The Career Transition’s for Dancer’s held a cocktail party at Ann Van Ness’s magnificent townhouse the night after the dinner had raised $400,000 and attracted the likes of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas. This organization was started by Anka Palitz 30 years ago and has since raised $17 million. As a Board member of the American Ballet Theater Anka was keenly aware of the hardships dancers encounter as they are extremely prone to injury with most career’s ending in their early 30’s.
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| Gigi Fisdell, Rick Rose and Anka Palitz – All photos Lieba Nesis |
Anka gathered a team of lawyers and doctors to ameliorate the dancer’s plight by providing them tools to engage in other disciplines. The organization will give $350,000 of the money raised to dancers for education and entrepreneurial grants. Palitz and Ann Van Ness organized this party to thank their Canadian friends for traveling to New York for the dinner and to celebrate the publication of dinner chair Rick Rose’s book entitled “Palm Beach: The Essential Guide to America’s Legendary Resort Town.”
I had the opportunity to peruse through Rose’s book and it is both informative and entertaining giving guests tips as to the best charity events to attend and some cultural hot spots. However, I did notice his advice on how to get tickets to the Red Cross Ball which he said costs $1,000; unfortunately, Anka told me the Ball has been canceled this year due to its prohibitive cost – so scratch that plan. The book has lovely photographs by Missy Janes and is a breezy way to welcome in the Palm Beach social season which Anka told me started last week and will end in March.
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| Geoffrey Bradfield, Baroness Gabriele Langer Von Langendorff and Paul Cardioe |
The crowd tonight was mostly a Palm Beach one with a couple of prominent New York faces in the crowd including Geoffrey Bradfield and Colleen Rein. There was Baroness von Langendorff in the crowd someone who appeared very Palm Beachy with her red bouffant and diamond and emerald necklace. She balked at having her picture taken but obliged nonetheless. There is very little royalty remaining in New York but at the few Palm Beach events I attended I ran into some counts and baronesses which is always a welcome change from just the mundane socialite.
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| Barbara Wolf, Patrick Mundt, Judy McLaren and Susan Bake |
There was even a “Milano” in the crowd, and I am not referring to the cookie, with Rudy Kaufmann traveling in from Milan, Italy for four days to attend the dinner and cocktail party for the dancers. After a birthday cake was presented to celebrate Patrick Mundt’s big day guests started to head home with Anka leaving for her flight to Palm Beach tomorrow to socialize for the next couple of months when New York becomes obsolete for the elite of Florida.
– Lieba Nesis
