Arts Orange County honors alumna’s dance company with achievement award


Rick Smetanka, CPA, Partner-in-Charge, Audit & Business Advisory Group, Haskell & White LLP, presented the 2012 Achievement Award for Outstanding Arts Organization to Jennifer Backhaus, Artistic Director of Backhausdance.

Rick Smetanka, a board of director for Arts Orange County presented the 2012 Achievement Award for Outstanding Arts Organization to Jennifer Backhaus, Artistic Director of Backhausdance.


Backhausdance, the acclaimed contemporary dance ensemble founded by Chapman University alumna Jennifer Backhaus ‘94, won an Outstanding Arts Organization at the 13th Annual Orange County Arts Awards, presented by
Arts Orange County
.

The company was among a glittering list of honorees at the awards presentation, held September 18, 2012 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.   Other honorees this year include Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award winners Douglas Rankin, founding president of the Irvine Barclay Theatre; William and Barbara Roberts, longtime donors to many OC arts organizations; Elizabeth Turk, Santa Ana-based artist and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient; and Gloria Zigner, founder and executive producer of the CHOC Follies.  Soka University’s new Performing Arts Center will also receive the Outstanding Contribution to the Built Environment Award.

Under the artistic direction of Backhaus,
Backhausdance
is now in its 10th year and has performed extensively at venues and festivals including Fall for Dance and the Off Center Festival at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Studio SCR Series at South Coast Repertory, the INBOUND Festival at Joyce SoHo in New York, Laguna Dance Festival, the Los Angeles Arts Holiday Celebration held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the Celebrate Dance Festival at the Alex Theatre.  Backhaus is currently an instructor in Chapman University’s Department of Dance, College of Performing Arts.

Dawn Bonker

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