Damien Woetzel Joins Astaire Awards Committee

 Damien Woetzel acclaimed choreographer and Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet has joined the nominating committee for the 2008 Fred & Adele Astaire Awards honoring excellence in dance on stage and on film. He replaces Jacques D'Amboise who had to withdraw due to an illness in his family.

Woetzel who has been with the NYCB for over 20 years has performed over 50 roles in works by the world's leading choreographers including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Twyla Tharp and Susan Stroman.

He is also Director of the Vail International Dance Festival and the 2008 Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence at the Aspen Institute. In accepting the position on the 2008 nominating committee, Mr. Woetzel stated, "I am very happy to participate in the Astaire Awards as a member of the nominating committee. The chance to reward excellence is always a pleasure, and in Fred Astaire's name it becomes an honorable duty as well".

Woetzel joins the Nominating Committee which includes Clive Barnes, Senior Theater & Dance Critic New York Post; Anna Kisselgoff, former Chief Dance Critic, New York Times; Wendy Perron, Editor in Chief, Dance Magazine; and Sylviane Gold, Theater Columnist, Dance Magazine; and Chairman Emeritus of the Nominating Committee is Douglas Watt, former Senior Drama Critic, New York Daily News, for whom the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Dance has been named.