McCallum Theatre Reveals 2025 Palm Desert Choreography Festival Award Recipients

The McCallum Theatre has shared the names of Palm Desert Choreography Festival's Finalists and Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient for the Coachella Valley's signature annual event.

The Palm Desert Choreography Festival is a one-of-a-kind festival which promotes dance as an art form by creating a venue for emerging and established choreographers and developing new dance audiences. For more than two decades, the Festival has been dedicated to the advancement of dance as an art form through the support and promotion of quality choreography. A dynamic live platform for dancemakers and dancers to showcase their work, Palm Desert Choreography Festival powerfully engages audiences around dance in the Coachella Valley.

The Festival features a choreography competition in two divisions, offers education opportunities including workshops and residencies, and honors those who have made outstanding contributions to dance through the Lifetime Achievement Award. The City of Palm Desert is the Presenting Sponsor.

This year, the Festival will bestow its 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award to legendary choreographer David Parsons who founded Parsons Dance Company in 1985. Along with the late Tony® Award winning lighting designer Howell Binkley, the two knew exactly what they wanted to do: train dancers to develop the athletic prowess and technical skill that would engage audiences with the joy of it all. Throughout his career, Parsons has created more than 75 works for Parsons Dance. He has received commissions from American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, the Spoleto Festival and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, among many others.  In 2018, he received the Capezio Award, one of the most prestigious awards in dance. He has also worked on many diverse projects choreographing Aida at Arena di Verona and producing and co-choreographing Maria de Buenos Aires at the Skirball Center as well as creating the choreography for Fool’s Fire, a 1992 film directed by Julie Taymor. One of his most thrilling assignments was choreographing the dance elements for Times Square 2000, the 24-hour festivities in NY’s Times Square celebrating the turn of the Millennium. Parsons has credited his mentor, Paul Taylor, for inspiring him to create good work and teaching him how to treat dancers fairly, to collaborate with artists in other disciplines and to be a generous mentor to the next generation’s choreographers.

This year’s Finalists, selected by a distinguished Festival screening panel from over 150 submissions, come from across the nation and will perform before an audience and a panel of judges. Over $50,000.00 in cash awards are up for grabs and winners are announced at the conclusion of each performance. Finalists include festival favorites as well as a large number of choreographers new to the Festival whose works promise to engage, provoke, and entertain. Now in its 28th year, Festival has attracted over 45,500 audience members, has placed 779 choreographers in the limelight and has granted over $850,000 in cash awards.

Those attending the Saturday event will witness the work of 12 choreographer finalists performed by professional dancers age 18 and up who possess seasoned artistry and fully mature technique, competing for the $10,000 Grand Prize and $5,000 Second Place awards, as well as the Lifetime Achievement presentation to David Parsons.

On Sunday, the audience will see the work of fifteen choreographer finalists performed by dancers of all ages from aspiring and emerging companies, colleges, and studios as they compete for the $3,000 Grand Prize and $1,500 Second Place Award.

Choreographers/companies featured in the Professional Division on Saturday, November 8 are:

Aidan Carberry, Jordan Johnson/JA Collective (Los Angeles, CA)

Sean Aaron Carmon/Dance Kaleidoscope (Indianapolis, IN)

Megan Doheny, Ilya Nukurov/Outrun the Bear (Irvine, CA)

Noelle Kayser/nk + collaborators (Chicago, IL)

Cecily Khuner (Memphis, TN)

Franco Nieto/Open Space Dance (Portland, OR) 

Omar Román de Jesύs/Boca Tuya (New York, NY)

Kellie St. Pierre/Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company (Salt Lake City, UT) 

Martin Ortiz Tapia (Chicago, IL)

Morgan A. Williams/Water Street Dance Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI)

Choreographers/companies featured in the Pre-professional Division on Sunday, November 9 are:

Melissa Bobick (Salt Lake City, UT)

Gillmer Duran/Ballet Arizona Studio Company (Phoenix, AZ)

Zachary Groenewold/Orange Coast College (Costa Mesa, CA)

Jacob Gutiérrez-Montoya/Hawkins School of Performing Arts (Folsom, CA)

Riley Hart/Aztec Arts Dance Company (Palm Desert, CA)

Madison Lucas, Ella Melideo (Los Angeles, CA)

Rochelle Mapes/Mater Dei Dance Conservatory (Orange, CA)

Hannah Millar/Imprints (Fresno, CA)

Alexandra Schooling (Oklahoma City, OK) 

Michelle Shear/Mt. San Antonio College Repertory Dance Company (Walnut, CA)

Jayde Spiegel (Las Vegas, NV)

Ashton Titus (Long Beach, CA)

Avree Walker/Live Arts Collective (Las Vegas, NV)

Lian Long Xuan (Philadelphia, PA)