The 4th Annual Chita Rivera Awards, the only awards dedicated exclusively to dance, were presented this evening, Monday, June 20, beginning at 7:30 pm, at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The star-studded evening was hosted by Charlotte d’Amboise and Bianca Marroquin from the Broadway production of Chicago. Presenting the 2022 awards were Rivera, Ben Vereen, Wayne Cilento, Desmond Richardson, Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, Dylis Croman, and Rachel Zatcoff. The live ceremony also included performances by d’Amboise and Marroquin, Bebe Neuwirth, Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, American Dance Machine for the 21st Century, the cast of Stomp, and dancers from the Pace University Commercial Dance BFA Program.
This year, the awards in eight competitive categories for Broadway, Off Broadway, and Film considered shows that opened pre-COVID, as well as in the 2021-2022 season. In addition to those, as was previously announced, legendary Broadway performer and Tony, Oscar, and Golden Globe Award winner Joel Grey (Cabaret; Wicked; Anything Goes) received the Lifetime Achievement Award; Annie-B Parson – choreographer, dancer, director, and co-founding Artistic Director of Brooklyn’s Big Dance Theater – received the Douglas & Ethel Watt Critics’ Choice Award; and Excellence in Off-Broadway musical theater was celebrated with two special awards honoring Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Ensemble.
And the winners of the 2022 Chita Rivera Awards are:
Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show: Bill T. Jones, Garrett Coleman, Jason Oremus, Paradise Square;
Outstanding Male Dancer in a Broadway Show: (tie) Myles Frost, MJ the Musical; Jared Grimes, Funny Girl;
Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show: Tendayi Kuumba, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf;
Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show: for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf;
Outstanding Choreography in an Off-Broadway Show: Josh Prince, Trevor;
Outstanding Ensemble in an Off-Broadway Show: The Wrong Man;
Outstanding Choreography for a Theatrical Release: tick, tick . . . BOOM!, Choreographer Ryan Heffington, Associate Choreographer Ryan Spencer;
Outstanding Direction of a Documentary Release: (tie) First Try, Director Josh Prince; and Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back, Director John Carluccio.
Congratulations to the winners and honorees of the 2022 Chita Rivera Awards. All proceeds from the evening benefit the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation College Scholarship Program, which awards college scholarships to talented teenagers.
