The 2024 Chita Rivera Award Nominees Honor the Icon Who Lent Her Name to the Annual Celebration of Dance

Amid a busy awards season where actors, writers, directors and the like are flooded with accolades, the Chita Rivera Awards pauses on the dancers and choreographers that bring music to life in theater and film. This year's ceremony, to be held on May 20 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, will be the first without its namesake—the legendary triple threat Chita Rivera, who passed away in January at the age of 91. 

"We haven't seen anybody really like her in a long time," said Rivera's daughter, Lisa Mordente, to The Broadway Show at a recent gathering of 2024 Chita Rivera Award nominees. As the spokesperson for her mother's legacy, she added, "I feel that it's really important that we keep her memory going," though she admitted Rivera was baffled by the concept of an award bearing her name. Recalling the awards' 2017 rebranding as the Chita Rivera Awards (formerly known as the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards), she said of her mother, "She wasn't quite sure how to deal with that. She's so not about being showbiz-y." Still—and especially now in her absence—Mordente says, "It's for the community that loves her the most. And it's just a beautiful thing."  

Watch the full video below, featuring some of this year's Chita Rivera Award nominees.