend movement with storytelling and civic engagement. Through both organizations, he has championed dance as a catalyst for empathy, dialogue and social connection while creating and presenting work in Boston and around the country.
Born in the small working-class town of Round Lake, Illinois, DiMuro built an internationally recognized career rooted in the belief that art can foster understanding and social change. He was Artistic Director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange from 2003 to 2008, after a 15-year tenure as a dancer and educator there. His choreography explores identity, family, queerness, caregiving and social justice, often with intergenerational casts that expand representation within contemporary dance. DiMuro's work has been presented by The Kennedy Center, the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and many others. His honors include being named a White House Millennial Artist, receiving a Mayor of Boston/ProArts Award and a lifetime achievement award from Salem State University, and serving as the inaugural choreographer-in-residence at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Despite divergent backgrounds, Young and DiMuro previously worked together. Young commissioned DiMuro, then new on the Boston scene, to make a dance for Boston Ballet II; she also hired him at Boston Ballet School where she was the Principal.
Lynda Rieman (also an Ipswich resident) has more than 20 years of experience as a lighting designer and production/stage manager for dance in Boston. She started her career in San Francisco working and touring with prominent Bay Area companies before moving to New England. Following an active career as a freelance lighting, set and rigging designer in Boston, and working as a production and stage manager for regional companies including Kairos Dance Theater, Margot Parsons, and CYDP, Rieman (r.) will retire this year as manager of the Boston University Dance Theater. There, she was an administrative and production titan, assuring that student dance performances and shows by professional dance groups who rented the facility were well-lit, well-produced and impeccably run.
“Peter and Laura are tradition-bearers in Boston's ballet and modern dance communities, and Lynda made an indelible mark in collegiate and professional dance here,” says Boston Dance Alliance Executive Director Aaron Myers. “They are talented artists whose decades of work shaped the evolution of dance in this city, and shaped the lives and experiences of countless artists, students and audiences along the way. Their collective impact can be felt in Boston's dance institutions, and in the careers and histories of dancers here and across the country.”
The Dance Champion award is named for Dr. Michael Shannon, a world-renowned pediatric toxicologist and the former head of emergency medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston who died in 2009. Known as “the dancing doctor," he served on the BDA board including time as its chair, and spent seven years performing as the magical Dr. Drosselmeyer in Urban Nutcracker.
Boston Dance Alliance's Annual Celebration, open to the public, will be held Sunday, June 28, 2-5 pm at the Opera + Community Studios, Boston Lyric Opera's creative hub in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston. Tickets are $50-100 and available now at bostondancealliance.org.
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