Caitlin Carter, Allen Greenberg, Bebe Neuwirth, Allen Brill, and Patricia Kennedy at the Career Transition for Dancer's annual gala.

Dance Rocks, the glittering benefit for Career Transition for Dancers, played to a packed house at New York’s City Center with an evening of dance set to music through the decades, from the 50s to hip hop. They were celebrating the 22nd Anniversary of the organization. Co-chairs were Patricia Kennedy and Allen Brill, CEO and President of Rolex USA, plus a glamorous group of co-chairs. Alexandra Lebenthal and Anka Palitz The gala featured a star studded line up of including Charlotte d'Amboise, Christine Ebersole, Ben Vereen Melissa Manchester, Tommy Tune, Benji Schwimmer (winner from the hit TV show "So You Think You Can Dance") and special appearances by artists from American Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet San Jose, Dance Theatre of Harlem's Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble, Dancing Wheels, DP ONE, Miguel Frasconi, The Joffrey Ballet, KR3T’S, Kathleen Marshall, Elizabeth Parkinson, Parsons Dance Company, Keith Roberts, John Selya, Jason Samuels Smith, Mr. Wiggles, Wylliams/Henry Danse Theatre. Highlights of the evening - and there were oh so many - included an opening number of melded Celtic tunes, rap, hip hop and ballet; a sexy and sensual duet to the Bette Midler classic; the enchanting wheelchair-bound Marcy Verdi-Fletcher floating around the stage to R Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”; Gnarls Barkley’s “You Make Me Crazy” performed with grand jetes; San Jose Ballet’s fascinating tribute to, Elvis Presley; David Parsons’ athlete/ dancers and a delicate ballerina dancing En Pointe to James Brown. The thrilling evening produced and directed by the brilliant Ann Marie DeAngelo and written by Deborah Grace Winer. Christine Ebersole was dazzling and funny. Anka K. Palitz received the CTFD Award for her long and outstanding support of dance.

Ann Van Ness, Anka Palitz, Patricia Kennedy, Bebe Neuwirth, and Janice Becker

Charlotte D’Amboise presented a similar award to The Jerome Robbins Dance Foundation. Kathleen Marshall introduced dancers who had moved on to new careers with the help of CTFD. Later Tommy Tune introduced Rolex Award winner Bebe Neuwirth to thunderous applause. Allen Brill and Fe Fendi Twyla Tharp, though not there, was a star of the night as well. The program included excerpts from her “Sinatra Suite,” danced with cool elegance by Misty Copeland and Jose Manuel Carreño of  American Ballet Theater, and Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out,” performed by Elizabeth Parkinson and Keith Roberts from the original Broadway cast. After the show, it was off to the Dancing with the Dancers gala supper and auction where an invitation to the famed Vanity Fair was won for a whopping $31,000 and that was just to get in! Jeweler Aaron Basha won a London theater trip for $22,000. Reservations to Rao’s – not including dinner – but definitely including transportation in Mitzi Perdue’s custom made chauffeured Stealth Van was acquired for $13,000. They raised $1.165 million. At 1AM the dance floor was still packed and not just with the dancers but their elegant supporters who partied til the wee hours. Thanks to support from Rolex, Conde Nast, The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Jubilee sponsors Anka Palitz, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, Dance Magazine and Pointe and Neiman Marcus the evening was almost completely underwritten.

Allen Greenberg and Caitlin Carter

Christian Zimmerman, Janice Becker, Fe Fendi, and Richard Kielar

Barbara Taylor Bradford, Janice Becker, and Roberta Silbert

Ann Van Ness, Anka, Palitz, and Peter Lyden

Caroline Lieberman

Christian Zimmerman and Linda Stocknoff

Ginny Mancini

Dinner chairs Southampton.s Janice and Stuart Becker

Christine Ebersole, Ben Vereen, Bebe Neuwirth, and Melissa Manchester

Kathleen Marshall, Cynthia Fischer, Charlotte D'Amboise

Sandy Lazar, Nicole B. Brewer, Mercedes Ellington, and Linda Stocknoff

Patricia Kennedy and her jeweler Laurence Krashes

Arlene Cooper and Allen Greenberg

Barbara Taylor Bradford and Robert Bradford

A couple of weeks ago, Grace Outreach held a cocktail benefit at the Lotos Club at 5 East 66 Street. Based in the South Bronx, Grace Outreach assists low-income women who have dropped out of high school to earn their high school equivalency diploma (GED), and successfully transition to college, quality vocational training or employment.

Patty Davis Raines, Paul McMenamin, and Sonja Morgan

Michelle Smith and Andrew Oshrin

Education is the platform for everything that we do in a community with enormous challenges, including the highest  level of poverty and high school drop out rate in New York City. Over 70% of the Grace Outreach students are single mothers. The organization is a results-oriented “second chance charter school,” combining a rigorous high-quality education with individualized support. Since 2004, Grace Outreach has helped over 200 women transform their lives, families and community. To learn more, please visit: www.graceoutreachbronx.org [1].

Caroline Halversen, Lisa D'Urso, and Margaret Grace

Elizabeth Davidson, Bruce Colley, and Teresa DeSequera

Lara Fieve Portela with Douglas and Hope Wu

Darlene Jeris and John P Loughlin

Holly Kelly, James McVeigh, and Alexandra McBride

Carlos Morales, Begonia Santos El Koury, and Stephen Davidson

Juancho Munos Rojas, Dr. Carlos Cordon Cardo, Bogonia Santos El Koury, Alicia Bouzan-Cordan, Jaime El Koury, and Carlos Morales

Alonso Cervera and Karla Pizana Cervera

Alexander and Eliza Bolen with Begonia Santos El Koury and Jaime El Koury

Chris and Sarah Blundin with Kamie and Richard Lightburn

Maria Crawley Bayazid, Mr. Bayazid, Margaret Grace, and Ray Albright

Patricia Montgomerie, Mrs. J. Peter Grace, Ann Sears, and Ann Peabody

Ulrica Lanaro, Alessandro Lanaro, and Karla Cervera

Sonja Morgan, Scott Greathead, and Patty Davis Raines

This past Monday at the boutique on Fifth Avenue, ESCADA hosted a luncheon for “VIPs” as a pre-event to the New York Botanical Garden Winter Wonderland Ball. During the luncheon, they presented the SS08 collection to the guests.    The guests included Byrdie Bell, Alexis Bryan, Cristina Cuomo, Martin Dawson, Whitney Fairchild, Minnie Mortimer Gaghan, Emma J.P. Goergen, Zani Gugelmann, Nathalie Kaplan, Christian Leone, Elizabeth Meigher, Gillian Miniter, Dalia Oberlander, Charlotte Ronson, Alexandra Lind Rose, Gillian Hearst Simonds, and Adelina Wong Ettelson.

Chessy Wilson and Byrdie Bell

Dalia Oberlander, Jamie Korey, and Gillian Hearst Simonds

Lydia Fenet

Cena Jackson, Sarah Basile, and Martin Dawson

Dani Stahl, Charlotte Ronson, and Ali Wise

Cristina Greeven Cuomo, Charlotte Ronson, and Ali Wise

Cristina Greeven Cuomo and Emma J.P. Georgen

Lara Meiland-Shaw and Cena Jackson

Tamzin Greenhill, Lily Maddock, and Karen Larrain

Gregory Long and Nathalie Kaplan

Adelina Wong Ettelson, Gillian Miniter, and Kim Hicks

Larry DeParis and Alexis Bryan

Minnie Mortimer and Christian Leone

Jamie Korey, Gillian Hearst Simonds, and Dalia Oberlander

Cyndi Lauper and playwright Eve Ensler were the honorees at the 37th Anniversary Gala of The Feminist Press at the City University of New York a week ago last Monday at Tavern On The Green. More than 300 attended and they raised more than $200,000. Barbara Smith (B. Smith) was emcee. There was also a film and reading celebrating the lives of two recently deceased American masters, Tillie Olsen and Grace Paley.  Kathleen Chalfant, OBIE award winner for her role in the play Wit, will also read from the works of Grace Paley.

Sue Rosenberg Zalk honorees

Also attending: Tyne Daly, TV's Judge Maria Lopez, Tony Award winner Sarah Jones, Marilyn French, NYC Deputy Mayor Dennis Wolcott. Matthew Goldstein, the Chancellor of The City University of New York since 1999, presented Sue Rosenberg Zalk Awards to the nine women Presidents or Deans of CUNY who have been instrumental in making CUNY – the nation’s largest urban public university – a model of diversity, opportunity, and academic excellence.   Corporate leaders from Colgate-Palmolive, IBM, and Ernst & Young, LLP received Crossing Borders Awards. Honorees included Philip A. Berry, Linda S. Sanford and Billie I. Williamson.

/CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein

Kathleen Chalfant

Honorary co-chairs of the event included social critic and bestselling author Barbara Ehrenreich, film actress-activist Jane Fonda, and beloved comedienne Lily Tomlin and her partner, writer Jane Wagner. The Gala benefits The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, the oldest continuing women’s publisher in the world.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Philip Berry

Fem Press Founder and Publisher Florence Howe and Kathryn Waldron, President of Baruch College, CUNY

Oxygen Media President of Programming and Marketing Deborah Beece and Cyndi Lauper

B Smith and Judge Maria Lopez

Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Jacobs, and Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler and Sarah Jones

Karen Berry, Philip A. Berry, Matthew Goldstein, and Maggie Goldstein

Eduardo Marti, President of Queensborough Community College, CUNY and Mrs. Marti

Florence Howe and Eve Ensler

Gloria Jacobs and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott

Tyne Daly and Dolores Fernandez

Sade Baderinwa, anchor of WABC's Eyewitness News and Britni Lindsay of Figure Skating in Harlem Judge Maria Lopez, Barneys New York Creative Director Simon Doonan, WABC-TV’s Bill Ritter and Sade Baderinwa will joined the Catalog for Giving in honoring ten young New York City “Urban Heroes” at its annual benefit dinner late last month at Pier Sixty at the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex (23rd Street). WABC-TV’s Bull Ritter was host. Honorees included prominent real estate attorney Nick Donovan and a former Urban Hero who now serves as Park Director and Co-Director of Programs at Open Road of New York, Nando Rodriguez. More than 600 attended and they raised more than $600,000. For 12 years, the Catalog for Giving of New York City has chosen Urban Heroes from the innovative programs it supports. The Catalog funds organizations serving at-risk youth in New York City for a period of three years.

Judge Maria Lopez with Urban Heroes

The event honored participants in Added Value & Herban Solutions; CitySquash; Community-Word Project; Figure Skating in Harlem; Free Arts NYC; Global Action Project; iMentor; Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE); Urban Dove; and Youth Advocacy Center.   For more information, visit www.urbanheroes.org [7].

Asmaou Diallo of Global Action Project with family

Board President David Schulman and wife Joan with volunteer, Paulette Potaris

Corporate honoree, Nick Donovan, founder and senior partner of Donovan & Giannuzzi LLP

Event emcee, Bill Ritter, of WABC's Eyewitness News

Judge Lopez with Elizabeth De La Cruz from Added Value & Herban Solutions

Sade Baderinwa with Michael Wayne of Free Arts

Simon Doonan

Auction Bidders

Scully and Scully opened its beautiful new second floor, the former Christie's space, with a glamorous cocktail party and book signing for author Jamee Gregory's New York Apartments, Private Views, published by Rizzoli. Guests were dazzled by the cheery yellow walls, the fabulous collection of furniture, the sounds of Alex Donner's orchestra, and the warmth of host Michael Scully. With breathtaking views of Park Avenue as a backdrop and champagne in hand, the group admired the antiques, finding treasures for their own homes. While doubling the size of their space, Scully and Scully maintains its elegant style. Staff designers were on hand to help customers create their own New York apartments.

Jamee Gregory with Chris and Grace Meigher

Gianluigi and Adrienne Vittadini

Jamee Gregory and Laura McCloy

L. to r.: Alex and Kate Donner; Kathleen Lamborn, Bob Hardwick, and Marianna Baker; Michael Scully and Jamee Gregory

Jamee Gregory with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hickox

Wilbur Ross, Jamee Gregory, and Hilary Geary

Jamee Gregory and Somer Farkas

Photographs by Andre Beckles (NYHS & Urban)

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