Broadway Dance's Big Night: The Astaire Awards

June 2, 2014

The Tony Awards (airing this Sunday night!) recognize a lot of Broadway talent: actors, directors, sound designers, lighting designers, writers, composers, and our favorites, choreographers. But we all know that the true muscle behind every amazing musical is the dancers. And they rarely get Tony nominations. (Unless they happen to be the fabulous Karine Plantadit, who earned a best featured actress nomination in 2010 for her dance-heavy role in Come Fly Away.)

Enter the Fred & Adele Astaire Awards. Each June, the Astaire Awards recognize Broadway’s best of the best—in jazz, tap, or character shoes. The 2014 ceremony was held last night in NYC, and the star-studded event didn’t disappoint. Here are the best moments from the oh-so-dancey evening:

Jared Grimes in After Midnight (photo by Matthew Murphy)

1. Jared Grimes’ performance.
Grimes currently stars in After Midnight. He opened the show with a display of his signature lightning-fast tapping and hip-hop swag fusion that later earned him the Astaire Award for best male dancer. (After Midnight was the big winner of the entire evening: Plantadit and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards tied for best female dancer, and lanky Englishman Warren Carlyle won the award for best choreography. Seriously, go see this show!)

2. Angel Inniss’ stellar layouts
in her jazzy solo “Mr. Paganini.” Man, can this senior dancer from Spotlight Studio of Dance in Maryland work a stage! Angel took home the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation’s Adele Astaire College Scholarship. Congrats, Angel!

3. The presentation of the Outstanding Contribution to Dance Education Award to Luigi,
the father of jazz dance (and the father of “5,6,7,8”!), and presentation of the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award to Patricia Birch. You know Patricia Birch for this choreography:

Greased Lightning! John Travolta and company in Grease

And this choreography:

Steve Martin and Gilda Radner cut a rug in “Dancing in the Dark” on “Saturday Night Live”

Of course, these are just two small snippets of this choreographer’s CV, and Patricia Birch hasn’t stopped moving (to quote Luigi) or choreographing. Her work can currently be seen on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Which brings us to top moment 4:

4. Legendary actor (and star of “Boardwalk Empire”) Steve Buscemi
making a surprise appearance to pay tribute to Patricia Birch for her work on the show. Best of all? We got to see a stage rendition of one of the acts from “Boardwalk.” Take a look at the number in this clip from the show, and see if you can find our gal Chloe Arnold. Spoiler alert: Jared Grimes also performs!

5. Nancy Chippendale’s Dance Studio tappers big finale.
These teen dancers—there were more than 45 onstage!—from North Andover, MA, sure know how to stay in formation, while flapping and tapping in perfect unison. Their number “Glam” was the perfect finish to a truly glamorous event.

Let’s hope Sunday’s Tony Awards (8 pm on CBS) includes at least half this much dancing!