2013
03/18/2013 - The Perlman Music Program Cocktails, Dinner and a Chamber Music Concert in Palm Beach
03/15/2013 - Asia Week New York Kick-off Reception at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
03/12/2013 - Third Annual Fountain House Associates Spring Breakfast: “Between The Sheets”
03/05/2013 - NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER’S FACES GALA HONORING LEON CHARNEY RAISED $4.5 MILLION
02/23/2013 - "I Have A Voice" fundraiser for Gigi's PLAYHOUSE
02/23/2013 - Eleventh Annual “Thanksgiving in February” Feeds over 500 of New York’s Needy
02/21/2013 - The French Heritage Society's Annual Palm Beach Gala Dinner
02/21/2013 - 24th Annual Gala of Heart & Soul Charitable Fund Auction at Christie’s
02/21/2013 - Eva Longoria Hosts Benefit for “Food Chains” Documentary - Exposes Exploitation in Am’s Farm Labor
02/13/2013 - Verdura hosts a fundraiser for“The Michael Feinstein American Songbook Initiative”
02/13/2013 - Lost and Found: The Pinajian Discovery, a benefit preview for the Fund for Armenian Relief
02/08/2013 - 56th Annual Red Cross Ball in Palm Beach
02/07/2013 - Lost and Found: The Pinajian Discovery benefit preview for the Fund for Armenian Relief
02/06/2013 - All Star Orchestra’s Preview Screening of their New Classical Music and On-line Education Television
01/29/2013 - Urban Greenwalk
01/23/2013 - The Perlman Music Program Fourth Charity Wine Auction
01/20/2013 - Budapest Festival Orchestra
2012
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2007
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National Dance Institute's Benefit Performance of Imagine: A Celebration of John Lennon
01/24/2010 - By New York, NY

National Dance Institute's Benefit Performance of Imagine: A Celebration of John Lennon

On January 24, 2010, over 700 guests enjoyed a special encore performance of National Dance Institute’s (NDI) IMAGINE: A Celebration of John Lennon at LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts Concert Hall in Manhattan.

Sgt. Pepper and 100 NDI advanced team dancers performed high-spirited choreography set to iconic Beatles’ music. NDI dancers explored the magic of Lennon’s music as they wove together vignettes of his life with original, energetic choreography.

Highlights of the performance included the excitement and hysteria surrounding the Fab Four’s appearance in America, the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous bed-in, and original choreography set to Imagine created with movement inspired by American Sign Language. Emmy and Oscar-winning actress Cloris Leachman and NDI founder Jacques d’Amboise led a tap-dancing chorus line in an original work choreographed by d’Amboise entitled “A Cloris Line,” set to the music When I’m 64.

Special guests in attendance included Yoko Ono, Allegra Kent, Erica Hill, Chris Wragge, Harry Belafonte, David Amram, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tom Hulce and Joe Reinstein. The Leadership Committee for the benefit performance included Chair Liz Hinden, Barbara Fedida Brill, I.B. Charneau, Lauren B. Cramer, Edith Fassberg, Babe Rizzuto, Pam Smilow, Tracy Straus, Rhana Tabouchirani and Ellen Weinstein. The performance of IMAGINE was generously supported by scünci, a division of Conair® Corporation and Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation/Arnold Penner & Larry Perse.

After the performance, NDI dancers had a special backstage visit from Yoko Ono. Ono thanked the children, answered their questions and shared stories about John Lennon. The young dancers presented Ono with the wishes of hundreds of NDI children that will be delivered to the Imagine Peace Tower, an outdoor work of art conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon on Viðey Island in Reykjavík, Iceland.

IMAGINE benefitted NDI and celebrated the 25th Anniversary of LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. For more than 20 years, National Dance Institute has partnered with LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, which serves as a home to NDI’s Advanced Team programs. Dancers, ages nine to 15, spend their Saturdays throughout the school year receiving free NDI dance training in LaGuardia High School’s 8th Floor studios. LaGuardia High School Concert Hall serves as the venue for NDI’s annual Event of the Year, a fully staged theatrical event that takes place in June.

Photos courtesy of Andrea & Associates


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