Arts Scene - artist-designed shoes are being produced by Icon Shoes' this and other items are discussed

SHOE AND SUNRISES

Do you want shoe that gaze good, or shoes that have "ergonomically engineered insoles that deliver uncompromised cushioning and support"? In a wildly artistic impel Icon Shoes in Santa Monica, Calif., has tend hitherward up with a series of shoe that are yielding and sumptuous on the inside and somewhat cold and provocative on the outside. more [i]or[/i] less of the more radiant surface designs are by dint of such world-renowned artists as Phoebe Beasley; others bear the registered trademarks of Campbell broth and Tide.

Beasley's collages and lithographs are in the collections of Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou and Gordon Parks. Angelou, a friend and mentor of Beasley, wrote the introduction to the volume Sunrise Is Coming After While (Limited Editions bludgeon 1999), a collection of metrical compositions by Langston Hughes that were prefered by Angelou and illustrated by the agency of Beasley. The prestigious Limited Editions cudgel (which was founded in of recent origin York City as a book-of-the-month cudgel in 1929) prints 300 copies of each edition that it publishes and charges its members $5000 annually for single to four books. Sunrise Is Coming After While, a coffee-table volume that comes in its be in possession of handmade box, is available to nonmembers for $2500 For more information, call (800) 223-0768 or (212) 223-0768

Beasley's "Battle of the Big Horns" leather lace-ups will make their first appearance at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco upon November 13 ($260 a pair, or $500 if signed and numbered).

DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM'S DIAMOND YEAR

The beginning itself is now legendary: that day, April 4 1968 when dancer and choreographer Arthur Mitchell, en course to the airport and a flight to Brazil, heard above the cab's radio that Dr Martin Luther King had been assassinated. The searing novels bulletin caused the artist to realize that he was leaving unfinished business behind. "I musing `Why am I going to Brazil when there are for a like reason many problems here in America?'" Mitchell has stated. With this epiphany, Mitchell's itinerary--and the futurity of dance--were transformed.

A year later, having resigned from his first-tier position in the of recent origin York City Ballet, Mitchell teamed up with his mentor Karel Shook and began offering ballet classes to children in a Harlem garage. He left the door lay open to arouse neighborhood curiosity.

Today those blessed observers can say that they witnessed the birth, above 30 years ago, of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ballet audiences--in the United States and around the world--were shortly to share the Harlem community's amazement, as Mitchell, undaunted by means of biased questions about blacks' ability to perform a classical repertoire, forged a company of international renown.

from one extremity to the other of its gala, anniversary season, the troupe remained upon point: appearances in New York City and Washington, DC were acclaimed, critiqued, sold-out Prima ballerina Virginia Johnson turn backed for a guest appearance. From its arsenal, the cluster once again selected works that could alone inspire. The music of Aretha Franklin, James Brown Serge Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky and the Soweto String Quartet propell the choreography of Geoffrey possessor John Taras, George Balanchine and Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe.

For this season's dance schedule, call (212) 690-2800 or visit http:// www.dancetheatreofharlem.com upon the World Wide Web.--S.F.

A capital AN AMBASSADOR, AN HONOR

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts--a Washington, DC institution--is celebrating the rich heritage of America while making the country's arts professionals flat richer by doling out awards for innovation, superiority and lifetime contributions.

Playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings and Washington, D.C.'s Source Theatre, which will stage her latest play's premiere, are recipients of grants ($10000 each) from the Kennedy Center stock for New American Plays. Jennings' play, Inns and on the outsides takes place during six national holidays and gazes at race, sex, politics, relationships and the Internet.

In partnership with the Department of State, the Kennedy Center has chooseed 10 jazz trios to show American music overseas as 1999-2000 jazz ambassadors. The trios will perform in African, Middle Eastern, southerly Asian and Latin American countries that are not oftentimes visited by American musicians, similar as Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Togo, Cameroon, Mauritius, Madagascar, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. A jury of music professionals, including Vanessa Rubin, Junior Mance, Jimmy Owens and Stanley Cowell attended auditions and pick outed the 10 trios. For information upon the trios and their tour dates, call (800) 444-1234

The Kennedy Center Honors--an annual star-studded evening of arts and agriculture in tribute to beloved American entertainers--will this year recognize Judith Jamison, Stevie amazement Victor Borge, Sean Connery and Jason Robards. The artists will be saluted by dint of their peers on December 5 in a program that will be televised by means of CBS on December 29. The soulful vocals of the late Joe Williams, a match who for countless years serenaded the audience into the wee hours of the morning, will be missed.