WAA Awards Celebrate Our Community
Congrats to our 2026 Awardees, and nominees, and a sneak peak at the Annual Luncheon’s special performance by Jack West via MM Music Agency!
We’re taking a moment to celebrate this year’s WAA Awards recipients, and nominees. The following members of the community will be honored at the Annual Luncheon, a celebration of excellence, artistry, and the power of community in the performing arts.
Emeritus Award – Honoring members upon their retirement for exemplary and extensive service both to WAA and the field.
Daria Yudacufski, USC Visions and Voices
Michelle Mac Lennan, Chandler Center for the Arts
Leadership Award – Honoring extraordinary vision, distinguished leadership, and artistic achievement.
Hector Flores, Las Cafeteras
Mentoring Award – Recognizing excellence in mentoring and a commitment to the professional advancement of the western performing arts community.
Margaret Jenkins, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
The Vanguard Award celebrates the Bay Area, long a bastion of inspirational approaches and work in the performing arts, and in recognition of this year’s conference location.
The Vanguard Award shortlist was whittled down by the Awards Committee, based on nominations from you, the membership. Member organizations will be able to vote on your choice for the Award later this summer: keep your eyes peeled for an email from us.
The winner will be revealed at the Awards Ceremony!
Paul Dresher, Paul Dresher Ensemble
Purple Fire Crow (aka: Mx. Antoine Hunter)
Judith Smith, AXIS Dance
Awards will be handed out at the Annual WAA Award Ceremony and Luncheon, where you can connect with colleagues over a fantastic meal. In addition to celebrating your colleagues, enjoy a performance by genre-bending acoustic guitarist, composer, and bandleader Jack West.
West simultaneously plays drums, bass and guitar parts, blending American folk, jazz, funk, and rock into a compelling new style of acoustic music. He’ll be joined by the tastefully shredding acoustic guitarist James Nash. Thanks to MM Music Agency, who represents the duo, for their support of this event.
More about the nominees and awardees:
2026 Emeritus Award
Michelle Mac Lennan | Chandler Center for the Arts
& Daria Yudacufski | USC Visions and Voices
The Emeritus Award honors members upon retirement for exemplary and extensive service both to WAA and the field.
Michelle Mac Lennan is a respected arts leader whose career has been defined by service to artists, communities, and the performing arts field. For more than 27 years, she has led the Chandler Center for the Arts in Arizona, serving as General Manager, Arts & Culture Manager for the City of Chandler, and President of the Chandler Cultural Foundation.
“Michelle Mac Lennan exemplifies the very best of public service. Her leadership reflects a deep commitment to community, collaboration and access, and her work has strengthened the role of the arts as a meaningful part of life in Chandler. We are grateful for her years of dedication and the lasting influence she leaves behind.”
— Kevin Hartke, City of Chandler Mayor
Throughout her career, Michelle has championed equitable access to the arts, innovative public-private partnerships, and the advancement of artists through commissioning, residencies, and community-centered engagement. Under her leadership, the Chandler Center for the Arts grew into one of the region's most active multidisciplinary arts presenters, serving hundreds of thousands of patrons, students, artists, and community members each year.
Known for her collaborative leadership style, Michelle has worked closely with artists, agents, presenters, educators, civic leaders, and funders to create meaningful opportunities for artistic expression and community connection. She has been a strong advocate for the role of the arts in civic life, helping to build sustainable partnerships between municipalities, school districts, nonprofit organizations, and the creative sector.
Michelle's contributions have been recognized through numerous honors, including a fellowship from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust and recognition as one of the Phoenix Business Journal's "30 Outstanding Women in Business." Her peers elected her President of the Arizona Presenters Alliance, where she helped strengthen connections among presenters across the state and advance the work of the performing arts field.
“Michelle's advocacy efforts have ensured that the Chandler Center for the Arts is positioned for continued success as it enters its next phase of growth...and (lays) the groundwork for future policy changes that will help improve arts access for Chandler residents and beyond.”
— Marta Werbanowska, Chandler Center for the Arts
“Because of Daria’s vision and leadership, USC has an arts and humanities program that has been embraced by students, faculty, staff, and the larger community, where we can experience the transformative power of the arts, engage deeply in who we are, and be inspired to make the world a better place. Through Visions and Voices, Daria has cultivated an environment for creativity, exploration, and collaboration to thrive, while also presenting and uplifting the amazing work of artists, activists, and scholars.”
— Marie-Reine Velez, Interim Director, USC Visions and Voices
Daria Yudacufski is an arts leader who has amplified the connections between the arts and social justice for over 30 years. In 2006, after stints a director of the Cross Cultural Centers at California State University, LA, and as programming director of the MultiCultural Center and Women’s Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she launched Visions and Voices at the University of Southern California, serving as its founding executive director until 2026.
During her tenure leading Visions and Voices, Daria remade the social fabric of USC. She and her team infused the arts and humanities into the daily rhythm of life on campus, deeply engaging our community with creativity, diversity, and joy. She will be missed immensely, but her impact will live on.
— Tara McPherson, Ph.D., Professor Cinema & Media Studies, chair of Visions and Voices Faculty Committee 2006-present
Under her leadership, the university’s signature arts and humanities initiative produced more than 100 arts and humanities events and projects annually, many developed in collaboration with campus and community partners. Committed to accessibility, student development, and public engagement, she made all Visons and Voices events free to audiences, welcoming the USC and broader Southern California communities to dance performances, concerts, theatrical productions, film screenings and festivals, lectures, conversations, and workshops featuring leading artists, scholars, and cultural innovators.
Visions and Voices opens your eyes to what the world is...It’s an incredible experience, and everyone should [go] at least once.
— Farrah Diogene, USC Cinematic Arts student (2024, via USC Today)
Daria is co-editor of the book Feminisms in Motion: Voices for Justice, Liberation, and Transformation (2018) and she co-founded and published the independent feminist magazine make/shift for ten years. She currently serves on the Association of Performing Arts Professionals Conference Committee and the National Dance Project Advisory Panel and has also served on WAA’s LA Host Committee and the executive committee of Arts Administrators in Higher Education.
2026 Leadership Award
Hector Flores | Las Cafeteras
The Leadership Award honors extraordinary vision, distinguished leadership, and artistic achievement.
Hector Flores is a Los Angeles based Artivist who has been using song, film and storytelling to elevate, shift and shine light on the narrative of BIPOC communities over the last 15 years as a Musician, Cultural Worker, Producer and Artistic Director for Las Cafeteras (WAA Juried Showcase Artist 2024, 2013). The BBC called Las Cafeteras’s music “Urgent, relevant”; NPR called it “Creative, socially conscious, it’s perfect.”
Our music and shows are like an activation. It’s a protest. It’s a f—ing rally.. It will make you feel like we can change the world together...If it can happen on the dance floor. It can happen out there.
— Hector Flores (via LA Times)
Before fully transitioning as a full time artist, Hector worked for 10 years in South and East LA as an organizer for Racial & Economic Justice with S.C.O.P.E (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education) in South Los Angeles and then as a Youth Organizer with InnerCity Struggle in East Los Angeles.
One of the best decisions I made was presenting Las Cafeteras in 2019. So much of what made the experience satisfying was Hector Flores’ energy, curiosity and enthusiasm to learn more about our community and engage on a meaningful and personal level... (he) spent time with pre-schoolers on art skills and building their self-confidence, and worked with campus leaders on community and campus efforts... Hector is blessed with the gift of connecting with people immediately and his passion for what he does is always apparent to everyone.
— James Moore, Former Executive Director, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Performing Arts Center
Currently, he is the host for the National Immigration Law Center's Webby Award winning podcast, Freedom to Thrive and is producing a musical tribute for the late Rock n' Roll star Ritchie Valens, titled Ritchie Forever, which will premiere in Los Angeles at Grand Performances August, 2026.
Hector embodies the transformative power of the arts as a force for social change, grounding his work in culture to build community, advance justice, and inspire collective action. His leadership reminds us that artists are not only creators, but vital civic leaders who help us imagine and build a more just, compassionate, and connected world.
— Rafael Gonzalez, President and CEO, Grand Performances; Secretary/Treasurer WAA Board of Directors
2025 Mentoring Award
Margaret Jenkins | Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
The Mentoring Award recognizes excellence in mentoring and a commitment to the professional advancement of the western performing arts community.
Margaret Jenkins is the founder and artistic director of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, now in its 53rd season. A choreographer, performer, teacher, mentor, and creator of innovative community-based programs such as CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange), which has supported over 150 established and emerging professionals with artist fees, rehearsal space, workshops, opportunities for the ideas generated during the mentorship, and more, and Encounters Over 60, which supports elder dance artists, and encourages cross-generational conversations and learnings, Jenkins has been a leading force in contemporary dance for more than five decades.
Margaret Jenkins single-handedly changed the landscape of contemporary dance in the Bay Area.
— Joseph Copley-Venturo Díaz, ODC Dance; WAA Board President
A proponent of a fully realized collaborative art, she has created works with distinguished artists across disciplines, including Paul Dresher, Rinde Eckert, Naomie Kremer, David Lang, Alexander V. Nichols, Michael Palmer, and Yoko Ono. In addition to annual seasons in San Francisco, her company has toured extensively throughout the United States and internationally. In 2003, then-mayor, Willie Brown, declared April 24 to be Margaret Jenkins Day.
Margaret Jenkins has been an inspiration to me in every possible way. A deeply probing artist, a relentlessly curious person, a gargantuan humanitarian; I look to her as a truly shining example of what an artist can (and must) be and what life can (and must) be about.
— David Roussèv (choreographer, writer, director)
Jenkins’s cross-cultural collaborations with artists and companies in India, China, and Israel, along with her multidisciplinary creations, have been central to her artistic practice. Following the premiere and touring of Wheel in 2025, she looks forward to premiering Foolish Fires in October 2026.
Thank you, Margy; you showed me the potential of creative mentorship and community. The ripple effect of what you created resonates in what we are all do today, and your impact on our field continues through all you have influenced.
— Amy Seiwert (Artist Director, Smuin Ballet).
2026 Vanguard Award Nominees
Recognizing inspirational and ground-breaking Bay Area work and people that push the field forward. The winner will be determined by a vote of the membership.
Paul Dresher | Paul Dresher Ensemble
Paul Dresher is a composer, performer, instrument inventor, and producer whose work bridges experimental opera/music theater, chamber and orchestral composition, live electro-acoustic performance, theater and dance, and large-scale invented instruments.
A Guggenheim Fellow in Composition, he has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, Library of Congress, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival USA, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and ODC Dance.
Paul Dresher exemplifies the spirit of West Coast music both in the richness of his sound world as well as the inventiveness of his mind...Paul has invented new instruments, both mechanical and electronic, each of which has expanded his musical thinking. To that he adds a background in North Indian and Balinese traditions, all of which results in music of exceptional individuality and beauty. He’s a maverick in the very best sense of the world.
— John Adams, Composer
Since 1984, the Paul Dresher Ensemble has created and toured groundbreaking works including Slow Fire, Pioneer, Schick Machine, The Tyrant, and Ravenshead, while commissioning more than 50 works by contemporary composers. Dresher’s commitment to the next generation led to the 2012 launch of the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency (DEAR), supporting early-career experimental artists with free studio access, mentorship, and honoraria.
His interactive invented musical instrument installation Sound Maze has toured widely nationally and internationally; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art said: "Hosting Sound Maze...was a high point. Museum visitors were joyful, engaged, and reluctant to leave, with some staying for hours!" – where it will return in 2027.
I have worked with Paul Dresher for over 30 years, and while I live on the other coast I've been well aware not only of the inventiveness and beauty of his works as a composer, but of his talents as a producer of both his own and others works, and of the extraordinary service he has provided to performing artists in the Bay Area
—Sue Renee Bernstein
Purple Fire Crow, Mx. Antoine Hunter
Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) is an award-winning Black, Indigenous, Deaf, Disabled, Two-Spirit choreographer, artistic director, producer, curator, educator, speaker, filmmaker, disability justice advocate, and cultural visionary from Oakland, California who is dedicated to expanding opportunities for Deaf and Disabled communities through creativity, accessibility, and social change.
Believing art should remove barriers rather than create them, he founded Urban Jazz Dance Company, the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival, High Tech Deaf World, WEST Deaf Artists Mentor, and #DeafWoke to connect artists, audiences, and communities worldwide. Through performances, mentorship, leadership training, international collaborations, and more, Hunter empowers artists of all ages to thrive, centering Deaf culture, disability justice, and creative excellence. He has quietly advised and helped produce festivals, artistic initiatives, and cultural projects across multiple countries, believing that empowering others is one of the highest forms of leadership.
Antoine Hunter moves like silk, and he and the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival are a gift to all. A one-of-a-kind advocate, he exemplifies the inextricable link between art and activism... We have had the great honor of hosting the Deaf Dance Festival for the past 14 years (and) it is amazing to experience the electricity before a show. Antoine is also generous with educating the hearing community, inviting them into the culture of Deafhood and forcing venues to think about accessibility.
— Stella Adelman, Program Director, Dance Mission Theater
His work has earned the United States Artists Fellowship, Rainin Arts Fellowship, and Disability Futures Fellowship. He serves on the boards of Dance/USA, Disability Rights California, Bay Area Black Deaf Advocates, Dance/USA and California Institute of the Arts, H.E.A.R.D, advancing equity, accessibility, and the future of inclusive arts. As an educator and speaker, Hunter has taught, lectured, and performed for universities, schools, arts organizations, museums, conferences, corporations, and community groups throughout the United States and internationally. His work invites audiences to rethink communication, celebrate human diversity, and imagine a more inclusive future.
Antoine Hunter is a visionary artist, cultural leader, and community builder whose impact on the Bay Area dance landscape cannot be overstated. At Fresh Meat Festival, we've had the privilege of presenting Antoine's work over the years and have witnessed their extraordinary ability to create dance that is both artistically thrilling and deeply rooted in disability justice, Deaf culture, and collective care. Through their artistry and leadership, Antoine has expanded who gets to be seen, celebrated, and centered on our stages, leaving an immeasurable mark on generations of artists and audiences alike.”
— Eric García, Managing Director of Fresh Meat Productions
Judy Smith | Axis Dance (retired)
Judith Smith, Founder and Director Emerita of AXIS Dance Company, is a driving force in disability and dance. Under Judith’s direction AXIS commissioned more than 35 works from the nation’s best choreographers and composers and toured to over 100 cities. She led the development of the field’s most extensive integrated dance education/outreach programs with a range of programs serving all ages, abilities and interests from recreation to the pursuit of a professional career.
Judy was undeniably driven by a mission to challenge and expand the idea of who can dance and was hugely instrumental in the creation of a new genre of dance that included people with disabilities... The impact she made in the dance world is far-reaching. Not only did she elevate AXIS as a world-renowned physically integrated dance company, but she also educated funders, choreographers, educational institutions and arts organizations about the need to expand participation and inclusion of people with disabilities on an institutional level.
— Bonnie Lewkowicz, AXIS cofounder (via KQED)
Her advocacy/equity work led to the first-ever National Convening on the Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA. This project culminated in an extensive report and the launch of the AXIS Artistic Advancement Platform to Advance Artistry, Opportunity and Equity for Dancers with Disabilities. She was instrumental in the creation of the Dance/USA Deaf and Disability Affinity Group.
Judith’s awards include Dance/USA’s Honors Award, an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement, Theatre Bay Area’s 40 People That Have Changed the Face of Bay Area Theatre and induction into Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame. Since retiring in 2018, Judith has continued work in the field of dance and disability.
As AXIS Dance Company’s current Artistic Director, a previous dancer in the Company, and as a disabled artist, I experience Judith Smith's legacy everywhere in our field. Her visionary leadership transformed perceptions of disability in dance and created pathways for disabled artists to be recognized as leaders, innovators, and professional performers... She opened doors for generations of young disabled artists, like me, to develop their artistry, build meaningful careers, and imagine futures that once seemed impossible. The field would not be what it is today without her and her work.
— Nadia Adame, Artistic Director, AXIS Dance
The WAA Awards
Since 1985, the annual WAA Awards have celebrated and recognized colleagues and organizations who have advanced the performing arts field and strengthened the WAA community — those who enrich, inspire, and energize our work and our industry. See past award recipients here.