A Moving Tribute to a Late and Great Genius of Choreography

I confess, dear hearts, that like every kid who’s ever polished a time step in dance class, I harbored a Walter Mitty fantasy of stepping out on stage someday in a chorus line. That’s the magic of such choreographers as Agnes DeMille, Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett. Although they’re gone, the legendary dances they created are still being performed around the world.

“Michael Bennett made such a difference in so many dancers’ lives, including mine,” said Tommy Tune, in accepting the posthumous tribute to his friend and colleague at the L.A. Shanti annual awards gala on June 26. “Michael hated the word ‘genius,’ and when they started using it, he would just get crazy. But that’s what he was . . . a genius.”

At the time of his death in 1987 at age 44, Bennett had already turned out “Promises, Promises,” “Coco,” “Company,” “Follies,” “Dream Girls” and his singular sensation, “A Chorus Line,” which won nine Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for drama. “When L.A. Shanti called me six months ago,” Tune said, “I said, ‘I’ll be there whenever or wherever it is.’ Michael was The One.”

Tune was among several alumni of Bennett’s productions, who appeared in the cabaret-style show staged at Century City’s Century Supper Club: Bea Arthur was there with “Ballroom” writer Billy Goldenberger; Michele Lee sang a selection from “Seesaw”; L.A.’s “Phantom” Davis Gaines; Terry Ralston; Harry Groener; Alyson Reed, Loretta Devine and Lillias White from “Dreamgirls”; and original cast members from “A Chorus Line,” Donna McKechnie, Cheryl Clark, Nancy Lane, Trish Garland, Ron Dennis, Fern Fitzgerald, Ron Kuhlman, Sammy Williams and Clive Wilson, who reprised Bennett’s triumph “One” for the finale. Singer Nell Carter emceed the doings, noting “I don’t do ensemble work. I am an ensemble work.”

The black-tie evening also honored the founder of Shanti (which means “inner peace” in ancient Sanskrit): Dr. Charles Garfield received the Daniel P. Warner Founders Award. In 1974, he was an author and clinical psychologist at UC San Francisco who came up with a simple idea: training volunteers to spend time supporting cancer patients, making the most of what he called the healing power of the human connection. In 1981, when AIDS became epidemic, his “Shanti model” was redirected to people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Two years later the program was inaugurated in Los Angeles by the late Daniel Warner.

“Over the past 17 years, 5,000 volunteers have changed more than 60,000 lives--one life at a time,” noted L.A. Shanti executive director Marc Haupert. “Our work is invisible; we deal with what’s in their hearts and their heads. That’s not the stuff that the government gives money for. AIDS prevention, emotional support and education are woefully underfunded. We are now moving into the third decade of the AIDS crisis. High school seniors have never known life without AIDS. It is estimated that in L.A. County there will be 2,000 new HIV infections in the year 2000.”

For longtime financial support, Jonathan C. Weedman, vice president of the Wells Fargo Foundation, received the Heartbeat of Giving Award.

“This is bittersweet,” he said. “I wish with all my heart that I was being recognized for something else. I wish that AIDS had never happened.”

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The evening, which yielded $100,000, had its humorous moments. When Weedman left his crystal award on the podium, Carter stashed it--gift box and all--in her ample decolletage. And nothing was funnier than watching 6-foot-6 Tommy Tune depart in a friend’s VW Bug.

“You wouldn’t believe the legroom in this thing,” he said with a pained smile.

Stuart Ross, creator of “Forever Plaid,” directed the show, which was conducted by Gerald Sternbach and produced by Pasadena Playhouse staffer Jason Raitt.

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Patt Diroll’s column runs on Tuesdays. She is at pattdiroll@earthlink.net.