by Barry Englert

In writing this review, I want to make it clear that I am not looking to take away or minimize the achievements of those who either participated in this Philadelphia Live Arts Festival program or who won in either the preliminaries or finals.

I was also surprised at the fact The Dance Journal, which tends to offer more glowing reviews, was hesitant in publishing this review, making some excuse about having to go through a review process before publishing. However, in the end they succumbed to better judgment and the flow of freethinking.

I attended two out of the four A.W.A.R.D. shows both with different friends in tow. On the preliminary night, I was joined by a friend from the dance community and on the final night by a neophyte to dance performances.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! bills itself as “Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance – 12 Choreographers. $10,000. Who takes it home? You be the judge.”  Twelve Philadelphia-area choreographers were chosen for their ability to create inspirational and inventive contemporary dance. They compete over three preliminary performances (four choreographers per night) for the chance to be voted by the audience onto the final night, when the three final choreographers present their work and the winner takes home $10,000. The prize pays for the creation of a new piece. The two runners-up each receive $1,000.

While The A.W.A.R.D. Show! features talkbacks so that audiences can express their ideas about the work directly to the choreographers, one is left wondering what spawned this concept to begin with. The A.W.A.R.D. Show! comes across as a mix of dance school competition meets “So You Think You Can Dance”. In the preliminary rounds, it appeared that popularity and the ability to get friends to attend won out over artistic merit. But ultimately, it did a disservice to all of the presenters. While choreographers did speak about their work in the preliminaries, for the non-dance aficionado, this so-called dialog was at best obscure and lost in translation. Adding to the confusion was the closed door judging, leaving little commentary for audiences to absorb or even direction for being a “better observer” and participant in the process.

The ultimate goal of this A.W.A.R.D. Show was to uncover the best new, up and coming choreographers in Philadelphia. While I am sure there are those that will disagree vehemently, I found myself disturbed that the dance community would participate in such a process and that the body of work presented (and not necessarily the choreographers or artists) was as weak as it was. If the A.W.A.R.D. Show was an attempt to cultivate new dance audiences and expose them to new works, my neophyte-dance friend perhaps summed it up best, “I have no idea what I have just seen, nor does it leave me wanting to attend more.”

Lois Welk, who heads up the Philadelphia division of Dance/USA was emcee for the evening. She stepped up to generously offer up free tickets to audience members to go see new dance works they have not seen before in the next 30 days. But one has to question, why a national service organization, whose mission is providing services and national leadership to enhance the infrastructure for dance creation, education and dissemination, would have offered legitimacy to this whole process to begin with.

In the end, one has to question if the judging of choreography, new dance works and the overall merit of an artist, should be left up to audiences or is it better reserved for peer review? But if the dance community is looking to expose new works and presenters to the populace at large as well as cultivate new audiences, the A.W.A.R.D. Show was certainly not the way.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show Results

Preliminary 1:
Jumatatu Poe, Jenn Rose, Kathryn TeBordo, Kate Watson-Wallace
Host: Amy Smith, co-artistic director, Headlong Dance Theater
Preliminary 1 winner: Jenn Rose

Preliminary 2:
Nichole Canuso, Kirsten Kaschock, Gabrielle Revlock, Zornitsa Stoyanova
Host: Anna Drozdowski, director, Ladybird
Preliminary 2 winner: Nichole Canuso

Preliminary 3:
Braham Logan Crane, Devynn Emory, Megan Mazarick, Jen McGinn
Host: Melanie Stewart, artistic director, Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre
Preliminary 3 winner: Braham Logan Crane

Final winner: Nichole Canuso
Host: Lois Welk, director, Dance/USA Philadelphia