An unusually large number of young gifted Black dancers and choreographers are among the recently announced recipients of the coveted 2016 Princess Grace Awards. The list includes Special Projects awardees choreographers Kyle Abraham and Camille A. Brown, Dance Fellowship winners Tamisha Guy (Abraham. In Motion), Paige Fraser (Visceral Dance Chicago) and Jeffrey Duffy (Hubbard Street Dance), scholarship winner Tyson Clark (Boston Ballet) and honorarium winner Dance Theater of Harlem ballerina Chrystyn M. Fentroy.
The New York-based nonprofit Princess Grace Foundation-USA was established 34 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco to honor his wife, Princess Grace’s legacy. The former Hollywood film star’s devotion to the arts lies at the heart of the foundation’s mission to identify and assist emerging talent in theater, dance and film by awarding grants with scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships. Over the years, the foundation has awarded $11 million to 800 awardees, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle and choreographer Kyle Abraham.
This year’s awards total more than $1 million and will be presented to artists this fall at a gala attended by Their Serene Highnesses the Prince and the Princess of Monaco and co-chaired by, among others, American Ballet Theater’s Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel.
Executive Director Toby Boshak recently said, “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s incredibly talented award winners into the Princess Grace Foundation-USA family. Each year we enthusiastically support a passionate new group of emerging talents who will one day be at the forefront of the arts.”
Although some see awards as humdrum affairs, this year’s PGA recipients are clearly not among them. Brown’s excitement was palpable as she told the Amsterdam News what it means to receive the Statue Award, consisting of an unrestricted $25,000 cash gift and a bronze statue of Princess Grace by Dutch artists Kees Verkade, especially because that award has gone to only 63 other artists.
“The night before they told me I was a recipient of the Princess Grace Award, I was thinking I couldn’t do this anymore,” Brown confided. “I was exhausted. I was frustrated. The next morning, I learned I was an awardee. I just thought, ‘Wow! The day before I was feeling really down and now it’s like the universe is telling me I’m on the right track.’”
Despite being a four-time PGA Winner (2016 Statue Award, 2016 Choreographic Mentorship Co-Commission Award, 2013 Work-in-Progress Residency Award and 2006 Choreography Award), Brown said that one of the first questions she asked when she got the news was, “Why?” She continued, “I know it’s a very large award and I didn’t know what I had done to deserve it. I think it’s just that I didn’t expect to get it.”
Brown added, “I feel like Black female choreographers have often been removed from this conversation about diversity, with some folks not understanding the amount of work and guts it takes to do what we do.”
Brown admitted that she had doubts when she decided to leave Ron K. Brown’s Evidence to form and choreograph for her own company. “One of the reasons I didn’t think I could choreograph was because of the lack of exposure in terms of other Black women doing this work,” she said. Of course, she was aware of pioneers Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, Dianne McIntyre, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and others, but Brown said it was the scarcity of images of other Black female choreographers in her generation that fueled self-doubt.
Since, she has learned that it is important for Black women to dig down deep and draw on the inner fire that compels them to want create. That this approach works is evident both in an impressive body of work, which includes “Mr. TOL E. RAncE” and “BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play,” and awards such as the PGA and Brown’s recent nomination for a Bessie Award, dance’s equivalent of the Tony Awards.
Awardee Fraser, of the Chicago-based Visceral Dance Company, is delighted that others value both her artistry and her story of pursuing dance despite a potentially debilitating condition. “This is quite a thrill,” she said. “I’m happy that I can inspire others struggling with scoliosis who might want to become professional dancers. This award isn’t just for me, it’s for other dancers who can see what happens when you continue to push through obstacles. “
Guy, of Abraham. In Motion, also highlights the inspirational value of the award. We caught up with her at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater headquarters during that company’s rehearsal of the third and final segment of the MacArthur “genius grant” winner’s work “Untitled America,” which tackles the thorny, timely issue of the high incarceration rate and its far-reaching ramifications in our communities.
The Trinidad and Tobago native, who recently made Dance Magazine’s 2016 list of “25 to Watch,” has already had an impressive career— training at Ballet Tech, the New York Public School for Dance under Eliot Feld, graduating from SUNY Purchase College with a double major in dance and arts management, working with Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Martha Graham Company before joining Abraham’s company in 2014.
Guy called the PGA a “dream come true,” adding, “it will propel me to continue to share my craft and to work even harder to contribute to an art form that continues to give me so much.”
Sharing a few words of advice for other young African-American female artists struggling to make their unique voices heard, Guy said, “I wholeheartedly believe in a mantra that I repeat to myself often which is that all things are possible. I truly believe that through hard work, dedication and an ample amount of faith you can achieve all things. Most of all, trust yourself and believe that you can and you will.”