Assistant Arts Professor Angie Pittman, a multidisciplinary performance artist and choreographer, has been honored with the 2025 Bessie Award for Outstanding Sound Design/Musical Composition, alongside composer Cody Jensen, for their work "Black Life Chord Changes" that was presented at OutFront Festival at BAM Fisher Hillman Studio in January 2025.
The Bessie Awards, established in 1984 and named after the legendary dance pioneer Bessie Schönberg, have celebrated over four decades of recognizing exceptional and innovative work by NYC dance and performance artists. These awards honor groundbreaking achievements across choreography, performance, music, visual design, and contributions to the field of dance and performance.
The Bessie's described "Black Life Chord Changes' as a moving soulful resonance to otherworldly textures, and sounds that sharpens themes of survival, resistance, and identity into something both intimate and expansive. Cody Jensen’s score woven with Pittman’s sung and spoken text and live vocalizations builds a listening architecture that carries the work across its “Day” and “Night” worlds. The result is rigorous, transporting, and an unforgettable aural world that holds the audience with care while carving a brave space.
Throughout their career, Pittman has performed at major institutions including The Kitchen, Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, and Danspace Project, contributing to the discourse on Black Radical Tradition and Black Feminist methodology. Their practice emphasizes the visceral experience of the body, integrating dance, text, voice, and song to articulate embodied truths rooted in Black cultural and spiritual traditions.
Currently serving as an Assistant Arts Professor of Dance at New York University, Pittman recently released their debut album, "Holy Defiance", a pagan gospel blues album grounded in the sacredness of Black resistance and acts of defiance.
This recognition underscores Pittman’s ongoing influence within the fields of dance, performance, and sound design, and their commitment to creating work that interrogates and celebrates Black life through innovative artistic practices.
