DO40 Celebrates Six New Legacy Award Honorees
- John Sefakis
- Dec 9, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 12
Another successful Awards Dinner at LIPS restaurant!

DO40’s Legacy Awards were the place to be December 9th. A hugely festive, entertaining and communal social event, the awards brought together a diverse group of honorees, whose friends, families and dance disciplines converged to make a boisterous group of creative energies. Rockettes from the 60’s met their counterparts from the 90’s, dance studio kids from different decades reunited, and our newest members found connections they never knew they had. DO40 Legacy honoree Kevin Winkler found his Oklahoma mother, Sandy Nance (a long time member) in the audience. Showgirls from the 50’s and 60’s recounted stories to the next generation. And “Our History, Our Legacy and Our Lives” are etched not only in the hearts of our members, but remain on video and donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Honored Monday night at LIPS restaurant were Ann Johnson, Alan Onickel, Christine Reisner, Francine Storey and Kevin Winkler. Some of these performers began their professional careers when JFK was president with Mata Hari, Bajour and continued with Cabaret, My One and Only, Sophisticated Ladies, The Tap Dance Kid, Cats, A Chorus Line and many, many more. Definitely over hundreds of years of performance between them all!
The DO40 Board of Directors surprised president John Sefakis with a Legacy Award for his work over his 18-year tenure as president and 25-year association with the organization. Board members Leni Anders, Eileen Casey, Ken Bloom, Patrick McCarthy, Loni Ackerman, Sharon Wendrow, Lawrence Leritz and Sasha Spielvogel took to the stage to present him with his DO40 lucite award (only missing board member Kathy Seng-Gurland). Sefakis has been instrumental in creating events that included panels and performances and brought together the creative talents of the organization from Broadway’s Golden Years to speak first-hand about all the important directors, choreographers and producers of the era. Some of the events included The Women of Fosse, The Men of Fosse, Jack Cole: Alive and Kicking, Michael Bennett: A Joyful Noise, Ron Field: Applause!, The Dancers and Dances of Michael Kidd, I Like your Style: A Tribute to Joe Layton, Larry Fuller: High Flying Adored!, The Unsinkable Peter Gennaro, The Dancers and Creative Talents of Gower Champion, and most currently, Our One and Only: Tommy Tune, We Think you’re just Senational: Angela Lansbury, DO40’s first Roast, Comedy Tonight! A DO40 Roast of Lee Roy Reams, and our special Anniversary events: the 40th Anniversary of 42nd Street, the 40th Anniversary of Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ and the 60th Anniversary of West Side Story.

Sefakis and board member Kathy Seng-Gurland began DO40’s first participation in the Broadway Cares/EFA annual September Flea Market back in 2009, and as of 2024, raised over $61,000.00 for BC/EFA. Sefakis and the board believe that giving back is the most important mission of DO40 – whether it be in monetary contributions or continuing to promote the History, Legacy and Lives of our creative artists.
In the audience were many former DO40 Legacy Honorees, including Loni Ackerman, Bobby Hedglin-Taylor, Linda Rose Iennaco, Sharon Wendrow, Sasha Spielvogel, Lori Tan Chinn, Lawrence Leritz, Virginia Seidel, Karin Baker, Leni Anders, Eileen Casey, Mercedes Ellington, Joy Serio Dunbar, Lawrence Leritz, Susan Sigrist, Patti Mariano, Mary McCatty, Joe Ahumada, Jean Preece, Roger andYvonne Puckett – many of them still working in the business and paying it forward. The list of our honorees is a testament to the brilliance of the backbone of Broadway, Ballet and Modern Dance. However, we have lost 51 out of the 77 people honored since DO40 began celebrating the Legacy Awards in 2009. But they are still with us – in our videos and our hearts.

Also in the audience, DO40 members Stephanie Pope, David Jackson, Carol Stevens, Carol Banninger, Jane Connell, Sandy Nance, Darlene Larson, Jon Spano, JoAnn "Toots" Mariano, David Wynen, Gayle Stahlhuth and Marlene Lustik. Family and friends of the honorees rounded out the packed restaurant, including a large contingent of former students from Phil Black’s Dance Studio, formerly located at 50th and Broadway, a shared communal place for dancers for over 40 years.
Host Michael Musto delighted the audience with his humor and wardrobe changes, 2024 winner of Mx. Hell’s Kitchen, Sabel Scities performed numbers from shows that our honorees originally performed in, and speakers for each of our honorees shared personal and touching moments about them.

“We are honoring our own, as only we can," Sefakis said. "It’s a solidarity and continuation of our dance heritage, or as we say in our motto, ‘Our History, Our Legacy, Our Lives.’ And we gather to honor those members and important people in the DO40 community that have made a difference not only in their respective careers, but in their caring for the community of dancers we hold so dear to us. I want to thank the DO40 Board of Directors and our Advisory Board for their support over the years. Here’s to the beginning of our fourth decade! And as Advisory Board Member Chita Rivera (whom we miss desperately) would say: ‘We Simply Cannot Do It Alone!’”




Comments