The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography (previously titled the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards) celebrates outstanding dance and choreography in theatre, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway and in film at an annual ceremony in New York City at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
Now carrying the namesake of two-time Tony-winning dance icon Chita Rivera, The Rivera Awards will be presented under the auspices of American Dance Machine, an organization dedicated to the preservation of great musical theatre choreography.
The award was established with the cooperation of Fred Astaire to honor him and his sister, Adele, who starred with her brother in ten Broadway musicals between 1917 and 1931.
[10] Other Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Kenny Ortega in 2010, and Jacques D’Amboise in 2011.
[19][20] Steven Hoggett, on Broadway this season with Angels in America and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, received the inaugural Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award.