Winners follow: Best Male Dancer on Broadway
Spencer Liff in Cry-Baby
Best Female Dancer on Broadway
Karen Olivo in In the Heights
Best Choreography on Broadway
Rob Ashford for Cry-Baby
Best Choreography in Film
Dave Scott for "Step up 2: The Streets"
As previously announced, Tony Award winner Tommy Tune will receive the first annual Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at the Astaire Awards celebration, which is scheduled for June 2 in the Grand Ballroom of Manhattan Center Studios. Brooke Shields will present Tune with his honor.
The gala evening will benefit The Auditory Oral School of New York, a non-profit organization that "specializes in teaching deaf and hard of hearing children to listen, talk, think and socialize."
The 2008 nominating committee for the awards comprised Clive Barnes, senior theater & dance critic New York Post; Anna Kisselgoff, former chief dance critic, New York Times; Wendy Perron, editor in chief, Dance Magazine; Sylviane Gold, theater columnist, Dance Magazine; Damian Woetzel, principal dancer with New York City Ballet; along with nominating committee chairman emeritus Douglas Watt, former senior drama critic, New York Daily News.
Established in 1982, the Fred & Adele Astaire Awards (formerly known as The Astaire Awards) recognize outstanding achievement in dance on Broadway each season. 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.
The gala evening, which begins at 6:30 PM, will include cocktails, seated dinner, performances and the awards presentation. Tickets, priced $350 and $500 (with tables ranging $3,500-$15,000), are available by calling Jennifer Dumas, executive producer, at (212) 655-9377 or by e-mailing [email protected].
