Dominican Republic’s Ovations for Washington Ballet Dodging Hurricane Wilma and Tropical Storm Alpha, the Washington Ballet recently created its own whirlwind in Santo Domingo—the historic capital of the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean’s oldest city—with two nights of standing ovations welcoming hometown ballerina Michele Jimenez back to the same stage she left in 1998. “This was the happiest I have ever been and the saddest because my mother was not there,” said Jimenez after receiving a surprise award onstage immediately after the opening night performance at Teatro Nacional, a modern building in the heart of the capital’s Cultural Plaza. Three-story banners featuring a huge picture of Jimenez draped the two ends of the handsome building. “My mother had always wanted the Washington Ballet to go to the Dominican Republic and had long hoped to see me dance on that stage again,” said the 26-year-old dancer who initially studied under Washington Ballet founder Mary Day. Before coming to the United States, Jimenez received the Dominican Republic’s distinguished Premios Casandra Award for Best Classical/Modern Dancer. In 2002, she was the recipient of a Princess Grace Dance Fellowship, and in 2004 she became the spokesperson for Capezio, the legendary Italian master of ballet shoes. This is Jimenez’s fifth season with the Washington Ballet as a company member. She left home at age 19 when she was already a principal dancer with the Dominican Republic’s Ballet Clasico Nacional. “All my family and friends came to see me, maybe 50 of them, and even asked me to sign their programs,” said Jimenez. “My father, a professional musician who’s a guitarist into heavy metal, was performing himself on our opening night, but he came our last night. “It felt so natural to be on that stage again and see all my old friends and teachers again,” added the humble prima ballerina. “They all loved our company—how professional our dancers are, how much talent they have, how magical the whole evening was. I know they were in awe when the curtain went up on that first scene in ‘Serenade.’” “We’d love to return,” said Septime Webre, the Washington Ballet’s popular artistic director. “The whole project was a spectacular success on every level: an artistic triumph for the entire company, a great personal success for Michele Jimenez, who’s a bona fide star in her home country, and we contributed greatly to the warm relationship between the United States and the Dominican Republic.” Webre featured Jimenez not only in Georges Bizet’s spirited “Carmen,” the tour de force he choreographed for her, but in two other pieces as well: George Balanchine’s “Serenade” and the Washington Ballet’s world premiere of Twyla Tharp’s swanky “Nine Sinatra Songs.” “Our motivations are artistic,” said this innovative artistic director. “And we were trying to share our gifts with the people of the Dominican Republic, cognizant that we’re contributing to the body politic by fostering greater understanding between people, which is what life is all about.” Webre, who is half Cuban himself, led the ballet on its highly successful tour to Cuba in 2000. Under Mary Day, the Washington Ballet had previously made many foreign tours, including trips to Europe, South America, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Spain, Russia and twice to China. For this trip, 30 dancers from the Washington Ballet were accompanied by Webre, a staff of seven, plus a 20-member patrons group that helped to defray the costs. Long-time Washington Ballet Board Chair Kay Kendall, whose daughter Katherine once studied under Washington Ballet founder Day, joined the patrons on the four-day visit. “The real highlight beyond the ballet’s spectacular performances was the warmth of the diplomatic community, both U.S. and Dominican, who gave us the opportunity to see Santo Domingo in a very personalized way due to their graciousness,” said Kendall. After months of planning, Dominican Ambassador Flavio Espinal and his wife Minerva as well as key staff members traveled to Santo Domingo to host the American dancers and their entourage. The Washington Ballet opens its fall season here this Thursday, Nov. 3, through Saturday, Nov. 5 at the Kennedy Center with the same program it performed in Santo Domingo.

Turkey’s Long Farewell Just as the new exhibit “Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey” opened at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Arthur M. Sackler galleries, the huge farewell and national day reception for Turkish Ambassador Faruk Logoglu and his fashionable wife Mimi only heightened the feeling of how much Washingtonians will miss the popular Turkish ambassador and his wife when they depart later this fall. After four years in Washington and successfully shepherding their country into discussions for full European Union membership, the Logoglus will be returning to their beloved Turkey, where the ambassador will retire from the Turkish Foreign Service next spring. For the Freer and Sackler opening, which honored four famed contemporary Turkish designers, the Logoglus welcomed designer Gonul Paksoy as their personal guest. Mimi Logoglu loves to wear her designs. A chemical engineer by education and now a successful designer of clothes and accessories, Paksoy is also a popular Turkish design professor and author of fashion and “culinary design” books. Paksoy, one of modern Istanbul’s celebrities, took a moment to talk with the Diplomatic Pouch at the official Turkish residence. “I am so happy to be here for this important exhibit because the caftans of the Ottoman period are the most beautiful and valuable of that time,” Paksoy said. “They are gorgeous and yet so simple.” This well-known designer only uses natural fabrics and dyes, working with old fabrics, often velvets, that she refurbishes and mixes with the new silks and linens. “The Turkish culture is so inspiring. I have no problem finding new ideas,” she said. And yes, Paksoy only wears her own creations, including shoes and jewelry.

Georgetown’s Four Seasons Wins Fifth Star The Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., home to many visiting heads of state and site of many embassy national day parties, has just been awarded its fifth star by the prestigious Mobil Travel Guide, making the newly restyled Georgetown hotel this country’s only new five-star property in 2005 and the first and only five-star hotel in Washington, D.C. Christopher Hunsberger, general manager and regional vice president of Four Seasons Hotel Washington D.C., said he was especially proud to win this honor during the Georgetown hotel’s $25 million renovation. “I dedicate this honor to all of the 450 employees who believed in themselves and have worked so hard to accomplish this goal during our year-long enhancement program,” said Hunsberger, a proud graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and a 25-year veteran of Four Seasons, a Canadian hotel management firm. What makes this award even more rewarding is that the entire staff put together “five-star plans” and a group of 16 management trainees broke into two teams in an “apprentice-like fashion” (like Donald Trump’s TV show) to present their plans. The group that won launched the slogan “Beyond Compare” and continually updated suggestions and kept spirits up with encouraging notes in employees’ pockets. One team member said, “It was the most exciting thing in my life so far.” This might be an idea to invigorate staff elsewhere, even at embassies. photo courtesy of Four Seasons