On the night of the Bessie Awards, New York City once again feels to eclipse all, sending L.A. into dark orbit. At the end of the night, however, L.A. dance-lovers have to come away with renewed appreciation for the great programmers out here who recognized the evening’s genius, prize-winning solo artists from the U.S. and beyond, way before they took home shiny awards. And the fact that we could catch them for just $20-$25 tickets!
Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo work, “Bronx Gothic.” Photo: Ian Douglas.
Thus our own winners tonight should be our great presenting organization and programmers, like Show Box L.A., which brought Okwui Okpokwasili here last summer. Her one-woman show, “Bronx Gothic,” won’s last night’s 2014 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production. Yay to Meg Wolfe and George Lugg at Show Box! You can even order a chapbook of ‘Bronx Gothic’ from them.
REDCAT, too, always brings the best cutting-edge artists at work in dance-theater, and one of their recent picks — the luminous Gregory Maqoma/Vuyani Dance Theatre in “Exit/Exist” –won last night in the highly competitive category of Outstanding Music Composition & Sound Design. Hooray for Redcat’s Mark Murphy and the rest of our keen-eyed presenters!!