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Twyla Tharp and San Francisco Ballet will receive The Jerome Robbins Award for excellence in the dance arts and New York City Center will receive the inaugural Floria V. Lasky Award on Friday, September 26, 2008 at a ceremony at New York City Center.

Tharp and SF Ballet will receive $100,000, and New York City Center will receive $25,000. The awards and dinner will precede the final program of City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, which will include a special tribute to Mr. Robbins and The Jerome Robbins Prize recipients. Past recipients of the awards include Jennifer Tipton, New York City Ballet, The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Tharp won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her choreography of Movin' Out, for which she was also nominated as a director. She also directed and choreographed the Broadway productions of The Times They Are A Changin' and Singin' in the Rain. She is also the recipient of two Emmy Awards, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the Astaire Award, and the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater.

San Francisco Ballet is America's oldest professional ballet company, and has been under the direction of Helgi Tomasson for more than two decades. This year, SFB celebrates its 75th anniversary.

New York City Center is the New York home to some of the country's leading dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre and Paul Taylor Dance Company. In addition to its dance offerings, New York City Center also produces the popular Encores! and Encores! Summer Stars musical theater series, and is the home of Manhattan Theatre Club.