The School Of American Ballet Holds 2015 Workshop Performance Benefit

“I worship the dancers,” Jill Kargman said of the School of American Ballet (SAB) Workshop Performance Benefit. “I stalk them — but not in a Glenn Close way. I watch them grow up, trace their careers and obsess about them — but I’m not going to boil rabbits on their stoves. I just worship them from afar.”

It’s not really so afar for Kargman: she grew up at SAB and hosted Juilliard students at her home. It was part of the philanthropic reach of her parents, former Chanel President Arie L. and Coco Kopelman, former dancer and long time patron (she founded the School of Ballet Winter Ball). “In those days, there were no dorms at SAB or Juilliard. A lot of talented students who were accepted couldn’t matriculate because they couldn’t afford to live in NY. So, they lived with us.”

True to form, Kargman had pulled head-to-toe Chanel into a personal fashion statement. She has turned her irreverent take on the Upper East Side life of privilege into a comedic career, penning 11 books, 100 articles, MTV television scripts, blogs and now starring, producing and writing her own series, “Odd Mom Out.” Bravo’s first scripted comedy, it premieres on Monday, June 8th. The mother of three children, Kargman is skewering what she knows: stay at home moms on the Upper East Side. “NBC had optioned my book ‘Momzilla,'” noted Kargman. “The show is an
extension of that and an essay collection called ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut: Essays and Observations.'”

Nell Kleinschmidt, Max R. Shulman, Stephanie Anna Linka, Michele Barakett, Hillary Lane Hochberg, Linda S. Daines, and Marjorie Van Dercook. (Photo: Sean Zanni/PatrickMcMullan.com)

The School of American Ballet Workshop Performance is their only public performance, a graduation of sorts, showcasing the rising stars of the ballet world. Michele Barakett, Linda S. Daines, Hillary Lane Hochberg, Nell Kleinschmidt, and Max R. Shulman chaired. Alexandra and John Galantic were Corporate Chairmen; and Stephanie Anna Linka, the Young Patron Chairman.

Attendees included Jenny and John Paulson, Julia and David Koch, Coco and Arie Kopelman, Sasha and John Galantic, Laura and Will Zeckendorf, Hamish Bowles, Jean Shafiroff, Emily and John Rafferty, Suzy Pilarre and Chip Zien, Suki Schorer, Jonathan Stafford, Ashley Bouder, Peter Martins and Darci Kistler, Kay Mazzo, Craig Hall, Troy Schumacher, Lourdes Lopez, George Skoras, and James Lipton.

This year commemorated the 20th Anniversary of the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Scholarship. At the peak of his career, Mr. Nureyev spent many hours in SAB’s classrooms, polishing his technique alongside SAB’s students. In 1994, the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation founded the annual scholarship. The School of American Ballet is the official training academy of the New York City Ballet, and was established in 1934, when philanthropist Lincoln Kirstein convinced George Balanchine to be its guiding artist.

For more information, visit sab.org.