New Kennedy Center honorees announced

[bart]

The Kennedy Center has announced that Lifetime achievement awards will go to Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteen. The article says that there will also be honors for Grace Bumbry, Dave Brubeck and Mel Brooks. The awards gala will be in December 6.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/...race-bumbry/?hp

Any thoughts?

[carbro]

"Lifetime Achievement?" I always thought that the KC Honors honored a lifetime of achievement. What's the dif? I think it's just a poorly written paragraph:

The Kennedy Center announced on Wednesday that Bruce Springsteen and Robert De Niro, who won his first Oscar for playing Don Vito Corleone in 1974 for “The Godfather Part II,” would receive Kennedy Center Honors for

lifetime achievement

in the arts. The writer and director Mel Brooks, the jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and the opera singer Grace Bumbry will also be recognized at a Dec. 6 gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The honorees are chosen by the center’s board.

Nothing on KC's site implies a a special status of any of the honorees above the others. Perhaps blogger Becker asserts The Times' flimsy regional identity and simply listed two local boys (but not Mel Brooks?) first.

I don't know much about jazz, but I know enough to recognize that Brubeck is a giant. Having grown up in a house not much more than (an Olympian's) stone's throw from where Springsteen now lives, who heard his high school band play at my high school events, his selection literally brings the event home to me.

The Mel Brooks segment should be a riot and good for the tv audience.

But every year, as a group, the quintet's collective stature falls further from that of the honorees of the early years.

[dirac]

But every year, as a group, the quintet's collective stature falls further from that of the honorees of the early years.

That’s really only to be expected, when you think about it. Whenever a big award like this is inaugurated, there’s likely to be a backlog of Very Big Names to be honored, and those are exhausted after awhile. New names will come up as time goes on, but it is unlikely that the lists will ever be quite so dazzling again.

The current list seems unobjectionable, although I always whine whenever there is no representative of the dance world. I’m not sure if De Niro actually qualifies for a “lifetime” achievement award at this point, given that he’s done so little of value with his talent in recent decades, but his early work does make up for it, I guess. It will be good to see Bumbry again.

Thanks for posting, bart.

[bart]

The current list seems unobjectionable, although I always whine whenever there is no representative of the dance world.

dirac, you got me thinking about how these awards have treated dance in general over the years. Here's a quickly-assembled list of the honorees who were from the dance world. There has been a definite decline in awards to dance people in the 2000s as compared to the 90s and 89s.

2008 Twyla Tharp

2005 Suzanne Farrell

2002 Chita Rivera (the KC website lists "dancer" as the first of her specialties)

2000 Mikhail Baryshnikov

1999 Judith Jamison

1997 Edward Villella

1996 Maria Tallchief

1995 Jacques d'Amboise

1993 Arthur Mitchell

1992 Paul Tayor (and Ginger Rogers?: the website stresses her films with Astaire)

1991 The Nicholas Brothers

1989 Alexandra Danilova

1988 Alvin Ailey

1987 Alwin Nikolais

1986 Antony Tudor

1985 Merce Cunningham

1983 Katherine Dunham

1982 Gene Kelly (the website describes him as "singer, dancer," etc.

1981 Jerome Robbins

1979 Martha Graham

1978 George Balanchine

[Petra]

dirac, I think that in recent years de Niro's energies have been focused on endeavors other than acting like the Tribeca Film Festival, etc. His success in producing is to a large degree due to his earlier - glorious - career.

Also, although the number of dance honorees is greatly diminished, I don't think that their quality has - so it's kind of a trade-off.

[dirac]

He does worthy work, GWTW. I don’t think it excuses “Righteous Kill” or some of the laziness of his other work, although we all have bills to pay.

[sandik]

I'm very curious about the distinction between a "regular" award and a lifetime achievement award -- I don't remember this language in past announcements. Anyone have any insight?

[Farrell Fan]

ALL Kennedy Center Honors are awarded for lifetime achievement. This was simply a case of unclear writing.

[bart]

Jack Reed points out that I mis-typed the date of Suzanne Farrell's award. It was 2005, not 2007. I've made the change in the list above. Thanks, Jack!

[sandik]

ALL Kennedy Center Honors are awarded for lifetime achievement. This was simply a case of unclear writing.

I thought that might be the case -- English can be tricky.