For those interested in Arts + Technology, I’ll be webcasting The A.W.A.R.D. Show from the Joyce Soho [via UStream] tonight @ 7pm EST, with Nic Petry on Camera.

The winner of the A.W.A.R.D Show will win $10,000 to develop new dance work.

You can watch right here, on UStream, or on the mothership site (Joyce Soho)

If you can’t make it tonight, you can also catch past performances of the A.W.A.R.D. Show on the UStream Archives. Also, make sure to tune in June 21st to see who will take home the $10k prize.

Here’s the information for the June 20th performance:

THE FINALISTS from each preliminary performance will be posted on The Joyce website each morning following the performance by 11am: www.joyce.org/about_specialevents_awardshow.html

THE WINNER of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009: New York City will be announced directly following the final performance on Sunday, June 21.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20
Garnica LEIMAY
Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Emery LeCrone
Tami Stronach Dance
with post-performance discussion moderated by: Linda Szmyd Monich

Alive I
Choreography by: Ximena Garnica (Garnica LEIMAY)
Performance by: Irem Calikusu, Stephanie Lanckton, Denissa Musilova and Ximena Garnica
Composition and Live Music by: Roland Toledo
Video Artististry/Co-creation by: Shige Moriya
Costume Design by: Garnica LEIMAY

I feel like
Choreography by: Monica Bill Barnes (Monica Bill Barnes & Company)
Performance by: Anna Bass, Monica Bill Barnes and Deborah Lohse
Music: “Suite No. 4-IV. Sarabande” by Johann Sebastian Bach; “Get up (I feel like being a) Sex Machine” by James Brown, Bobby Byrd and Ron Lenhoff
Costume Design by: Kelly Hanson

Aphorismós
Choreography by: Emery LeCrone
Performance by: Victoria North, Kimi Nikaido and Ted Seymour
Music: “Black Heart Pull,” an original composition by John Melville Pratt and “Proverb (Alex Smoke Remix)” by Steve Reich
Original Costume Design by: Emery LeCrone (created by Candice Thompson)

But It’s For You
Choreography by: Tami Stronach (Tami Stronach Dance)
Performance by: Lindsey Dietz Marchant and Joe Poulson
Music: Original score commissioned for But It’s For You by Karinne Keithley
Set Design by: Joe Levasseur
Costume Design by: Olivera Gajic

Biographies:

XIMENA GARNICA is a dancer, emerging choreographer, director and installation artist. Artistic Director of Garnica LEIMAY and Director/Co-founder and Co-curator of the New York Butoh Festival, Garnica is also Co-director of CAVE Organization, an experimental art space in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York.

Garnica LEIMAY is an interdisciplinary company/project and laboratory of performance founded in 2005 by Ximena Garnica in New York City. The work of LEIMAY is rooted in Butoh dance, particularly in its approach to thinking about and questioning the meaning of the dancing body. LEIMAY synthesizes—through the body, the voice and other arts—a performance experience that is designed to sharpen the senses, both for the artists who engage in the creative process and for the audience who relates to the performance. The transformation of a given space has become a key element for these experiences; in that sense, the body—at times dancer, actor or object—is fundamental to LEIMAY’s work. (www.leimay.org)

MONICA BILL BARNES: Monica Bill Barnes & Company has been awarded several extended artistic residencies, including the Dancenow/NYC Silo Project (2006, 2008, 2009), the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (2007/2008), and a Joyce SoHo Artist Residency (2004-2005); and participates in college guest artist residencies. Barnes is thrilled to share the stage with long time company members: Deborah Lohse and Anna Bass. Lohse hails from Northern California and when she is not dancing to Bach, she makes dances with her own company, ad hoc Ballet, and teaches ballet at Dance New Amsterdam. Bass is originally from Forest, Virginia and holds a BA in Dance from James Madison University. She has had the pleasure of working with Kelly Bartnik, danah bella DanceWorks, Alexandra Beller, Christian Canciani, Donna Costello, Aviva Geismar/Drastic Action, Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance, Jill Sigman/Thinkdance, and Teri & Oliver Steele. (www.monicabillbarnes.com)

Emerging choreographer EMERY LECRONE was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. She trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts under teachers, such as Melissa Hayden, Warren Conover, and Nina Danilova. Ms. LeCrone also attended several summers at the School of American Ballet on full scholarship.

Upon graduation in 2005 Ms. LeCrone was accepted into the apprentice program at North Carolina Dance Theatre, where she performed in works such as George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Serenade, and Walpurgisnacht (Faust), Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s Carmina Burana, and Salvatore Aiello’s Nutcracker. She also worked closely with resident choreographer Dwight Rhoden. She created her first ballet for North Carolina Dance Theatre II in 2006.

Since then, Ms. LeCrone has created several works including Pulling to Break, Figurine, Concerto 3 in G, and most recently Aphorismós, which premiered for the Columbia Ballet Collaborative on April 3rd, 2009. Claudia La Rocco of The New York Times wrote “…her Aphorismós is a ready for primetime knockout…hinting at dark undercurrents that beg for second looks. More, please, Ms. LeCrone.”

Ms. LeCrone has worked with dancers from North Carolina Dance Theatre, the New York City Ballet, Ballet Met, the Los Angeles Ballet, Ballet West, Eugene Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Nashville Ballet, and the American Repertory Ballet. She has participated in several choreography competitions, including the National Choreographers Initiative under the direction of Molly Lynch and Ballet Builders 2008.

In August 2007, Ms. LeCrone moved to New York City, where she performed with Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company in its inaugural City Center season and was hired to dance with both the Metropolitan Opera and Miro Mangaloire’s New Chamber Ballet.

Ms. LeCrone remains in New York City and continues to dance and choreograph. She will premiere new works this year for The Columbia Ballet Collaborative, the Greensboro Ballet, and the newly formed Novaballet. (www.emerylecrone.com)

TAMI STRONACH was born to archeologist parents—a British father and an Israeli mother—and spent her early years in Iran before settling in the US. She formed Tami Stronach Dance (TSD) in 2000 to create works that integrate her extensive artistic influences, which include dance, theater and vocal work. The New York Times called her work “wickedly observant,” while Dance Insider called her “a choreographic doctor of the human condition.” Stronach received a Thayer Fellowship for Excellence in Choreography upon graduation from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance. After graduating, she became a featured performer with Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers. She also worked with choreographers Monica Bill Barnes and Kate Weare and went on to join the internationally acclaimed Flying Machine Theater Company, touring extensively throughout the US. Other acting credits include the role of The Childlike Empress in the film The Never Ending Story. She guest teaches at Dance New Amsterdam and at universities around the country. (www.tamistronach.com)

SATURDAY, JUNE 20:

LINDA SZMYD MONICH has been hosting Dance Talks for The Joyce Theater since 1998. She is a guest lecturer for Manhattanville College’s Dance Theatre Department and the Walnut Hill School’s Ballet Program. She was a Teaching Artist in Dance for Lincoln Center Institute for 14 years, and also worked as a Consultant/Teaching Artist for New York City Ballet’s Education Department. She has written about dance and taught dance history at Connecticut College, The Juilliard School and Manhattanville College. In addition, she has worked in administrative jobs for American Ballet Theatre (Administrator, Ballet Theatre Workshop/Assistant to the Director Ballet Repertory Co.), The Metropolitan Opera (Performance Manager) and The Joffrey Ballet (Assistant to the General Manager/Interim Company Manager, Joffrey II).

General Information:

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! was founded in 2006 by choreographer Neta Pulvermacher/The Neta Dance Company and producer Marisa König Beatty in response to a need for a lab-like space in which working dance artists can engage in an open dialogue with the audience about the work presented. The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is now administered and produced by The Joyce Theater Foundation and has been expanded from an annual series held in New York City at Joyce SoHo to a multi-city format in 2009. This year, The Joyce Theater Foundation has partnered with The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and On the Boards (Seattle) with additional series taking place in Chicago (June 24–27), in Philadelphia (September 15–19) and in Seattle (December 10–13).

The twelve choreographers and companies participating in The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009: New York City, as well as those participating in Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia, were selected by representatives from The Joyce Theater and each of the host organizations. The presenting partners in each city are The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and On the Boards (Seattle). The 2009 expansion into Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle is made possible by a generous grant from The Boeing Company. The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 awards in New York City at Joyce SoHo are made possible through a generous contribution from Scott Kasen.

Audiences will evaluate the work according to the same P.O.E.M. criteria utilized by the Joyce panel when selecting the participating choreographers:

• Potential: Does the artist have potential and seem to have the maturity to take advantage of an award at this point in his/her career?
• Originality: Does the artist have a personal and unique voice? How singular are the artist’s movement language, concept and vision?
• Execution: Were the performers committed, well-rehearsed and capable of carrying the intricacies of the artist’s vision?
• Merit: Can a value of the whole be assigned based on the combination of the work’s Potential, Originality and Execution?