2020/2021 Distinguished Achievement in Dance Award Winners

HARTFORD, CT - Connecticut Dance Alliance (CDA) is pleased to announce Rachna Ramya Agrawal and Libby Nye as recipients of the 2020/2021 Distinguished Achievement in Dance Award in recognition of their distinguished careers in dance and commitment to the Connecticut dance community.

The Distinguished Achievement in Dance Award recognizes those individuals who have made outstanding and long-lasting contributions to the Connecticut dance community. Previous recipients of the CDA Distinguished Achievement in Dance Award include Noble Barker, Pilobolus and Pamela Tatge, Judy Dworin, Martha Myers, and Michael Uthoff.

Rachna Ramya Agrawal is an extraordinary dancer, master teacher, poet, academic scholar, author and visual artist. A native of India, Ms. Ramya Agrawal is a distinguished scholar and performer of Kathak. She holds numerous advanced degrees, awards and diplomas. Since her arrival in the US, Ms. Ramya Agrawal has been committed to the practice and education of Kathak. Either through her own school, the Sumbhaav School of Kathak Dance, or as a Master Teaching Artist sponsored by The Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and Young Audiences of Connecticut, Rachna is an inspiration. Her teaching embraces those in the Indian community and beyond through workshops and master classes on college campuses and throughout the state and region. She may be best known as the coordinator for the Ted Hershey Dance Marathon. Her latest endeavor, CjacksArts.com, a social media platform, is her call to action in support of performing artists and Indian arts. Rachna is a woman with bells on her ankles and “fire underneath her feet.”

Libby Nye, a New London, CT native, has devoted her life to dance and dancers regionally, nationally, and internationally. During her professional dance career with the José Limón Company and American Dance Theater at Lincoln Center, Ms. Nye was noted for her expressive interpretations and intense hunger for movement. She directed and choreographed numerous works for her own company in New York, and has taught and reconstructed Limón works throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States. Ms. Nye has taught at the Juilliard School, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and the José Limón School, along with colleges and universities throughout the United States including The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. She has coached the José Limón Company, developed the dance major at Pomona College in California, and has taught on the faculties of Connecticut College, Harvard University, The Boston Conservatory, Brown University and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany. Most recently, Ms. Nye is the founder and co-director of the N.A.D.I.N.E. Project (New Artists Dance In New England), which is based in Ledyard, CT.