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Nancy Zeckendorf Launches Memoir “Small Town, Big Dreams”
“Dancing is singing with the body,” said Nancy Zeckendorf from the stage at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. The celebrated philanthropist and former Metropolitan Opera ballerina returned to New York City from Santa Fe, New Mexico for a week of events to launch her new memoir, “Small Town, Big Dreams.”
“I loved dancing to opera music and I love improvising to it. But you know, I wasn't dancing because I wanted to dance. No, I wanted to be the music. And much later, my teacher Antony Tudor said, ‘Dancing is singing with the body.’ That’s what I was trying to do.”
She was joined on stage by American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) newly appointed Artistic Director, Susan Jaffe, who shared, “When I first got into ABT, with Misha Golubitsky and Gelsey Kirkland there, I’d see them walking down the hallways — I didn’t close my gaping mouth for at least the first year. I could not believe I was there, that I could literally touch them … And when you think about it, Antony Tudor, Margaret Craske and Martha Graham; these icons were her teachers! These are the stories Nancy shares in her memoir.”
Nancy Zeckendorf’s audience included stepsons Artie Zeckendorf (with wife Elizabeth Zeckendorf) and William Zeckendorf III (and wife Anna Zeckendorf), ABT’s Sascha Radetsky and Stella Abrera, as well as Diana Byer, Candace and Frederick Beinecke, Penny
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Colman, Beverly D’Anne, Joan Duncan Oliver, Mercedes Ellington, Betti Franceschi, Magee Hickey, Judith Hoffman, Niel Hoos, Shelby Lamm, Ambassador Earle I. Mack, Ellie Manko Libby, Boulie and James Marlas, NYPL’s Jerome Robbins Dance Division Curator Linda Murray, Joan Duncan Oliver, Richard Osterweil, Liane Pei, Tara and Michael Rockefeller, Rosita Sarnoff, Ellen Rubin, Irene Shen and many more.
Nancy Zeckendorf’s book details a life on stage at The Old Met (formally known as The Metropolitan Opera House) at 1411 Broadway, where Nancy unveiled a commemorative plaque. Her memoir also details life after dancing; her philanthropic work and her marriage to her late husband, William Zeckendorf Jr.. Nancy and her stepson William Zeckendorf III unveiled the second plaque at Zeckendorf Towers by Union Square. Executive Director of the Union Square Partnership, Jennifer Falk, spoke to the importance of community and how Zeckendorf Towers remains one of the most influential draws for the Union Square neighborhood's continued growth and progressive development. Board President Melanie Wong shared that when she first moved to New York, Zeckendorf Towers was a building she passed on her commute daily, and dreamed of one day living in.
Photos by PMC Sean Zanni
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01. Anna Bender-Zeckendorf, Michael Rockefeller, Tara Rockefeller,
William Zeckendorf 02. Max Defrancesco, Kristina Allegra, Anthony Centineo and
Darren Judi 03. Christine Dobush and Ailina Fisk 04. Artie Zeckendorf and Nancy Zeckendorf 05. Cornelia Bregmanand Sue Bloomberg 06. Susan Jaffe and Richard Osterweil 07. Herman Krawitz, Nancy Zeckendorf andRichard Miller 08. Jennifer Falk, Nancy Zeckendorf, William Zeckendorf and
Melanie Wong 09. Irene Shen and Stella Abrera 10. Liane Pei and Lizanne Potamianos 11. Lynn Alexander and Chris Morris 12. Richard Osterweil, Grey Hirschfeld and Magee Hickey
