His biggest movie credit has been playing himself in " A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa," but Mayor Bloomberg is set to share top billing with double Oscar-winner Meryl Streep. Hizzoner will team up next Monday with the legendary actress to co-host the Mayor's Awards for Arts & Culture at Alice Tully Hall.
Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has received a National Award for Citizen Diplomacy from the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy.
Matthew Rushing moves like butter. He blends beautifully in any group, but as a soloist has a presence that simply rocks. During his 18-year tenure at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, he has shone in such works as Ailey's Revelations, A Song for You, Blues Suite, Pas de Duke, Reflections in D, to name only a few.
Michelle Obama has often joked that she, President Obama, and their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, "live above the store." But one could also compare the White House to a beehive where, upon Mrs. Obama's encouragement, young creative talents are invited to cross-pollinate on the East Room stage.
Today, the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy anounced the seven recipients of it's 2010 National Awards for Citizen Diplomacy. Honorees are recognized for their extraordinary work to increase American citizen engagement in international affairs and their outstanding contributions in fostering cross-sultural understanding.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is currently on tour in the UK. It will be the last time it tours here under the stewardship of one of America's leading dancers and directors, Judith Jamison, who promises something unusual for her swansong.
"We could hear you, a little bit, upstairs," Michelle Obama said, one day last month, to the eighty children pulling down their leotard elastics over their small rear ends in the East Room of the White House. When she walked onstage, what looked like eighty children took pictures of her with their cell phones.
Though it was the day after Labor Day, "The White House Dance Series: A Tribute to Judith Jamison" began with a summer-camp air. Youngsters from nine arts programs around the country entered the crystal chandelier-hung East Room, often known for its grand state occasions, wearing a variety of T-shirts, workout clothes and tights.
"Dance is the soul of this nation!" Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, exclaimed on Tuesday afternoon in the East Room of the White House, at the end of a performance in her honor.
In the end, it was a wonder the three massive chandeliers gracing the White House East Room remained intact, given the high-voltage expenditure of human engery taking place beneath them.