Fela!, Neshyba-Hodges and "Every Little Step" Earn Top Honors at Astaire Awards
Tony Award-winner Bill T. Jones, the female ensemble of Fela! and Come Fly Away's Charlie Neshyba-Hodges are among the winners of the 28th annual Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, which were presented June 7 in Manhattan.
Tony Award winner Ben Vereen hosted the ceremony, honoring achievements in dance on Broadway and in film, at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College.
The 2010 Astaire Award nominees follow (winners in bold with an asterisk):
Stage Categories
Choreographers
*Bill T. Jones (Fela!)
Twyla Tharp (Come Fly Away)
Sergio Trujillo (Memphis)
Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime)
Steven Hoggett (American Idiot)
Male Dancers
*Charlie Neshyba-Hodges (Come Fly Away)
Keith Roberts (Come Fly Away)
John Selya (Come Fly Away)
Maksim Chmerkovskiy (Burn the Floor)
Memphis Male Ensemble (Brad Bass, Kevin Covert, Bryan Fenkart, Rhett George, John Jellison, John Eric Parker, Jermaine R. Rembert, Ephraim Sykes, Cary Tedder, Daniel J Watts, Charlie Williams, James Brown III, Tyron Jackson)
Female Dancers
Karine Plantadit (Come Fly Away)
Laura Mead (Come Fly Away)
Holley Farmer (Come Fly Away)
Savannah Wise (Ragtime)
*Nicole Chantal de Weever and the Fela! Female Ensemble (Hettie Vyrine Barnhill, Lauren de Veaux, Elasea Douglas, Rujeko Dumbutshena, Catherine Foster, Shaneeka Harrell, Chanon Judson, Shakira Marshall, Afi McClendon, Jill Vallery, Iris Wilson, Aimee Graham Wodobode)
Film Categories
Choreographer (Fictional Film)
*Marguerite Derricks "Fame"
Rob Marshal and John Deluca "Nine"
Lula Washington "Avatar"
Director (Documentary Dance Film)
Kenny Ortega "This is It"
Frederick Wiseman "La Danse, Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris"
Ruedi Gerber "Breath Made Visible"
*Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern "Every Little Step"
Emmy Award-winning "High School Musical" director and choreographer Kenny Ortega was presented with the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award was established with the cooperation of Fred Astaire to honor him and his sister, Adele, who starred with her brother in ten Broadway musicals between 1917 and 1931.
Source