Special Award
For outstanding achievement during the previous viewing year by or for a Bay Area individual or organization in any category not listed. Includes outstanding achievement in such areas as exhibition, festivals, special events, photography, writing, television, radio, etc.

From 1984 to 1987, there were separate awards for Innovators, Oustanding Leadership, and Exceptional Production

2011 (2009-2010 season)

Brenda Way and ODC
- For her vision, commitment, and perseverance to build a major dance center with a broad range of programs and resources for dance professionals, children, and the community.

YAK FILMS/Yoram Savion, Director
- For documenting the turf dancing by Oakland youth, particularly those videos that feature the RIP dances recorded at the locations in the Bay Area where other youth have died and for making them available on YouTube.

2010 (2008-2009 season)

• Dohee Lee – FLUX
• Jo Kreiter – The Ballad of Polly Ann

2009 (2007-2008 season)

• New Works Festival (2008), San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson, Artistic Director
  - 10 world premieres by 10 renowned choreographers.
• Loom, Katie Faulkner, Benjamin Goldman –
  A 9-minute dance film choreographed and directed by Katie Faulkner with cinematography by Benjamin Goldman.

2008 (2006-2007 season)

• Gabriela Shiroma – Diaspora Negra
• Chitresh Das – Kathak at the Crossroads

2007 (2005-2006 season)

• Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller – Ballets Russes (film)
• Karina Epperlein – Phoenix Dance (film)

2006 (2004-2005 season)

• Micaya/San Francisco Hip Hop DanceFest
• Maxine Moerman/The Field

2005 (2003-2004 season)

• Luna Kids Dance

2004 (2002-2003 season)

• MARGARET JENKINS DANCE COMPANY, Three Decades of Dance
  An extraordinary team of collaborators worked for more than a year to celebrate the work of one of San Francisco’s bedrock choreographers. In April 2003, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company: Three Decades of Dance transformed the vast Herbst Pavilion into a living museum of dance history. Set designer Alexander V. Nichols, poet Michael Palmer, videographer Martin Gould, and sound designer Gregory T. Kuhn created a truly transporting environment to showcase the company’s past. More than 100 former MJDC dancers were contacted to participate, and several veterans performed significant past works during a pre-show. The company’s program presented a new work with an original live score and also restaged MJDC classics not seen in many years, notably bringing writer and performance artist Rinde Eckert back to the stage in the 1988 work Shorebirds Atlantic. The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company retrospective was an absorbing testament to the company’s past and future.
• CHITRESH DAS, NI KETUT ARINI, and GOVINDAN KUTTY for choreography and performance and MATTHEW ANTAKY for visual design, East as Center, ODC Theater
  In May 2003 three renowned masters of Asian dance – North Indian Kathak dancer Chitresh Das, Balinese dancer Ni Ketut Arini, and South Indian Kathakali dancer P. Govindan Kutty – met on the common ground of the Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic. In East as Center, presented at ODC Theater during Das’s artistic residency, each master portrayed distinct characters in stories excerpted from the Ramayana, with the cast augmented by their disciples. This method of collaboration highlighted the differences between the disciplines while creating a satisfying artistic whole, greatly enhanced by Matthew Antaky’s imaginative lighting and live music by North and South Indian and Balinese musicians

2003 (2001-2002 season)

• LINES Ballet‘s extraordinary production The People of the Forest presented an unforgettable meeting of cultures to audiences across the country. Bringing the Central African BaAka pygmy musicians to the United States required vision, faith, two years of tireless work, and an exemplary trans-Atlantic cooperation. LINES artistic director Alonzo King, associate director Robert Rosenwasser, and executive director Pam Hagen, joined forces with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts executive director John Killacky and dance curator Nancy Martino to make this remarkable meeting of two cultures a reality. The team brought together ten major funders and seven performance venues, four of which signed on to commission King’s full-length collaboration with the musicians and dancers of Nzamba Lela. The People of the Forest drew sold-out, standing-ovation audiences mesmerized by the pygmies’ rich, polyphonic singing and transformed by a chance to witness a truly cross-cultural collaboration.
• Throughout its 18-year history Theatre Artaud has been one of San Francisco’s most vibrant dance venues, fostering the development of many now nationally recognized choreographers and encouraging multi-disciplinary collaboration. Founded by Project Artaud, the artists’ collective which owns the cavernous converted can factory, the theater was lead for 11 years by Dean Beck-Stewart. When the Theater Artaud corporation faced financial insolvency in the fall of 2001, a committed team of employees and volunteers stepped in to close the theater responsibly. The following people donated months of time to keep the stage equipment intact and honor contracts with artists, smoothing the transition for Project Artaud to reclaim management of the theater: Lizzy Spicuzza, Benjamin Young, Lynda Rieman, San San Wong, Karen Schiller, Joanna Haigood, Eloise Burrell, Sean Riley, Michelle Mullholland, Deanna Cooper, Donna Stone, Mary Williams, Jack, Carpenter, Tim Pickerill, and the members of Project Artuad, particularly Norman Rutherford, Nicole Sawaya, and Wendy Gillmore. Their work ensures the building’s continued use as a theater as Artaud reorganizes and looks forward to a new era.

2002 (2000-2001 season)

• CitiCentre has provided a plethora of dance classes, particularly in African Diaspora dance forms, to the Bay Area dance community for 25 years. Located in and sponsored by Oakland’s Alice Arts Center since 1993, CitiCentre offers 57 free and low-cost classes in Congolese, Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Afro-Brazilian, Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Ancient Hula styles of dance, as well as many others. More than 1,000 dancers take class at CitiCentre each week, and the organization is home to 13 resident dance companies, including Savage Jazz Dance, Fua Dia Conga, and African Queens, and provides a home for many individual choreographers.
• ODC/San Francisco’s Dance Jam children’s company, along with ODC’s annual productions of The Velveteen Rabbit have paved new inroads for young audiences to learn about and develop an appreciation of modern dance. The Velveteen Rabbit, conceived by choreographer KT Nelson in 1985 and presented in full every holiday season since 1989, has provided an important family entertainment complement to the annual spate of Nutcracker ballet productions, giving children an entrancing, accessible first brush with modern dance. ODC Dance Jam, which performs alongside the professional company in The Velveteen Rabbit, began in 1995 as a children’s company with 10 original members. The ODC School launched its kids program in 1997 and has since taught modern dance to nearly 600 Bay Area children.

2001 (1999-2000 season)

• Dance Community in Action — The Isadora Duncan Dance Award Committee wishes to acknowledge and award the leadership of Wayne Hazzard in creating a moving and heartfelt event to say goodbye to the studio and performing space that has served the dance community continually for 45 years; Keith Hennessey‘s and Rachel Kaplan‘s roles as spearheads of the dance community in protesting the eviction; and Krissy Keefer for her leadership in the political action involving city government. And most of all we wish to acknowledge the members of the dance community who put their hearts and effort into the need to save our rehearsal and performing spaces.
• San Francisco Ballet’s Discovery Programs, for providing an opportunity for young choreographers to show excellent work. The Series premiered Julia Adam’s Night, Vladimir Anguelov’s Impetuous, David Palmer’s Concerto Romantique, Yuri Possokhov’s Magrittomania, Christopher Stowell’s Opus 50, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Sea Pictures

2000 (1998-1999 season)

• Linda Rawlings, for creation and development of New Shoes, Old Souls Dance Company, which has since 1993 produced dance concerts featuring perfomers over 40 with deep roots in the Bay Area and internationally renowned choreographers
• Northern California Lindy Hop Society, for the Symposium on Lindy Hop they presented at SF State University as part of the 85th birthday celebrations for the great dancer Frankie Manning, inventor of the air step. This symposim brought together star dancers from the ’30s, jazz musicians, and dance and film historians to illuminate this African American social dance whose offshoots — boogie-woogie, rock ‘n’ roll, and funk — dominated American social dance in the 20th century.

1999 (1997-1998 season)

• The World According to Hula, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, Patrick Makuakane-Kumu, Director

1998 (1996-1997 season)

• Aislinn Scofield, Asian Art Museum
• CAL Performances
• Krissy Keefer/Brady Street Dance Center
• Ed Mock Tribute

1997 (1995-1996 season)

• John Henry and Ellen Bromberg (Bill Mulligan accepting), Singing Myself a Lullabye
• Nancy van Norman Baer, for all her work, but expecially the exhibit of Ballet Su’dois

1996 (1994-1995 season)

• San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson, Artistic Director, and Michael O’Rand, Festival Coordinator, for the United We Dance festival
• Yerba Buena Center, Baraka Sele, Artistic Director for the Performing Arts, for the Symposium Katherine Dunham: the Legend and the Legacy

1995 (1993-1994 season)

• The Legacy Oral History Project, Jeff Friedman, Director
• Jens-Jacob Warsaae, in memoriam, for his body of work in visual design for the San Francisco Ballet
• Nina Glaser, photographer

1994 (1992-1993 season)

• Susan Pertel Jain and the UC Berkeley Department of Dramatic Art for making possible the performance of the Chinese Opera Fan Maji (Tale of the Horse Trader), performed by the Los Angelses-based Hua Kun Opera Company, augmented by amateur performers from local Bay Area Chinese Opera clubes and a few UC Bekeley drama students
• The Talking Dance Project, Ellen Webb and David Gere, co-directors, for producing The Body Eclectic: Mark Morris and Art Issues in the ’90s, UC Berkeley

1993 (1991-1992 season)

• Rhodessa Jones for The Medea Project, a theatre/dance workshop for incarcerated women at the county jail in San Bruno
• Dance Brigade, Krissy Keefer and Nina Fichter, Artistic Co-Directors, for The Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie, a multi-colored, multi-aged, multi-gendered holiday extravaganza bringing communities together
• Gary Palmer for Men Dancing, a forum to show the full spectrum of male dance

1992 (1990-1991 season)

• Remy Charlip and Bob Collins for organizing the Dance Steps benefit at Theater Artaud to support Steps, a non-profit organization providing assistance to people living with HIV
• Festival of Indonesia, Rachel Cooper, Performing Arts Coordinator, and Sardono Kusumo, Artistic Committee Head, for deepening the Bay Area’s appreciation of the myriad dance forms of Indonesia, from Bali to Sumatra
• June Watanabe, Frank Shawl, and Marni Thomas-Wood for concept and production of Time Over Time: Three Lives in Dance, and for their contributions to the Bay Area Dance Community as represented in that program

1991 (1989-1990 season)

• Halifu Osumare, Director of Expansion Arts Services, and Kim Fowler and Dean Beck Stewart from Theater Artaud, for production of the festival Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century

1990 (1988-1989 season)

• William Cook (Guest Curator) and J. F. Kennedy Center (Presenter) for The San Francisco Festival at Kennedy Center
• Ashley James of Searchlight Films (Producer), Kim Fowler and Bruce Davis (Executive Producers), and City Celebration (Sponsor) for And Still We Dance, a film about the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
• Janice Ross and Stephen Cobbett Steinberg (Co-Directors), the Archive for the Performing Arts, and the Dance Critics Association (Co-Sponsors) for Why a Swan?, a conference on Swan Lake

1989 (1987-1988 season)

• American Inroads (Presenter) for risk-taking and excellence in presenting avant-garde dance in the Bay Area

1988 (1986-1987 season)

• Dr. Richard E. Le Blond, Jr. for sustained leadership achievement
• Michael Smuin for bringing dance to wider audiences, particularly through his televised works for the San Francisco Ballet
• Footwork Studio for the Edge Festival and sponsorship of emerging choreographers
• Nancy von Norman Baer (Curator) for her work in producing dance history exhibitions, particularly Bronislava Nijinska: a Dancer’s Legacy at the De Young Memorial Museum
• Cruz Luna for his long-standing contributions to the field of flamenco dance

1987 (1985-1986 season)

• Ed Mock, a charismatic and humorous performer/teacher noted for his unique personal dance style that blends modern, jazz, acting and mime

1986 (1984-1985 season)

• Anatole Vilzak, teacher with the San Francisco Ballet School for the past three decades

INNOVATORS

1987 (1985-1986 season)

• Tandy Beal, for her improvisational collaboration with jazz singer Bobby Mcferrin

1986 (1984-1985 season)

• Ronn Guidi, Artistic Director of the Oakland Ballet, for his innovative programming

OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP

1987 (1985-1986 season)

• For Service: Bruce Davis, Executive Director of City Celebration, an innovative organization that presents the annual Ethnic Dance Festival
• Patron: Zellerbach Family Fund for its commitment to supporting ininovation in dance, theater, music, film, video, and writing

1986 (1984-1985 season)

• For Service: Michaela Cassidy, previous Chairman and President of the Board, San Francisco Bay Area Dance Coalition, and current member of the San Francisco Ballet Association Board of Trustees
• Patron: San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, for its leadership in funding to the dance and arts community

EXCEPTIONAL PRODUCTION

1988 (1986-1987 season)

• The Ascension of Big Linda to the Skies Of Montana, performed by the Joe Goode Performance Group
• Religare, performed by Contraband