(Long Island, N.Y.) Stars of stage and screen attended the 29th Annual Fred and Adele Astaire Awards for the best in dance on Broadway and film at the The Skirball Center at NYU located at 566 LaGuardia Place, Washington Square South on May 15th, 2011.
The star studded event was hosted by theatrical stars Bebe Neuwirth and Lee Roy Reams. Ms. Susan Stroman received an award for Best Choreographer on Broadway in a field of nine nominees for her magnificent work in “The Scottsboro Boys”. Stars Norbert Leo Butz and Sutton Foster were honored Best Dancers on Broadway. Mao’s Last Dancer’s Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon were honored for Best in Film.
Cognac Wellerlane interviews Ava Astaire at the 29th Annual Fred and Adele Astaire Awards at the Skirball Performing Arts Center
Second-time Tony Award Winner Bebe Neuwirth presented the award to Ms. Stroman who has received five Astaire Awards, five Tony Awards and is a five-time Drama Desk winner. Sutton Foster, star of “Anything Goes”, took home her second Astaire for Best Female Dancer on Broadway for her exceptional performance as “Reno Sweeney”. Ms. Foster’s first Astaire was for “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. Desmond Richardson, Tony nominee for “Fosse” and co-founder and co-artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet presented the award to Sutton Foster.
Norbert Leo Butz, star of “Catch Me if You Can”, received the award for Best Male Dancer on Broadway presented by Drama Desk winner and Tony winner Karen Ziemba. Australia’s Artist and Star Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon received an award for Excellence in Choreography in Film for their breathtaking dances in “Mao’s Last Dancer” presented by Tony Award winner Bill Irwin.
World-renowned legendary dancer, choreographer, dance instructor and founder of the National Dance Institute Jacques d’Amboise was the recipient of the 2011 Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was titled for the late drama critic Douglas Watt, co-founder of the Award with Fred Astaire. Following a fabulous performance of “Shall We Dance” by d’Amboise’s students at the National Dance Institute, Mr. Jacques d’Amboise’s children, Charlotte & Christopher d’Amboise and Brian Stokes Mitchell presented the award to Mr. d’Amboise.
Mr. d’Amboise was born as Joseph Jacques Ahearn in Dedham, Massachusetts. He started his career as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and later he choreographed ballets for the New York City Ballet.
As well as performing on stage in many famous ballets, Mr. d’Amboise appeared dancing in many notable films, including “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “Carousel” in 1956 where he performed the ballet role of the Starlight Carnival barker in Louise’s Ballet.
In 1976 d’Amboise founded The National Dance Institute. He has been instructing youngsters how to dance for the past thirty years. Recently a documentary film Mr. d’Amboise was involved in “He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin” received an Academy Award. The National Dance Institute program often combines art and music with studies of other cultures, histories, and literature offering a unique and comprehensive performing arts experience to students who attend.
Mr. d’Amboise has received many honors and awards, including 1990 MacArthur Fellowship, a Kennedy Center Honors Award, a National Medal of the Arts, a New York Governor’s Award and an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Boston College. Mr. d’Amboise has also received many other accolades, honors and awards for his excellence and contributions to dance education, such as the 7th Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities.
Cognac Wellerlane lnterviews the Broadway Stars at the 29th Annual Fred and Adele Astaire Awards.
Before the awards ceremony I had a chance to chat with daughter Ava Astaire and Patricia Watts who produced the event. Ms. Astaire spoke candidly about her father, her life growing up in Hollywood and her favorite film that he danced in. “Of all the films that your father danced in, do you have a favorite?” I inquired. “Yes my favorite was ‘Funny Face’ with Audrey Hepburn,” she expressed. “Did your mother and father have a lot of social events at their house,” I asked. “Well my mother died when I was twelve, so in the early years they had very quiet dinner parties, it would be people like Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. They were not too much involved in the movie community. Some of the people I did grow up knowing were like Clark Gable and Gene Kelly,” revealed Ms. Astaire.
The Douglas Watt Family Fund for the Performing Arts is the charitable fund of The Astaire Awards. The organization was founded in 1982 under the auspices of Mr. Fred Astaire. Each year the annual awards show is presented by Ava Astaire in tribute to her father, and aunt Patricia Watt in tribute to her father Douglas Watt, a renowned drama, dance and music critic. The Astaire Awards each year pays homage to excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film.
The very first Adele Astaire Scholarship Award was received by seventeen-year-old former “Billy Elliot” star Corey Snide who was accepted to Julliard this Autumn. Joe Lanteri, Executive Director of the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation expressed “As Ava Astaire mentioned earlier, together we’ve established a new scholarship, an award that bears the name of ‘Adele Astaire’..that will be given for the first time ever tonight. to a young man I first met when he was nine years old and training in a local studio in Albany. He has grown up through the NYC Dance Alliance. He’s now 17 and was just accepted to the Juilliard School for the fall of 2011. This is someone we will all be keeping an eye on, for years to come.” After, Corey Snide performed a fast paced tap solo before receiving the Scholarship Award by another famous tapper Maurice Hines.
The awards ceremony closed with a performance of “Stomp To My Beat” by the young students of David Sanders Dynamic Dance Company with a standing ovation.
The Nominating Committee Chair for this year was Sylviane Gold. Committee members included: Anna Kisselgoff, Damian Woetzel, Wendy Perron, Manny and Lani Azenberg, Donna McKechnie, Lee Roy Reams, Wendy Federman, Barbara and Buddy Freitag, Michael Riedel, Marge Champion, Margaret Selby, Melinda Atwood, Bryan Bantry, Adam Zotovich, Andy Sandberg and Bruce Michael.
The Awarding Committee included: Sylviane Gold, Anna Kisselgoff, Wendy Perron, Lee Roy Reams and Damian Woetzel.
Executive Producer: Patricia Watt; Co-Producer: New York City Dance Alliance; Associate Producer, Bronwen Carson.
Cognac Wellerlane interviews the nominees for the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards and Cory Snide from “Billy Elliot”
From NYC Dance Alliance contributors and supporters included Joe Lanteri, Executive Director, Leah Brandon, Managing Director, Travis Fritsche, General Manager, Alex Marcos, Production Manager. Writer, Jenny Lynn Bader, Videographer, Allison Schultz, Stage Manager, Pat Thomas; Assistants to the Producer Christina Nieto and Lorna Ventura.
Generous sponsors included NYC Dance Alliance, Capezio and Back Stage Magazine.
Honorary Chairs were Judith Jamison and Wendy Federman Awards. Gala Co-Chairs were Carolyn Kendall Buchter, Cassandra Seidenfeld Lyster and Bruce Michael. Benefit Co- Chairs were Sara Kaplan Johnson, and Jamie Watkins.
Gala Committee included Jennifer Bank, Raymond Capodanno, Joyce Chasen, Ursula Deljian, Victoria Detiger, Missy Echeverria, Elyse Emmer, Wendy Federman, Terri Gold, Regina Kravitz, Jacqueline Marks, Alix Michel, Coryn Nadeau, Melinda Paltrow, Nancy Pearson, Scott Perrin, Scarlett Pildes, Randi Rahm, Kat Schaffer, Jennifer Taylor and Andrew Wargo.
Honorary Committee included: Mr. and Mrs. Richard Adler, Jean Claude Baker, Bob Balaban, Marisa Berenson, Anna Bergman, Patricia Birch, Marge Champion, Arlene Dahl, Jacques D’Amboise, Gracielle Danielle, Eve Ensler, Jules Fisher, Mario Fratti, Mitzi Gaynor, Savion Glover, Joel Grey, Anne Jackson, Susan Jaffee, Arthur Laurents, Rob Marshall, Donna McKechnie, Joey McKneely, Jerry Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Phyllis Newman, Marsha Norman, Robert Osbourne, Jane Powell, Dick Moore ,Harold Prince, Rex Reed, Ann Reinking, Donald Saddler, Liz Smith, Richard Thomas, Sergio Trujillo, Karen Ziemba and Eli Wallach.
For more information, please visit www.theAstaireAwards.org.
Guests, media and TV executives attended Univision’s Upfront Reception Featuring Hispanic America’s Most Beloved Stars at the Edison Ballroom in New York City on Thursday May 19, 2011.
In San Antonio in 1961 the Spanish-language network Univision began as a small TV station with millions of viewers tuning in each week. Now the Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications Inc. has grown quicker than any other broadcast network on television.
“There’s a tremendous amount of demand for more Spanish-language and Hispanic programming here in the United States,” revealed Univision President Cesar Conde.
The Latin community is searching for a wide genre of programming similar to any English network including news, information and entertainment with a stimulating growing cultural relevance for its’ audience.
Cognac Wellerlane interviews Univision’s Upfront reception featuring Hispanic America’s Most Beloved Stars at The Edison Ballroom on May 19, 2011 in New York City
Spanish-language soap operas, known as telenovelas are broadcasted during primetime every night of the week. As for Spanish actors Conde reveals, “Starring in a telenovela can be the apex of their career – what starring in a Hollywood blockbuster is for English-speaking actors.”
“We have our George Clooney, our Brad Pitt, our Angelina Jolie – every single night,” Conde revealed.
The now sophisticated Univision network strikes its viewers as more international than some English-language networks.
“A lot of our audience is coming to us because they want to know what’s going on in their country of origin. That gives us a little bit of a different perspective, I think,” Conde informs.
Univision Communications Inc. now has plans to launch three new cable television channels in the following year to satisfy the growing Latino market and diversify its revenues. Univision will be offering a sports channel, another channel devoted to news and information and a third will showcase the spicy Spanish-language soap operas, or telenovelas which the network was originally famous for.
Latin celebrities that attended included: Ana Patricia Gonzalez Charytin Emilio Estefan, Giselle Blondet, Ilia Calderon, Lili Maria Elena Salinas, Raul de Molina and Satcha Pretto.
On Thursday, May 19th, 2011 notable acclaimed artistic creatives from around the globe gathered to receive and celebrate the 52nd annual glamorous CLIO Awards at the Museum of Natural History on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Comedian Lewis Black hosted and entertained the audience with laughs as the prestigious winners accepted their awards on stage.
The biggest winner of the evening was a campaign for American Express entitled “Small Business Saturday,” which Black described as “bleeding-edge, barrier-breaking work.” The campaign received a Grand CLIO for its amazing Content as well as the Special Recognition Award for Facebook Integrated Media. The unusual campaign was produced for AMEX, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Digitas Inc. American Express executive Leslie Berland, accepting the Facebook Integrated Media award for the group, revealed “Over 1.2 million people in three weeks created a national day. This shows you what the power of a great idea, fantastic team and Facebook can do.”
I had a chance to chat with world-renowned Director Joe Pytka who was presented with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mr. Pytka is best known for his commercial projects on Pepsi’s “Archeology”, McDonald’s “Nothing but Net,” Nike’s “Bo Knows” and the “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” spots. After receiving his award he revealed to the audience that he was very touched and that his award really belonged to the agencies that fight so hard for their concepts, so that he can have all the fun. “This has been a great ride, and it’s all because of what these guys do.” In asking what the future holds, Pytka revealed “Just work hard and respect the people you work with.”
Cognac Wellerlane interviews Lifetime Achievement Winner and Renowned Director Joe Pytka as well as other winners at the 2011 Clio Awards
The CLIO Awards is one of the world’s most respected award ceremonies for excellence in advertising, design and communications. The CLIO Awards mission is to celebrate and reward creative excellence, honoring all influential forms of communication and its’ impact on today’s culture. As the world evolves the CLIO Awards remains focused on altering with the industry in order to acknowledge the most current, breakthrough talent. To this day, CLIO’s iconic statue is the most widely recognized and coveted symbol of the industry’s creative accomplishments.
Here is a list of this year’s CLIO Winners:
GRAND CLIO WINNERS
Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Digitas
Content & Contact
American Express, “Small Business Saturday” (case study)
@radical.media
Interactive
Arcade Fire/Google Chrome, “The Wilderness Downtown”
JWT
Design
Environmental Human Rights Watch
Jung von Matt AG
Innovative Media
WWF
WINNER’S CIRCLE
Agency of the Year: AlmapBBDO
Network of the Year: BBDO
Advertiser of the Year: Nike
Production Company of the Year: Smuggler
HONORARY AWARDS
Lifetime Achievement Award: famed commercial director Joe Pytka
Honorary CLIO: Phil Rosenthal producer and director, Everybody Loves Raymond
HALL OF FAME
BBDO: Pepsi, “Archeology”
Fallon: BMW of North America, “The Hire”
For more information please visit www.clioawards.com.
