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If you had $10,000 to burn, which choreographer would you choose to support? This is the premise of ''The A.W.A.R.D. Show!,'' though the title doesn't refer to the cash prize but is instead a rather torturous acronym: Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance. I'm not sure I know what that means, but it sounds ominous. Over three nights at the Joyce SoHo, 12 choreographers vie for audience votes, which are cast on little paper ballots; on the fourth night, the three finalists' works are performed again: the winner gets $10,000 and the runners-up $1,000 each. The other nine contestants, and their collaborators, walk away empty-handed. (It's an ugly downside to this contest, especially given that dancers and choreographers are rarely adequately compensated for their labor; even $10,000 quickly begins to seem like a small number when you do a realistic accounting of the hours and costs associated with making a piece.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]