Celebrating 20 Years of the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards
A Brief History written by Christine Eibel

The Bay Area Dance Coalition, our regional dance service organization from the mid-1970’s to the mid-1990’s, established the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards – the Izzies – in 1986. The board at that time was comprised of over twenty representatives from the dance community who brought a range of viewpoints representing large institutions, to smaller dance companies, to independent choreographers.
The awards were created as a way to both celebrate and promote the diversity and vitality of the Bay Area dance community.
While awarding accomplishment in the arts was not a new concept, it was one that was thoroughly debated by this membership-based service organization before the event was launched. Some were concerned that picking award recipients would fuel competition amongst local artists. But in the end the inclusiveness of the nomination process and the celebratory spirit of the awards created a great deal of forward momentum both within and on behalf of local dance.
The first event was held in the auditorium of the old Asian Art Museum in Golden Gate Park, which was attached to the M. H. de Young Museum before it was re-built. The Master of Ceremonies was Stephen Goldstine, a committed dance lover, who was then Chair of the California Arts Council and President of the San Francisco Art Institute.

The turnout exceeded expectations, and the event did indeed bring different strands of the dance community together. A beautiful commemorative program was designed by Cal Anderson, and etched crystal awards were created by an artist at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts).

By this time the AIDS epidemic was reaching far into the dance community. The first awards ceremony included a tribute to dancer/choreographer Ed Mock, with a moving speech by dancer Elvira Marta and a slide show created by then Executive Director of Footwork (Ed Mock’s home studio), Vernon Fuquay. The dance community lost Vernon to AIDS two years later, along with many other talented artists and arts workers. As a result, The Parachute Fund for dance community members with life-threatening illnesses was formed and still exists today.

The Izzies grew through the years to include live performances and an expanded nomination and review process. Despite the untimely demise of our dance service organization (then re-named Dance Bay Area), the Izzies continued. The event was moved to different venues from the small Brady Street Dance Studio to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The review committees, over a period of many years, attended hundreds — or perhaps thousands — of performances to be sure their knowledge was current.

To this day, the Izzies remain the singular vehicle for our community’s recognition of artistic accomplishment in dance.
The awards ceremony brings all of Bay Area dance together to celebrate one another and the multi-faceted creative spirit which characterizes our region. Congratulations to all who have made the Izzies such a success this year, and kudos to the bearers of the flame who kept them alive through twenty years of ferment and change.