(back row, l. to r.) Susan Jaffe; Nekia Wise; Asha Bacote; Hinton Battle; Charles S. Dutton; Daphne Rubin-Vega; Matthew Mabry; Syreeta Miller; (front row) Kiana Mitchell; Nikia Dickens; Shakiver Gordon; Emerald Knox; Sharaya Phillips

Nekia Wise, 25, from Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn has been dancing with the All Stars Talent Show Network (ASTSN) for nearly a decade. For the past four years she has managed and choreographed Fully Loaded, a dance group of young girls from her community, winning two grand prizes in ASTSN shows. All the while, Nekia has worked to become a public school kindergarten teacher at PS 157 in Brooklyn, and she has just earned her Masters degree this year. Nekia was one of nine inspiring ASTSN performers and leaders to be honored at the first annual Artist Committee Benefit, Stars Honoring All Stars, held on June 14 at ASP on 42nd Street. The star-studded event was hosted by Susan Jaffe, ASP board member and retired Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Joining Jaffe in presenting awards to the young honorees were Artist Committee members Hinton Battle, three-time Tony Award-winning dancer/choreographer, Daphne Rubin-Vega, two-time Tony nominated actor, Charles S. Dutton, stage and screen actor, and Robin Roberts, Baseball Hall of Fame pitching great. The benefit was co-chaired by several All Stars board and President’s Committee members who raised a total of $80,000 at the event for All Stars youth programs.

Jaffe founded the All Stars Project’s Artist Committee in 2003 to create opportunities for creative partnerships between leading professional performing artists and inner city youth. “Through the All Stars, I’ve come to experience the enormous creativity of young people in our city’s poorest communities. Sometimes it’s unpolished; sometimes it’s raw; but it is creativity that I feel must be cultivated and developed.” The Artist Committee’s roster has grown as many leading artists from the worlds of dance and Broadway have joined, including F. Murray Abraham, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ashley Judd, Donna Murphy, David Parsons, and Bill T. Jones, among other distinguished performers. The new committee has already sponsored several enriching cultural activities. In March, Hinton Battle led a dance workshop for young All Stars performers at ASP’s 42nd Street center.

Together, they learned new steps and traded moves, and had a lively dialogue in which Mr. Battle encouraged the young hip-hop performers to be true to their art. “It means a tremendous amount to young people to be related to seriously as artists by professional performers,” says Pam Lewis, ASP’s Director of Youth Programs.

Also this spring the Artist Committee organized sixty All Stars youth to go to Broadway’s Royale Theater for a preview performance of this season’s acclaimed production of A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s classic drama of an African-American family living and struggling on Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s. And Daphne Rubin-Vega arranged for the All Stars to attend Anna In The Tropics, Nilo Cruz’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Afterwards Rubin-Vega, who was nominated for a 2004 Tony Award for her performance as Conchita in the show, organized a post-performance chat with the entire cast.

Award-winning dancer/choreographer David Parsons took time out of his busy season schedule at the Joyce Theatre to host a group of twenty All Stars at a rehearsal of his company. And Susan Jaffe with generous support from several members of the All Stars’ President’s Committee, organized a day to remember for another group of All Stars youth, hosting them at an American Ballet Theatre (ABT) performance of Don Quixote. Following lunch at Fiorello’s, Jaffe took the group to a class at the Met where the young people had the opportunity to meet and speak with the ABT dancers. A backstage tour rounded out their up-close look at the world of professional dance.

Jaffe and the committee are currently at work planning many more culturally broadening activities for the All Stars in the coming year. “I am so excited by the number of world-class performers who have signed on to connect with inner-city youth,” says Jaffe. “This is just the beginning.”