Sutton Foster, Norbert Leo Butz & Susan Stroman Win 2011 Astaire Awards

Sutton Foster and Norbert Leo Butz were named Broadway’s Best Female and Male Dancers at the 29th annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards, held on May 15 at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Foster, a previous winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie, received her second Astaire Award for her performance as Reno Sweeney in the Broadway revival of Anything Goes. Butz, a winner in 2005 for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, took home his second Astaire Award for his performance as FBI agent Carl Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can.

Susan Stroman won her fifth Astaire Award as Best Broadway Choreographer for her work in The Scottsboro Boys. For their work in Mao’s Last Dancer, Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon won the Astaire for Excellence in Choreography in Film. In addition, Jacques d’Amboise received the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Astaires are the only awards to recognize excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film. The first Adele Astaire Scholarship went to 17-year-old former Billy Elliot star Corey Snide, who will enter Julliard in fall 2011.