Washington DC’s annual dance awards, “the local dance field’s three-year-old answer to the theater’s Helen Hayes Awards and the Washington Area Music Awards cannot yet be seen as anything other than a nice pat on the back among friends. For one thing, the dance groups in this town are so varied in size, budget, quality, visibility and numerous other factors that it seems unwise and unfair to lump them all together in categories such as outstanding group performance and outstanding overall production. How can the bulk of the troupes – shoestring operations composed of dancers who rehearse during time off from their day jobs – hope to prevail when lined up against the Washington Ballet, with its $5 million budget, ready rehearsal space, time-tested repertoire and large stable of splendidly trained, full-time dancers?”