Leading lady Vanessa Williams is Nevada Ballet Theatre’s Woman of the Year
When you first meet gorgeous Vanessa Williams, you are mesmerized by her extraordinary eyes. They captivate and pierce right to your heart and soul. It’s an instant hypnosis of love at first sight, but strangely enough I had to talk with the singer, actress, author, model and fashion designer about … her feet.
Glamorous Vanessa will be honored as Woman of the Year at the 33rd Annual Nevada Ballet Theatre Black & White Ball on Saturday at Aria. With a career at the top of the entertainment industry for 28 years, Vanessa doesn’t hide the fact that she’s 53 and as beautiful as ever.
NBT co-founder Nancy Houssels said: “As our 2017 Woman of the Year honoree, we will celebrate not only Vanessa’s artistic talents but also her giving spirit with her work for charities, especially Special Olympics, where she has served on its board for over 20 years.
“She is a well-respected artist whose versatile career path and longevity is one to be admired. Growing up immersed in music and dance, Vanessa’s ambitions and drive forged an amazing career.”
As a singer, Vanessa was at the top of the charts, and three albums earned multiple Grammy nominations: “The Right Stuff,” “Comfort Zone” and “Sweetest Days.” Her 2009 album “The Real Thing” won her a NAACP Outstanding Jazz Artist nod.
Vanessa is known for her hits “Save the Best for Last,” “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas” and “Love Is” with Brian McKnight. She earned a Tony nomination for her role as “The Witch” in “Into the Woods” and was a box office sensation when she replaced Chita Rivera in “Kiss of the Spider-Woman.”
As a silver-screen actress, she debuted in the 1986 film “Under the Gun” and followed with “Shaft” and Disney’s “Hannah Montana.” She starred in 1998’s “Dance With Me,” which showcased her ballroom and Latin dance acumen. She received three Emmy nominations during her run in “Ugly Betty.”
Her TV resume also includes “Desperate Housewives” and “The Good Wife.” She’s currently filming a Barbara Walters-type role in “Daytime Divas” for VH1 based on the book Star Jones wrote about her departure from “The View.” Her clothing line V for Vanessa was launched last year.
The 2012 book she co-authored with her mother, “You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter and Her No Nonsense Mother,” was a New York Times bestseller. There are two fascinating Las Vegas connections tied to Vanessa’s appearance at the gala:
Longtime friend David Weinreb, CEO of Howard Hughes Corp. — developer of the 22,500-acre master-planned community Summerlin and its crown jewel, Downtown Summerlin, a 106-acre retail, dining and entertainment destination in the heart of the community — is dinner chairman.
Vanessa and David attended grade school together and were star leads in their high school stage orchestra. Broadway director Randy Slovacek will introduce her; they were music theater majors together at Syracuse and performed as a song-and-dance duo.
Vanessa follows an impressive list of arts and entertainment icons named Woman of the Year, among them Celine Dion (2004), Twyla Tharp (2008), Marie Osmond (2009), Bette Midler (2010), Eva Longoria (2012), Debbie Allen (2015) and Olivia Newton-John last year.
Funds raised from the gala support a variety of endeavors, including the professional company ballet productions at NBT’s performance home at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, plus dance program initiatives for at-risk youth serving more than 20,000 students a year.
When she accepted the invitation, Vanessa said: “What an honor! This event will be the culmination of my love for the arts and the achievements in my career. Dance has been a part of my life from the very beginning.”
And that’s where our Q+A started and the subject of her feet arose: “You’re talking about my eyes, but my feet are the worst feature on my body. I probably started having bad feet as a dancer.
“Most of my years in training were in modern dance, which were all barefoot. I started ballet when I was 3 years old. It was a local recreational program, not formal ballet but modern creative dance. The ballet was in third grade outside New York City, a year of ballet with a fantastic Russian teacher.
My mom knew that I had a talent, and I started with a contemporary modern dance school in Westchester. I danced all the way until I graduated high school, then majored in musical theater in college. Mostly modern but certainly several years of ballet and tap later.
People don’t realize the pain that dancers endure. They get injured, they break arches, their toes bleed — what was the worst that happened to you?
A back injury. When I was in college doing a show, I had to do a lift, a sit lift where you jump up and your guy behind you is holding your waist and you jump up and you end up sitting on his shoulder. Unfortunately, my partner didn’t quite have me strongly enough, so I wound up flipping off his shoulder and wrenched my back.
It’s one of those injuries in the lower back that just never goes away, especially when I get stressed or overworked. It’s easy to get a wrench in it, but that’s how Pilates became so popular because it originally was used for injured dancers. I started studying Pilates 30 years ago when nobody knew what it was. The postures helped to rehabilitate hips, the lower back and arms.
Today it’s a fitness phenomenon, which is fantastic, but back in the day, it began just for dancers. I look back, I played a dancer in “Dance With Me,” which is about ballroom dancing. I got a chance to learn ballroom dance particularly for that movie. That was in 1997, and I look at what I was doing, and it takes my breath away to watch what I used to be able to do.
Do you still have back pain from the accident?
Not on a daily basis, just if I’m working too hard or if I wrench it again. It’s a recurring thing. You aren’t about to see me en pointe.
This is a special visit to Las Vegas because you’re reuniting with two guys with whom you went to school.
Yes. Randy Slovacek, who will introduce me, we were musical theater majors together at Syracuse dancing and singing together. He works and lives in Las Vegas, so that’s a perfect combination. Then David Weinreb, who I’ve known since eighth grade, he’s on the NBT board and made the call to get me there.
David and I sang all over the world together as part of our high school orchestra here in Chappaqua where I still live. I wouldn’t be surprised if David ended up bursting out into song and inviting me up onstage to join him. I’ll be ready if that happens! I used to play French horn, and David had his own singing career when he was probably 11 or 12.
He had his own band, his own charts and arrangements. He would do these shows as a teenage wonder sounding exactly like Frank Sinatra. We had a swing band and could do up to 40 songs. The farthest we went was Caracas, Venezuela, on a high school exchange program one year. We ended up singing there, too.
So the showbiz bug bit quite early on?
Certainly in high school also doing the choreography, then productions in summer theater. When I began my major in musical theater, that’s when I knew that I could make a career out of singing and dancing and acting. Living in Westchester, I knew that my auditions were only a train ride away. But back then, I had no idea that winding up on Broadway, being on television and in films would happen in my lifetime.
Are you surprised at how far you came from school days?
I am surprised. I have tremendous gratitude and am in awe at how life takes you in places you never would’ve thought. I’m 53 right now, and you look back and say, “If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here.” So it’s amazing how you get here, but I’m happy to still be here and still be doing what I love.
I think you will be surprised at The Black & White Ball by the talent of the youngsters dancing here in Las Vegas. If you sat down with them after watching their performances, what advice would you give them?
Obviously they’re well trained, but I would urge them to travel and study. Whether it’s studying in New York; I still go to City Ballet twice a year. I’m the honorary chair for Complexions, which is an African-American multicultural modern ballet company.
Getting a chance to not only study with other people around the world but also touring around the world and seeing the world as a dancer is amazing. I would encourage them to find as many opportunities as they can to seize those moments and be able to see the world and dance all over because it’s a common language.
When I went to Cuba, one of the things that I did besides the normal sightseeing was going to see the modern dance company and their rehearsal, and it was unbelievable. I don’t speak fluent Spanish, but I understood what the choreographers were doing. I could feel the drums, and I could watch their movements, and it was spectacular.
What has ballet or dance given to you as, first of all, a woman and, secondly, as an entertainer?
As a viewer, to watch ballet is one of the most serene things that you can do in a theater. I absolutely love it. It’s so graceful, so beautiful, so enchanting. I love to be able to watch it. I’m just happy people are getting a chance to view serious, beautiful dance onstage and appreciate the beauty that it gives the world.
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David Perrico’s band will provide the music for The Black & White Ball, and radio DJ Chet Buchanan will handle auctioneer duties. Future Dance Students will perform a tribute to Vanessa, and NBT’s company also will perform. Before the ball, Vanessa will be feted at a VIP reception at Fendi at Crystals.
