Highlights from the Dance Magazine Awards

December 8, 2014

Last night, basically the entire dance world got gussied up and headed to NYC’s Ailey Citigroup Theater for the 60th (!) Dance Magazine Awards. How did the DMAs celebrate the big 6-0? By honoring no fewer than SIX incredible artists: Brenda Bufalino, Tony Waag, Larissa Saveliev, Wayne McGregor, Luigi and Misty Copeland. Here are the top highlights from a night that was basically all highlights.

1. We got to see three of the six awardees perform.
Tap icons Bufalino and Waag did a little soft-shoeing (and, in Waag’s case, singing!) alongside dancers Felipe Galganni and Lynn Schwab in an excerpt from All Blues/Tacit/Latin, a piece originally made for the American Tap Dance Orchestra. And the one and only Copeland took our breath away in Toccare, a ridiculously sexy ballet choreographed by fellow American Ballet Theatre dancer Marcelo Gomes. Odds are, even if you haven’t seen the piece live, you know it through incredible photos like this one:

Holy legs, Misty. (photo by Liza Voll)

2. There was a world premiere.
 Gomes was basically an honorary awardee last night. We saw not only his Toccare, but also a brand-new Gomes ballet, La Mort d’Ophélie, starring ABTers Sarah Lane and Sterling Baca. Made in tribute to Saveliev, it was gently, dreamily melancholy.

3. We were reminded, yet again, of why we’re obsessed with Wayne McGregor.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Akua Noni Parker and Jeroboam Bozeman blazed through an excerpt from McGregor’s electric Chroma. (You can watch The Royal Ballet perform the same excerpt here—and believe me, you should.) There really is nothing like his wiggly, wacky, wild choreography. Though McGregor couldn’t be there in person to accept his award, his beamed-in acceptance speech—an eloquent tribute to all of his collaborators, and a call for support of young artists—showed off the powerful mind behind the magic.

McGregor rehearsing Chroma at Ailey (photo Andrea Mohin/New York Times)

4. The whole audience did
Luigi’s classic warmup
.
The man himself is recovering from surgery and was unable to make the ceremony, sadly. But protégé Francis Roach, accepting on Luigi’s behalf, got the dancer-filled crowd on their feet to do the first few familiar steps of the Luigi warmup—the perfect tribute to the jazz legend.

Luigi in his prime, behind the Falcon Studios in Hollywood (photo by Edith Jane)

5.
Raven Wilkinson
made everyone cry.
The wonderful Wilkinson, who presented Copeland’s award, was the only African-American dancer to perform with the Ballets Russes, and has become a mentor to Copeland. She quoted Eleanor Roosevelt—”The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”—and praised not only the beauty of Copeland’s exquisite dancing, but also the beauty of her dream of a colorblind ballet world.