The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is back. The ridiculously popular, occasionally controversial, multi-stage modern-dance contest was a hit at On the Boards earlier this season, so they're going for another round in January—with a few changes.

From OtB HQ:

We are excited to announce 2 Seattle-specific changes to The A.W.A.R.D Show!. After listening to feedback from participants, patrons and the wider community we felt it was important to allow applicants to send proposals for new work and to also offer honorariums to all the chosen participants. As an organization we value innovation and wanted to be able to address this more directly in our edition of the competition by opening up the proposals from the beginning. Additionally, we feel it is important to recognize the efforts of artists and compensate them accordingly.

Last year, The A.W.A.R.D. Show! sparked some great debate about populism, selling out, grants, and modern dance, with the show's creator, New York choreographer Neta Pulvermacher, weighing in on the comments thread of this Slog post:

I was and am sick and tired of seeing friends and neighbors (only) at modern dance shows, and kind of un-charged, sleepy, self-important artists and audiences with high brow and very intelligent comments talk about each other’s work in a small coffee house or bar joints, in NYC, Seattle, Chicago, Philly…. Etc… I thought long and hard - how to make something - grass roots for artists with artists with NO RESOURCES to change that sort of boring scene - to force people (that includes both artists and audiences) to see deeper, think deeper and cut the crap out of the inherent duplicity and elitist talk which is so prevalent in our field.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens at A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2.0. On the Boards is accepting applications here and now.

(Last year, Amelia Reeber won the $10,000 prize for her short solo. The full-length version, this is a forgery, opens on April 22.)