Stepping Out to a Celebration of Dance

All who love the to-be Dance Gallery will be kicking up their heels at the ground-breaking Sunday on the site--Fourth Street and Grand Avenue. Artistic director and founder Bella Lewitzky, whose ardor for dance in Los Angeles has never waned, will be front and center. More than 25 California dance companies will fill upper Grand Avenue with dance, beginning at 2:30 p.m. They include the New Repertory, Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble, Shale/Mary Jane Eisenberg, Sarah Elgart and Company, Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, Big Flood, San Francisco Ballet, Lewitzky Dance Company, Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers, UCLA Dance Company.

Such civic leaders as Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, Community Redevelopment Agency Chairman Jim Wood and California Arts Council Bob Reid will celebrate the inclusion of dance in the cultural renaissance of Los Angeles.

Actor Brock Peters and trustee Barbara Bain, who is a ground-breaking chairman, along with Lenny Steinberg, will be on the podium.

Later, champagne and food will be provided by some generous restaurants and caterers--Pacific Dining Car, Stepps, the Biltmore Grand Bar, La Golondrina, Manjula’s Silvio’s Rococco, Colin Cowey-Fine Catering. Mrs. Virginia Olincy, head of the Andrew Norman Foundation, which has given the largest donation--$2 million--will be there.

Soon, the $17.5-million center ($10 million in hand) for concert dance, designed by award-winning architect Arthur Erickson, will join the Museum of Contemporary Art at California Plaza, in downtown Bunker Hill. The Dance Gallery will house a 1,000-seat theater, an as-yet-unnamed institute for dance, a research library and a resident dance company. California Plaza also is including a four-star hotel in the Dance Gallery growth phase.

And, there’s rejoicing, too, in San Marino. Trustees, overseers and Director Robert Middlekauff of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens will celebrate the re-opening of Huntington Art Gallery at an invitational reception Sept. 23. The gallery is fresh, lovely and recuperated from the damage done in a fire last October. The gallery reopens to the public Sept. 30.

Jack Miles, I. Magnin’s premiere fine apparel buyer, is hosting his annual luncheon and fashion show for some of Los Angeles’s best-dressed today at the Bistro Garden Galleria. Paying personal tribute to friends and Magnin customers, he’ll toss in an informal showing of Valentino, Givenchy, Bill Blass, James Galanos, Mary McFadden and Oscar de la Renta. They all happen to be favorites with a certain chic group--Mrs. William Wilson, Mrs. Harrison Chandler, Mrs. Philip Fowler, Mrs. Charles Gold, Mrs. Maxson Smith, Mrs. Holmes Tuttle, Mrs. Emmett Jones, Mrs. William Garland, Mrs. Frank Kilroe, Mrs. Harry Laughlin, Mrs. H. Bradley Jones, Mrs. George Hillingser, Mrs. Freeman Gates, Mrs. Frank Duncan, Mrs. George Russell, Mrs. S. J. Gaido, Mrs. Harlan Amstutz, Mrs. William Clayton, Mrs. Bernard Ridder, Mrs. Bruce Murchinson, Mrs. Curtis Tamkin, Mrs. Crittendon Taylor, and more and more.

The Friends of French Art join Neiman-Marcus for afternoon tea and the premiere showing of the Baccarat Museum Collection at 4 p.m. Sept. 22 in the Neiman-Marcus Club Room in Beverly Hills. It’s a “Garden Gala.”

Still in a patriotic mood, the Pasadena Planned Parenthood will salute Lady Liberty on Sept. 20 when they go red, white and blue for dinner and dancing at the home of Annabelle and David Dahl. They’ll dance under the stars to Dean Bottdorf’s Orchestra, benefiting the medical and educational programs for clinics in Pasadena, San Gabriel, Monrovia and Azusa. Trader Joe’s Markets is donating the wine, Jacob Maarse the posies.

That all is a plus for the fund job: already $50,000 is in from patrons, due to the diligence of Angie O’Brien, benefit chairman; Pat Bakaly, president; Joan Caillouette, patron chairman, and Amytis Barrett, Jennith Knox, Mary Kay Brashares, Dorothy Gantvoort, Barbara Johnson, Ann Melbye, Louise Eldred, Pat Bakaly, Kathy Gillespie, JoAnn Taylor, Mary Carver, Barbara Steinwedell, Jane Winckler, Beth Calleton, Andrea Walker, Shirley Mauller and Mignon Henriques.

It’s official: “Henri the 80th!” Ernest and Veronica Chambers lent their home for the kick-off party a few days ago to announce the gala chamber music celebration and tribute to Henri Temianka Oct. 14 at the Beverly Wilshire. Already more than half the tickets are gone. Committee members include the Ray Bradburys, the Chester Lappens, the Norman Cousins, Saul Pick, the Herbert Glasers, the Henry Mancinis, the Vincent Prices, Stender Sweeney, Franklin Murphy, Efrem Zimbalist, Frederick Waingrow and the Bennett Wolfs. Immediately after the party, Temianka left for China to be guest of honor for the first Peking International Youth Violin Competition Sept. 18-29. He’ll conduct master violin classes during his visit. Not only is he a world-class violinist and conductor, but he also founded the California Chamber Symphony Society in 1961, and it will benefit from the upcoming festivity. That night Isaac Stern, Dudley Moore, Antoinette Perry, John Perry, Janos Starker, Nathaniel Rosen, The Romeros and Roger Wagner are expected to serenade Temianka in a unique chamber program. Veronica Chambers, dinner chairman, says “the celebration will be a fitting tribute.” Tickets are $250.

Spotlights:

Mrs. Thurmond Clarke and Mrs. Henry T. Segerstrom, founder and founding chairman of the board of directors of the Research Associates, and board members, including Mmes. William P. Ficker, Andrew Morthland, Edward Schumacher, Douglas Liechty, James Swinden and James Roosevelt, hosted a tour of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at UC Irvine this week and a luncheon later at the University Club . . .

Emmy Award-winning actress Mariette Hartley and Academy Award winning art director-production designer Gene Allen have been named co-chairmen of the 1987 Permanent Charities Committee Campaign. They’ll be introduced next Thursday at the 42nd annual campaign luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. Pledges to last year’s campaign exceeded $2.5 million. Since its inception in 1940, the group has distributed $66 million to charities. . . .

Now that the races are over at Del Mar, the Roy Rubens (Cecilia P. Straub-Rubens) will be at home in Irvine a few weeks before moving to Rancho Mirage for winter sun. Nearly 150 joined them at Mille Fleurs restaurant during the racing season for their annual race bash, this year spotlighting Bill Shoemaker on his 55th birthday. Among friends, Cindy Shoemaker, Charles and Peggy Whittingham, Bob and Betty Strub, Natalie and Ed Friendly, Dorothy and Sidney Factor, Lynn and Clement Hirsch and Betty and John Mabee. . . .

Benefit Barrage:

The Arthritis Foundation of Southern California will feature a performance of members of the Joffrey Balllet at their black-tie Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award Dinner Friday evening in the Century Room of the Century Plaza. Wyman will present the award to immediate past-chairman and long-time foundation leader Philip S. Magaram. Hosts are Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. . . .

Stephen and Kitty Moses invited 100 to their Brentwood home this week to reveal plans for the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race tribute dinner Dec. 10 at the Century Plaza. The affair salutes Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman of Leo Baeck Temple and establishes the Leonard I. Beerman Peace and Justice Fund. On the dinner committee are Fred Segal, Marjorie and Michael Fasman, Judi and Gordon Davidson, Marilyn and Alan Bergman and the Marvin Schachters.