Nicole Mannarino, an Oakwood High School graduate, was named a recipient of the prestigious Bessie Award at the Apollo Theatre in New York on Monday night. The New York Dance and Performance Awards - known as Bessies — are the dance community’s highest honor.

Mannarino’s award for Outstanding Performance was presented “for her heroically serene, crystal-clear, mysterious, sweat-drenched and angelic execution of a rigorous 80-minute dance filled with metronomic and fearless striding, backwards into space in Sarah Michelson’s beautifully severe “Devotion Study #1 — The American Dancer” at the Whitney Museum’s Biennial.”

Based in Brooklyn, Mannarino studied locally with South Dayton School of Dance and is a graduate of the Alvin Ailey School of Dance at Fordham University. She recently returned from performing in London and is also a rock climber who teaches at the Manhattan Plaza Rock Wall.

The Lifetime Achievement Bessie Award went to Paul Taylor for helping to create the art of modern dance in America.

Local dancers can get into the act

“Ballroom with a Twist,” the second concert in the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra’s SuperPops series slated for Friday, Nov. 2 and Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Schuster Center will feature a local couple in one of its dancing segments.

The DPO has just announced an audition for a “Dancing for Your Seats Contest” in which the winning couple will win tickets to both ‘Ballroom with a Twist’ performances and will perform on stage as well.

“Ballroom with a Twist” is an international dance production conceived and choreographed by ABC-TVs Dancing with the Stars Emmy-nominated Louis van Amstel and incorporates Samba, Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, and Jive.

Dancers who’d like to join the pros on the Mead Theatre stage can audition from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Arthur Murray Dance Studio, 17 Prestige Plaza in Miamisburg. The judging will be done by Arthur Murray staff. For more information, contact the studio at (937) 291-2000.

Shaun Yu named president and CEO of WDPR

Shaun Yu, who has been serving as one of two interim co-general managers of Classical 88.1/WDPR since the June retirement of Georgie Woessner, has been selected as the station’s new President and CEO, effective immediately.

Yu, who was the station’s very first program director in 2007, came to Dayton from Portland, Oregon where he had been Morning Host/Producer at KBPS, Underwriting Coordinator for Portland Public Radio Underwriting Inc., and Program Director at KKJZ.

Linda Menz, who chaired the search committee for the station, said her team looked at close to 30 candidates from across the United States before making a decision.

Horrorama will raise funds for Alzheimer’s

The 16th Annual Horrorama Movie Festival will return to the Englewood Cinemas on Friday, Oct. 26. The evening will benefit The Miami Valley Alzheimer’s Association.

The schedule of films features the Dayton premier of the “Atomic Brain Invasion,” the 1985 gore-filled cult classic adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft’s story “Re-Animator;” “Creepshow,” George Romero and Stephen King’s tribute to the EC horror comics of the 1950s; and the 1986 rock and roll horror flick “Trick or Treat” with Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne. The fright fest ends with the Jim Van Bebber production “The Manson Family” which was shot in and around Dayton. There will also be screenings of horror trailers and short films.

Horrorama features a costume contest as well as a “zombie walking” and a screaming contest.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Films typically run until 4 a.m. on Saturday morning. Tickets are $13 in advance or $15 the day of the show. The theater is located at 320 W. National Road near K-Mart in Englewood.

More information on Horrorama can be found on Facebook by searching “Horrorama Dayton” or by calling the Englewood Cinema at (937) 836-0805.

Manet Exhibition

The Toledo Museum of Art is the only venue in the United States exhibiting “Manet: Portraying Life,” the first exhibit to focus on Édouard Manet’s portrait painting.

The artist, often called the father of modernist painting, is a contemporary of the Impressionists.

The exhibition showcases 40 paintings as well as photographs on loan from major museums in Japan, North America and Europe. Manet painted his family and friends in addition to literary, political and artistic figures, often in the context of everyday life. The point of departure for this exhibition is TMA’s Portrait of M. Antonin Proust (1880), acquired by Museum founder Edward Drummond Libbey in 1924.

The exhibit will be on display through Jan. 1. The only other venue for the show will be the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

For information: manet.toledomuseum.org

Ghosts and more

For the past seven years Leon Bey has been offering themed historic walking tours of downtown Dayton. This is the time of year for his ‘Ghosts, Cemeteries and Murders Walks’ and there are still slots available for Friday, Oct. 26, Saturday, Oct. 27 and Sunday, Oct. 28.

The last Ghost Walk of the season is slated for Friday, Nov. 2.

The walks last about two hours and cost $10 per person. You’ll need to make a reservation and there are optional refreshments available after the walk at a nearby restaurant. Check out www.gemcitycirclewalks.wetpaint.com