Awards & Honors
2025 – ModArts Dance Collective Legacy Award
2024 – Mertz Gilmore Foundation Grant
2023 – Martha Hill Lifetime Achievement Award
2022 – Dance Magazine Award
2021 – New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project Grant
2020 – Doris Duke/United States Artists Fellowship
2019 – Dance/USA Honor Award
2017 – Teer Pioneer Award from National Black Theatre – The Alan M. Kriegsman Creative Residency at Dance Place, Washington, DC
2016 – BAC Residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY – Harlem Arts Alliance Distinguished Artist Award – Doris Duke Artist Award
2015 – Doris Duke Impact Award
– A Spelman College Distinguished Visiting Scholar
2014 – Def Dance Jam Community Butterfly Award
– Karamu House Hall of Fame – Fine Arts
2013 – Cleveland State University Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree
– International Association of Blacks in Dance International Acclaim Legendary Artist Award
2012 – The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award
– OhioDance Recognition Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of the Dance Artform
2010 – Creative Workforce Fellowship/ Cuyahoga Arts and Culture
2009 – State University of New York at Purchase Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree
2008 – American Dance Festival Balasaraswati Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching
– Universal Dance Movement Excellence Award
2007 – John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
2006 – Def Dance Jam Workshop recognizing Dianne McIntyre & Sounds in Motion, Many extensions: Dancers, Musicians, Artists, Actors, Teachers, Producers, Writers, Students, Mentees…
– BESSIE: New York Dance and Performance Award – Special Achievement Citation: For pioneering work with women and with African American and American spiritual traditions
– Helen Hayes Award Nomination: The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical. Dianne McIntyre (author) “Open the Door, Virginia!” Theater of the First Amendment
2005 – The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Masters of African American Choreography Medal
– George Mason University African American Studies and Department of Music, The Billy Taylor – Sylvia Lee Award for Excellence in Performance and Research in the Arts and Humanities
– Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center Lifetime Achievement Award
2004 – St. Louis Black Repertory Company Woodie Award for Lifetime Achievement
1999 – AUDELCO: Special Achievement Award
1998 – New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project Grant for Dianne McIntyre and Lester Bowie through partners Jacob’s Pillow and Walker Art Center.
1997 – BESSIE: New York Dance and Performance Award for “A Brand New People on the Planet” with musician/composer Olu Dara
1996 – Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Choreography, Resident Production: “I Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change (A Ballroom Drama)” Theater of the First Amendment
– Helen Hayes Award Nomination: The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical. Dianne McIntyre (author) “I Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change (A Ballroom Drama)”, Theater of the First Amendment
1993 – Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Choreography, Resident Production “In Living Colors: A Gullah Story” OyamO (author)/ Olu Dara (music) Theater of the First Amendment
1990 – National Endowment for the Arts Three-Year Dance Fellowship (one of three recipients nationally that year)
1989 – BESSIE: New York Dance and Performance Award Choreography for “In Living Color”
1979 – AUDELCO Award Winner for Choreography for “Spell #7” A Choreopoem by Ntozake Shange. New York Public Theater
Grants
1974 – 1988 Individual and for Sounds in Motion/Dance Visions, Inc.
- CAPS – Creative Artists Public Service
- National Endowment for the Arts – Dance and Music grants
- New York State Council on the Arts – Dance and Music grants
- New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
- New York Foundation for the Arts
- Meet the Composer