Harkness Promise Award
To address the need for continuing creative developments in the dance field, the trustees of the Harkness Foundation for Dance established the Harkness Promise Award in 2018 to recognize and encourage gifted emerging choreographers in their first decade of professional work. The late Rebekah Harkness, the Foundation’s benefactress, believed passionately in providing opportunities for talented young dance artists to experiment and grow. This award carries these beliefs forward. There is no application process: the awardees are identified and chosen by the Harkness Trustees.
Dance Magazine, the field’s historic magazine of record, generously supported this initiative from 2018-2023 by donating the net proceeds of the prestigious Dance Magazine Awards event to this cause. We thank Dance Magazine for its partnership during those six years. 2024 was a hiatus year for these awards, which have recommenced in 2025 in a new relationship with Dance Magazine in which the awards, now supported solely by the Harkness Foundation, will again be presented at the Dance Magazine Awards ceremony. This public recognition of promising young artists alongside the icons of our field signifies the ongoing vitality of the dance field past, present, and future.
The Harkness Promise Award seeks to highlight:
- The promise of the awardee’s artistic work, as evidenced in rehearsal and performance settings
- The awardee’s innovative thinking about how to be an effective artist-citizen who positively impacts dance and the broader community through performance, education, organization, activism or other means
Included in the award are:
- A $5,000 unrestricted grant
- Up to 40 hours of studio space within the grant year
- Ongoing consulting and mentorship with Joan Finkelstein, the foundation’s executive director
A performance project may result from this support, but is not a condition of the award.
2025 Harkness Promise Award
We are pleased to announce that the 2025 Dance Magazine / Harkness Promise Awardees are Annie Rigney and Micaela Taylor.
They will be presented with their awards at the Dance Magazine Awards ceremony, to be held on December 8th, 2025 at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.
Past honorees:
- 2023: BAYE & ASA and Omar Roman de Jesus
- 2022: Kayla Farrish and Johnnie Cruise Mercer
- 2021: Alethea Pace and Yin Yue
- 2020: Kyle Marshall and Marjani Forté-Saunders
- 2019: Bobbi Jene Smith and Caleb Teicher
- 2018: Ephrat Asherie and Raja Feather Kelly
For more information, see our NEWS page.