Dancers Recently Seen in L.A. Are Among Bessie Winners

NEW YORK — Five of six performer awards given out in the fifth annual New York Dance and Performance Awards--a.k.a. the Bessies--went to members of dance companies that have appeared in the Los Angeles area in recent years.

Among awards presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday was one for sustained achievement to Kate Johnson of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Also winning were Keith Sabado, who dances with Mark Morris; Norwood Pennewell of Garth Fagan’s Bucket Dance Theater; Lance Gries, who performs with Trisha Brown; and Joseph Lennon, formerly with Merce Cunningham and more recently seen in works by Michael Clark, Karole Armitage, Randy Warshaw and others. Ron Vawter, a member of the Wooster Group, was the sixth recipient.

William Forsythe, artistic director of the Frankfurt Ballet, won in the choreographer/creator category for his own company’s performances of “Artifact” as well as his works for the New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet seen in New York during the past season.

Ann Hamilton, a performance/visual artist currently preparing an installation for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, won for “The Earth Never Gets Flat,” an installation at the Whitney Museum in New York.

Other recipients in this category were Ann Carlson, for her “Animal Series,” a collection of choreographic miniatures; performance artist John Kelly, for his contemporary retelling of the Orpheus myth; Otrabanda, a dance/theater collective, for the collaborative work “Brain Cafe”; choreographer Tere O’Connor, for his group work “Heaven Up North.”

Elizabeth Streb won for her cumulative body of athletic equipment-oriented dance works; and three Belgian artists--director Wim Vandekeybus and composers Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch--for a collaboration shown in New York last fall.

Bill Irwin, the clown/performance artist/actor, was surprised by his co-host, Valda Setterfield, with a Bessie for his recent ensemble work “Largely/New York.”

Political activism and AIDS consciousness were the recurring themes of the evening. Also stressed was the vulnerability of individual artists as “the weakest economic link in the community,” as David White, executive director of Dance Theater Workshop, put it.

Dance Theater Workshop has presented the Bessies--which this year included 23 awards--since 1984 and for the first time winners in every category received cash gifts: between $500 and $1,700.

A special citation went to ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and during the evening, the memory of two AIDS victims who were active members of the downtown arts community--free-lance journalist and Bessie committee member Barry Laine and choreographer John Bernd (a 1986 Bessie winner)--was invoked.