Kennedy Honors Add Dazzle to D.C.

Pop star Beyonce Knowles brought usually reserved Washingtonians to their feet Sunday night as she paid tribute to singer Tina Turner, one of five recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

As Knowles strutted across the stage “Tina-style,” performing Turner’s 1971 hit “Proud Mary” and wearing a gown once owned by the singer, the politicians, actors and musicians in the audience -- which included President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -- moved to the pounding beat.

The moment captured the mood of the star-studded weekend, when political and theatrical celebrities rubbed shoulders, dazzled audiences and set aside the politics that embroil the nation’s capital.

The honors, in their 28th year, celebrate lifetime contributions to the performing arts. This year’s recipients, in addition to Turner, were singer Tony Bennett, ballerina Suzanne Farrell, and actors Julie Harris and Robert Redford.

Bennett, 79, began singing at age 10 and still captivates audiences with his distinctive renditions of American standards.

As a star of the New York City Ballet, Farrell, 60, was recognized as the premier interpreter of George Balanchine’s innovative choreography. She heads a ballet company and continues to keep his works alive.

Although Harris, 80, had perhaps her widest audience on TV’s nighttime soap “Knots Landing,” her nuanced performances on Broadway garnered her more Tony Awards -- six -- than any other actress.

The craggy good looks of Redford, 68, helped him win leading roles in such classic movies as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men,” but his love of his craft -- and his strongly held belief that small films should have a chance to find an audience -- led him to establish the Sundance Institute, an incubator for independent films, a quarter-century ago.

Turner, 66, overcame an abusive marriage and decades of adversity to embody respect, renewal and raw sensuality in rock ‘n’ roll -- attributes acknowledged by the president at a White House reception Sunday afternoon. “People stand in wonder at the natural skill, the energy and sensuality, and the most famous legs in show business,” he said.

“Each of these honorees, in a lifetime of achievement, has set a standard of excellence that is admired throughout the world,” Bush said. “All of them have earned a unique place in the cultural life of the United States and a special respect among their fellow Americans.”

At a glittering dinner Saturday at the State Department, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) saluted the honorees as “the greatest gathering of talent since Thomas Jefferson dined alone” -- recalling a similar remark his brother President Kennedy made to a group of Nobel Prize winners at the White House in 1962.

On Sunday, Bush and his wife, Laura, feted the honorees before the evening’s big event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. CBS will broadcast the ceremony Dec. 27.

Redford sat in the presidential box as actor Paul Newman, with whom he appeared in “Butch Cassidy” and “The Sting,” made fun of his costar’s notorious problems with punctuality.

“The only reason he’s in the vicinity tonight is because they told him this whole thing was yesterday,” said Newman, a Kennedy Center honoree in 1993.

Then country singer Willie Nelson, an honoree in 1998, performed one of Redford’s favorite songs, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.”

Record producer Quincy Jones, a 2001 honoree, referred to one of Bennett’s biggest hits, “Fly Me to the Moon,” in his tribute Sunday. “Tony is the only one who knows how to fly us to the moon and get us back,” he said, calling Bennett “a soulful messenger of American songs.”

Farrell’s dance company, which is based at the Kennedy Center, honored its leader by performing a short ballet by Balanchine. Farrell performed on the same stage in 1978, when Balanchine was in the first group of Kennedy Center honorees.

To celebrate Harris’ roots on the Great White Way, Christine Baranski, Karen Ziemba, Leslie Uggams, Michele Lee and Tyne Daly sang “Broadway Baby” from the musical “Follies,” by Stephen Sondheim, an honoree in 1993.

And talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, describing herself as “Tina’s biggest known groupie,” advised the audience that there was nothing like seeing Turner in concert. “Add that to the list of things to do before you die,” she said.