Choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan’s show Rian, with music by Hothouse Flowers singer Liam Ó Maonlaí, was awarded a Bessie this week. Produced by Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Rian ran as part of the White Light Festival at the Lincoln Center, New York, last year.

The Bessies are officially called the New York Dance and Performance Awards and they cover a range of categories from performance to production; the awards’ nickname is after the dancer and choreographer Bessie Schoenberg (1906–1997).

The award for Rian was in the Outstanding Production category. The show is described as ‘a union of traditional Irish music and passionate contemporary dance’.

Other nominees in the category were Omar Sosa for his work on Miriam, a show choregraphed by Nora Chipaumire; Marty Beller for A Single Ride, which was choreographed by Ephrat Asherie; and Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells for The Quiet Volume, which they created at Performance Space 122.

When the show was touring last year, Ó Maonlaí said that dance was ‘profoundly important’. ‘You go to the Sahara Desert where it’s a struggle to get food, it’s a struggle to get water, and still those people take the time and trouble to dance,’ he said. ‘They take the time and trouble to make music.’