by contributor Donna Shor
Photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
“O-o-o-h, I just saw somebody wind her right foot around behind her right ear!” squealed a woman walking into the Freer/Sackler Galleries gala.
That remark was not surprising considering the event’s name – “Some Enlightened Evening” – derived from the exhibit Yoga:The Art of Transformation, and the speakers throughout the evening that emphasized the calming and transforming effect of yoga on one’s life.
Yoga instructor Pari and husband Quinn Bradlee
A few sharp-eyed (and sharp-tongued) guests even spotted what seemed another very clear transformation: Co-chair Alec Baldwin’s demeanor – not a trace of the sardonic ranter that sometimes lit up the internet.
Maybe it has been the calming influence of his beautiful wife Hilaria, who shared master of ceremony duties with him onstage, or perhaps that of their “little baby waiting at home” of which he spoke so gently.
Hilaria and Alec Baldwin – Photo courtesy of Daniel Swartz – REVAMP.com
Whatever the truth is, he looked slimmer, even more handsome and with a manner best described as benign. He shared with the audience that he had worked at losing weight and said he needed to begin a serious yoga program full-time. ……. shouldn’t be a problem, he can start at home. His wife Hilaria, who spent her childhood between the U.S. and Spain and majored in art history and dance at NYU, is co-owner and instructor at the Yoga Vida studio in New York.
Jonathan Marder, Uma Pemmaraju, Jana Pasquel and Siddnarth Kasliwal
At the gala, there were ardent practitioners all around the hall, women on floor mats inside, men demonstrating on the wide steps outside banishing knotted up muscles. By aping their moves, they may have even recouped some of the $1,000 a pop the entry tickets cost.
Julian Raby, the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art, warmly welcomed guests enjoying cocktails and the yogic entertainment provided by those floor-bound and flexible demonstrators.
Empress Farah Pahlavi and Annie Totah
One guest who drew attention was regal Empress Farah Pahlavi, the exiled Shabanu of Iran. She is the widow of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a friend of our country who fell in love with her when he saw a student picture of her on the ski slopes and later met and married her. Her book, An Enduring Love: My life with the Shah, is a moving document of joy, disappointment and grief.
Marc Cipullo and Septime Weber, Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet
The program opened with a gala honoree, the Grammy-nominated international vocal artist Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon. Her voice, soaring above the rhythmic beat of her accompaniment was hypnotizing.
The evening’s other honorees— who opened the eyes of many attendees to the importance of yoga in daily life―included Robin Deen Carnes, a pioneer for yoga therapy in the military to combat stress and trauma who co-founded Warriors At Ease; and Lorenzo Cohen, PhD., who directs the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, conducting NIH-funded clinical trials researching yoga and mind-body practices in treating cancer.
Deputy Assistant USTR Christina Sevilla with husband Steve Rochlin
Also there was Seane Corn, an internationally recognized yoga teacher and spiritual activist, co-founder of Seya Challenge Humanitarian Tours, an awareness-raising effort that has raised nearly $4 million for communities in need; Vidya Deheja, the Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of South-Asian Art of Columbia University who was honored by the President of India for her scholarship in Indian art and yogini temples.
Mira Nair, who was honored for her Mirabai Films award-winning productions, (Monsoon Wedding, Salaam Bombay) incorporates lyengar yoga into her professional and artistic life; silver-haired, willow-lean John Schumacher, director of the Unity Woods Yoga Center in Bethesda and practitioner for more than forty years and speaker nationwide on yoga’s benefits.
The evening was under the patronage of Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, Ambassador of India to the United States, and His Highness Gaj Singh II, the Maharaja of Jodhpur Marwar.
A few of the Benefactors, Sponsors and Patrons and committee members included the Baldwins, Annie Totah, Ashor and Hariastut Kaveeshwar, Sally Quinn and Benjamin Bradlee and and their son Quinn Bradlee and his wife Pari, Alexandra and Arnaud de Borchgrave, Jaya Kaveeshwar and Hans Pohl, Sudhakar and Arun Kaveeshwar, Marie Hélène Weill, Stanley Staniski, Susan Pillsbury, and Peter and Elbun Kimmelman, down from New York for the event.
Guested dined on pyramids of crab and the tender little baby-lamb chops so beloved by Washingtonians as party food. (And who’s to argue?)
Many joined the after-party “Transcendance,” in a smaller salon off the ballroom, a young patrons’ soiree hosted by the Silk Road Society, featuring Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation.
The extraordinary art in Yoga: The Art of Transformation exhibit at the Sackler includes Indian sculptures, paintings, three monumental stone yoginis from a tenth-century Hindu temple and even the first movie ever produced about India, Thomas Edison’s Hindoo Fakir (1906). The exhibit will be open from October 19 to January 25, 2014.
The Freer/Sackler Annual Gala is famed for the magnificent books in its swag bags. This year it is a handsome volume, edited by Debra Diamond, which explores 2000 years of yoga-related art, depicted in stunning photographs and with essays on yoga through the epochs that are almost blue-prints to its performance. It will be available at the Gallery.
