PRESENTED BY JOAN FINKELSTEIN OF THE HARKNESS FOUNDATION FOR DANCE
PHOTO BY UMI AKIYOSHI
Baye & Asa
Baye & Asa, selected as one of Dance Magazine’s ”25 to Watch“ for 2022, is a company creating movement art projects directed & choreographed by Amadi ‘Baye’ Washington & Sam ‘Asa’Pratt. They grew up together in New York City, and that shared educational history is the mother of their work. Hip Hop & African dance languages are the foundation of their technique. The rhythms of these techniques inform the way they energetically confront contemporary dance & theater. They use their choreography to create political metaphors, interrogate systemic inequities, and contemporize ancient allegories; building theatrical contexts that celebrate, implicate, and condemn the characters onstage. Their dance work has been presented at The Joyce Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Pioneer Works, The 92nd Street Y, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, ODC, Blacklight Summit, Gibney Dance Center, Thread Artist Space in Senegal, Future Dance Festival, Southampton Arts Center, Westbeth, and Battery Dance Festival, while their film work has won numerous awards and has been presented internationally.
Omar Román De Jesús
Omar Román De Jesús (Bayamón, Puerto Rico) is a Queer Puertorriqueño choreographer and director of NYC-based dance company Boca Tuya, dedicated to creating visibility for emerging LatinX/a/o leaders in the arts. He is the inaugural Baryshnikov Arts Center Fellow at Kaatsbaan, a 2022 Princess Grace Award Winner in Choreography, a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography, a 2022 Palm Desert Choreography Festival Grand Prize Winner, and a 2020
Recipient of The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. His work has been commissioned by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ballet Hispánico, Ballet Collective, Limón 2, MOVE/NYC, Bruce Wood Dance, Jacob Jonas The Company, Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, Whim W’him, Parsons Dance, and several universities and arts high schools. Over the past five years, he has toured internationally and has presented work domestically in New York, Georgia, Washington, Pennsylvania, California. Most recently, “Papagayos,” commissioned for Ballet Hispánico, premiered at New York City Center and was presented by the 2023 American Dance Festival.
PHOTO BY OMAR Z. ROBLES
The 2023 Dance Magazine Awards is sponsored in part by:
