Join Dance/USA in recognizing this year's Honor Award recipient Lar Lubovitch, Ernie Award (named for the late Ian “Ernie” Horvath) recipient Verdery Roosevelt, Champion Award recipient Pamela Crutchfield and Trustees Award recipient Andrea Snyder.

This extraordinary event is a highlight of the Annual Conference. This year's Honors Celebration Reception will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Drawn by its beauty and the fabulous free public events, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Cultural Center every year, making it one of the most visited attractions in Chicago. The stunning landmark building is home to two magnificent stained-glass domes, as well as free music, dance and theater events, films, lectures, art exhibitions and family events.

Honor Award
Lar Lubovitch
Lar Lubovitch founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company 43 years ago. In the years since, he has choreographed more than 100 dances for his New York-based company, which has performed in nearly all 50 American states as well as in more than 30 foreign countries. Born in Chicago, Lar Lubovitch was educated at the University of Iowa and the Juilliard School in New York. His teachers at Juilliard included Antony Tudor, Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow and Martha Graham. He danced in numerous modern, ballet, jazz and ethnic companies before forming the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. 
Lubovitch made his Broadway debut in 1987 with the musical staging for the Stephen Sondheim/ James Lapine musical, Into the Woods, for which he received a Tony Award nomination. In 1993 he choreographed the highly-praised dance sequences for the Broadway show The Red Shoes. The final ballet from that show joined the repertories of American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada. For his work on that show, he received the1993-94 Astaire Award from the Theater Development Fund. In 1996 he created the musical staging (and two new dances) for the Tony-Award-winning Broadway revival of The King and I. Most recently he devised the musical staging for Walt Disney's stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin. In 2004 he was honored with the Elan Award for his outstanding choreography. In addition to his work for stage, screen and television, Lubovitch has also made a significant contribution to the advancement of choreography in the field of ice-dancing. He has created dances for Olympic gold medalists John Curry, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill and has choreographed a full-length ice-dancing version of The Sleeping Beauty, starring Olympic medalists Robin Cousins and Rosalynn Sumners. For French Olympic skating champions Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay, Lubovitch choreographed a television project based on The Planets by Gustav Holst; telecast by the A&E network in 1995, the program was nominated for an International Emmy Award, a CableACE Award and a Grammy Award. In 2007, to supplement the activities (creating, performing and teaching) of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, he founded the Chicago Dancing Company, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to present a wide variety of excellent dance and build dance audiences in his native Chicago. Initiated by Chicago-born Lubovitch (and our Chicago-based dancer Jay Franke), the Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF) was launched in cooperation with Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) and the City of Chicago.
*More on Lar through the years

The Honor Award will be presented by:
Anna Kisselgoff was Chief Dance Critic of the New York Times from 1977 to 2005, leaving the staff in 2006. She continues to contribute to the paper while freelancing elsewhere and lecturing. Over the years, she has reviewed ballet, modern dance, folk dance, ethnic dance, tap dance, Michael Jackson, ice dancing and the rodeo. She was named a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government, and awarded the Order of the Falcon by the president of Iceland.


Ernie Award
Verdery Roosevelt
Verdery Roosevelt joined the staff of Ballet Hispanico in 1978, and became executive director a year later.  In partnership with Founder Tina Ramirez, she was responsible for the growth of the nation's preeminent Hispanic dance company and school from a community-based organization into a nationally recognized cultural institution. During her tenure with Ballet Hispanico, she oversaw the production of more than 50 new works for the company’s repertory, working with internationally renowned choreographers and designers to realize Ramirez’s vision.  Under her direction, scholarship support for the Ballet Hispanico School has grown to over $100,000 annually, while Ballet Hispanico’s educational program, Primeros Pasos, has expanded to serve over 25,000 students around the country each year.  In addition, she oversaw the purchase and dramatic expansion of Ballet Hispanico's headquarters on Manhattan's Upper West Side, as well as the establishment of working capital and endowment funds.  Ms. Roosevelt served on the Board of Directors for Dance/USA, where she was Chairman from 1996 to 1998.  She has been a guest speaker at various seminars and arts administration programs, including, the Kennedy Center’s Vilar Symposium, the Yale School of Drama and the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She has also served as a panelist for national, state and local arts agencies.  Ms. Roosevelt was recognized for her civic leadership with a “Pacesetter Award” from Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer at New York’s City Hall in 2004.  She received the Arts Management Career Service Award in 2000 and a 1981 Management Achievement Award from ACUCAA, now APAP.  Prior to her work at Ballet Hispanico, she was on the development staff for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.  A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she graduated from the University of Alabama and received her Masters in Business/Arts Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently the Senior Vice President of Program & Nonprofit Investments at Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.
*More on Verdery through the years

The Ernie Award will be presented by:
Tina Ramirez brought contemporary Hispanic culture to the forefront of American dance  through her vision for Ballet Hispanico, which she founded in 1970 and served as Artistic  Director for 40 years. Her far-reaching commissions for the Company - 95 works from 50 choreographers - have brought a fresh portrait of today's Latinos to over two million people. The School of Dance, rooted in her singular curriculum of ballet, modern and Spanish dance techniques, has trained numerous professionals now working in dance, theater, film and television. Her deep commitment to education, a vital component of the organization from its inception, has brought Ballet Hispanico's vibrant blend of dance and Hispanic culture to over 250,000 public school students and teachers across the nation.

Ms. Ramirez' lifetime of work as a dancer, educator and producer has earned her a National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest cultural honor. She received the 2009 Honor Award from Dance/USA and the APAP Award of Merit in 2007; other honors include an Hispanic Heritage Award, the Dance Magazine Award, the New York State Governor's Arts Award, and the Mayor's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture.

Champion Award
Pamela Crutchfield
Pam Crutchfield is a passionate and active member of the Chicago dance community.  She is co-founder of DanceWorks Chicago, a small company devoted to the professional development of young dancers and choreographers.  In 2009, Pam received the prestigious Ruth Page Award.  She is also a recipient of the Friend of River North Chicago Dance Company award and has been a volunteer in the Ann Barzel Dance Collection at the Newberry Library.  Pam has underwritten the creation of new choreography for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street 2, River North Chicago Dance Company, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and Luna Negra Dance Theater. Pam is on the advisory board of numerous dance companies and served on the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago board for five years.  Additionally, she served as a board member of Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance.  Most recently Pam was an honoree of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago’s 25th Anniversary Celebration.  She is currently a director at the Old Town School of Folk Music.  Pam previously served on the boards of Free Street Theater and The Poetry Center of Chicago.  She has a B.A. from DePaul University.
^{Photo by Cheryl Mann}
*More on Pam through the years


Trustees Award
Andrea Snyder
Andrea Snyder joined Dance/USA as president and executive director in February 2000; she will complete her tenure in June 2011 to become a certified personal/executive coach for arts leaders.  She came to Dance/USA after creating the National Initiative to Preserve America’s Dance (NIPAD) grants program for The Pew Charitable Trusts, which she directed from 1993 to 2000, and serving as assistant director of the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Program through the “arts wars” of 1987 to 1993.  Previously she held a broad range of positions across the dance field: booking agent for Sheldon Soffer Management; executive director of Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians; administrator of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Dance Department; associate administrator for the Cunningham Dance Foundation; and assistant to Director Muriel Topaz of the Dance Notation Bureau.
Snyder has served on many state arts council grant panels, as well those for Arts International, the Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance Foundation and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.  She is the immediate past chair of the Performing Arts Alliance, the national advocacy organization for the performing arts, and she remains a member of the 2005 inaugural Dance Magazine Board of Advisors.  From 1995-2008, she was moderator of The John F. Kennedy Center’s contemporary dance post-performance artist/audience discussions. 
Snyder began as a dancer and technique teacher after graduating from The American University, and later earned an M.A. in Arts Management from NYU.  She has served as an adjunct professor in arts administration at The American University; and lectured on dance at the Florida State University (FSU) in NYC program.  Snyder is also an alumna of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute and recipient of the 2001 Congress on Research in Dance Award.  A comprehensive chapter in Renata Celichowska’s recent book, Seven Statements of Survival, profiles Snyder’s life/career in dance.
*More on Andrea through the years

Dance/USA thanks DeWitt Stern Group and the Alphawood Foundation for their sponsorship of the 2011 Honors Celebration.