Two Hundred Women!

Since I began this picture blog in September 2006, I have posted pictures of two hundred beautiful women, all different, all diverse, and all deliriously delightful. (So, do you love my alliteration? :-D)

And I'm not done yet. I'll be back in 2009 more more pictures of more beautiful women to share.

Happy new year.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Hong Yang, Carolina Ballet, Raleigh, NC

Hong Yang is a first soloist with the Carolina Ballet.



A native of Beijing, China, she graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy in 1995 and quickly joined the National Ballet of China, where she was a principal dancer. She has also performed with a company in Toronto.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Michele Wiles, American Ballet Theatre, New York, NY

A member of the American Ballet Theatre company since 1998, the lovely Michele Wiles became a principal dancer in 2005.



Her many roles include Polyhymnia in Apollo, the Fairy Godmother and the Winter Fairy in Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, Aurora in Coppélia, and too many more to list.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Leann Underwood, American Ballet Theatre, New York, NY

Leann Underwood is one of the newer members of ABT's corps de ballet.



An alumna of the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, training at Japan's Naha City Ballet, and The School of American Ballet, Ms. Underwood became an apprentice at Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2003 and joined that company a year later. She has been with ABT since August 2007, and there she's had a leading role in From Here On Out and a featured role in Ballo della Regina, among other things.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Margaret Severin-Hansen, Carolina Ballet, Raleigh, NC

Margaret Severin-Hansen is an original member of the Carolina Ballet, a prestigious North Carolina comnpany founded in the late 1990s.



Starting out as a corps de ballet member, she rose to the role of principal dacner with great rapidity. She has danced in Romeo and Juliet and Carmen, among other ballets.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Jeanne Ruddy, Jeanne Ruddy Dance Company, Philadelphia, PA

Here's Jeanne Ruddy, the founder and artistic director of the dance company of the same name. :-)



A former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Company, Ms. Ruddy performed leading roles in many Graham works, including Andromache's Lament, Diversion of Angels, Deaths and Entrances, and Seraphic Dialogue, among others. She founded Jeanne Ruddy Dance in 1999, and in the summer of 2008 represented Philadelphia artists in the American delegation that attended the Tanzmesse conference in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Renee Robinson-Buzby, Miro Dance Theatre, Philadelphia, PA

Similar name, different dancer. :-)



Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, Renee Robinson-Buzby began her dance training at Dance Theater of Pennsylvania and studied with many teachers before dancing professionally with the Richmond Ballet in Virginia. Ms Buzby performed with another Philly modern dance troupe, the Jeanne Ruddy Dance Company, before joining the Miro Dance Theatre.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Renee Robinson, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York, NY

Renee Robinson is another leading Ailey star.



A member of the Ailey company since 1981, one of her most noted performances included a 2003 appearance at a White House State Dinner for the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki. She has been the focal point of many Ailey productions.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Fernanda Oliveira, English National Ballet, London, England, UK

Another principal dancer with the English National Ballet is Fernanda Oliveira, originally from Rio de Janiero.



A principal dancer with the company since 2007, Ms. Oliveira won first prize in Conselho Brasiliero de Dança in her native Brazil. Her roles have included Odette in Swan Lake, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and Juliet in Romeo & Juliet.

She likes to spend her free time going bowling.

A woman after my own heart. . . . :-D

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Sarah McIlroy, English National Ballet, London, England, UK

Sarah McIlroy is a principal dacner with the English National Ballet.



Her featured roles have included Odile in Swan Lake and Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, in Giselle. She's also performed original roles in Symphonic Dances and Cathy Marston's Facing Viv.

Commented Britain's Daily Telegraph, "The stage is a bit empty when she's not around."

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Yayoi Kambara, ODC/Dance, San Francisco, CA

Yayoi Kambara is a member of ODC/Dance, one of the most distinguished modern dance companies on the West Coast.



A holder of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Ms. Kambara has performed in other companies in the San Francisco Bay area, such as the STEAMROLLER Dance Company and Flyaway Productions, She joined ODC/Dance in 2003.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Judith Jamison

Judith Jamison is associated more with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which she originally joined in 1965, than anyone except Alvin Ailey himself.



She left the Ailey troupe to pursue a Broadway career in 1981, but when Ailey died in 1989, she returned to the company to become its artistic director, and she has been in that position since then.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Yuka Iino, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Portland, OR

A native of Japan, Yuka Iino was three years old when mother saw her dancing to music from a television set, and sent the little girl to ballet school. Ms. Iino never looked back.



Ms. Iino joined the Oregon Ballet Theater in 2003 after having been a principal dancer in the Reiko Yamamoto Ballet Company. (She became a prinicpal dancer at OBT in 2007.) Her major roles while with the OBT include Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and the title role in Possokhov’s Firebird and Raymonda, among others.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Sylvie Guillem

French ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem caused a sensation in her homeland when she debuted as a premiere danseuse with the Paris Opera ballet at the age of nineteen for her fluidity and grace onstage.



Her decision to perform with the Royal Ballet in Britain led to a major political controversy (only in France!) that had the National Assembly bring the nation's culture minister in to testify on the matter. Guillem has not only danced with the Royal Ballet, but she has also performed as a guest artist with the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg and the American Ballet Theatre in New York.

You can find out more at this tribute Web page to her.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Alexandra Golden, National Ballet of Canada

Alexandra Golden is a second soloist with the National Ballet of Canada, based in Toronto.



She joined the National Ballet of Canada in 1996 and was promoted to second soloist in 2007, and she's danced roles such as Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, and the pas de trois in Voluntaries, plus several other dances.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Christy Forehand, Dayton Ballet, Dayton, OH

Christy Forehand is a young dancer with a long resume.



She has danced with the Charleston Ballet Theatre and Augusta Ballet. As a member of the Dayton Ballet compnay, she has played the "Snow Queen" in The Nutcracker and the Black Swan in Swan Lake. She has begun her third season with Dayton Ballet this year, performing alongside her husband Eduard Forehand.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Rosalyn Deshauteurs, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York, NY

Time to go to the main Ailey company.



Rosalyn Deshauteurs has been with the primary Ailey troupe since 2000. The New Orleans native has as B.F.A. degree from Juilliard.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Taeler Cyrus, Ailey II Dance Comapny, New York, NY

Could this be a star of the future? :-D



Taeler Cyrus graduated from Fordham University in the Bronx this past spring, and she'd already performed in several dance productions. She joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's "Ailey II" company straight out of college.

So here's to a long career! :-)

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Laura Bowman, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia, PA

Laura Bowman is a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet's corps, and has been since 2003.



She joined the comapny as an apprentice seven years ago, and she has danced in ballets such Sleeping Beauty and Interplay.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Tara Birtwhistle, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Tara Birtwhistle is a pricipal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a prestigious company in the Canadian heartland.



A prinicpal dancer since 2000, she has danced in Mark Godden’s Dracula, performed the Cowgirl role in Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, ‘Myrtha’ in Giselle and danced as Juliet in Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet.

Tara Birtwhistle has been designated "One of 100 Young Canadians to Watch in the New Millennium" in the Canadian news magazine Maclean’s.

The Beauty of Dance, Part Two: Jessika Anspach, Pacific Northwest Ballet

Jessika Anspach is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington.



An alumna of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Ms. Anspach joined the Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2004 and was promoted to the corps de ballet a year later.

The Beauty of Dance: Part Two!

For the month of December I'm going to revisit the subject of beautiful women in dance. As I once said before, after all, in the dance world, beautiful women are par for the course. :-)

So here we go! :-)

TV newswoman Judy Woodruff

Judy Woodruff is a living legend in American broadcast journalism.



Formerly with NBC, she worked in public television before going to the Cable News Network. She has since returned to PBS and is a regular on Jim Lehrer's NewsHour.

She's married to Al Hunt of the Wall Street Journal.

Actress Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank is one of the leading actresss under 40 in Hollywood today.



She won Oscars for her performances in 1999's Boys Don't Cry and 2004's Million Dollar Baby, making her only the fifth actress to have been nominated for Academy Awards twice and win both times. She is also the third-youngest double Best Actress winner, after Luise Rainer and Jodie Foster.

CBS anchorwoman Maggie Rodriguez

CBS's morning news program recently added a fresh face from Miami in the form of Maggie Rodriguez.



Maggie Rodriguez was a news anchorwoman on CBS affiliate WFOR-TV in Miami before joining the network's Saturday morning news show in June 2007; she then joined the weekday "Early Show" seven months later.

Her most notable work was being the first reporter to go on the air with coverage of the transfer of power to Fidel Castro's brother in Cuba. She also worked as a TV anchor and reporter in Los Angeles in the 1990s.

Actress Monica Potter

Monica Potter is another young actress getting a good deal of attention these days.



Along with movies such as Along Came a Spider, she's best known for playing Lori Colson in the TV series "Boston Legal" in the 2004-05 season.

THE NEW FIRST LADY!!!

Michelle Robinson Obama

Model Oluchi Onweagba

Oluchi Onweagba is an extremely sought-after supermodel from Nigeria.



In addition to several magazine covers, she has also modeled for the Gap, Express, Banana Republic, and Ann Taylor.

Eighties model Valerie Lohr

Valerie Lohr was one of the most sought-after models in the early 1980s.



She was known for her outspokenness about her profession, particularly the absurdity of it. :-D "I still can't rationalize," she said about her annual salary in 1981, "why I make more than the President of the United States does."

Given the past eight years, that shouldn't be a problem for any model anymore. :-O

Model Deborah Kidd

Deborah Kidd is one of the many anonymous models who appear on catwalks and in print ads but don't date rock stars and hang out at Studio 54. Maybe her inclusion on this blog will change that. :-D



A native of Seattle, Kidd now lives and works in Paris, where she has appared in many fashion shows, as well as TV commercials for car companies. She is easily a model of the highest class and caliber.



Go to her Web site for more.

French actress Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert has been a staple in French movies for over thirty years.



Her film credits include 1982's Coup de Foudre (Entre Nous in America), about a close female friendship in postwar France, and 2001's Le pianiste (The Piano Teacher), about a sexually repressed musician.

Like many European actresses, Isabelle Huppert longed to make it in Hollywood. She should have been careful of what she wished for; she appeared in the infamous Heaven's Gate in 1980. Asked about that disaster, Huppert said, in reference to herself and French actresses in general, "We are fragile but we do not collapse."

Another American movie she appeared in, the 1987 thriller The Bedroom Window, was better received.

Business newswoman Vera Gibbons

Vera Gibbons is a reporter for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine as a special correspondent and contributing editor.



She has represented the magazine on television for CBS News, CNBC, and CNN.

Comedian Tina Fey

Tina Fey is best known as a writer and performer for Saturday Night Live, where she worked from 1997 to 2005.



She's also the star of and the inspiration behind 30 Rock," a sitcom about a sketch comedy show based in new York's Rockefeller. The Pennsylvania-born Fey has also written and starred in movies such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama.

The acerbic, witty Fey recently made news with her skewering portrayal of vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin, whom she resembles. She's brought a great deal of experience to the role; having worked a great deal with Jimmy Fallon, she knows how to portray a schmuck.

Actress/singer Minnie Driver

Minnie Driver is not a person operating a British subcompact car. :-D



Minnie Driver is, in fact, a British actress who can also sing and write songs.

Her best known movie roles include parts in Good Will Hunting and The Governess. She surprised many music critics with her two record albums, 2004's Everything I've Got in My Pocket, and Seastories, released three years later.

She recently announced that she is pregnant with her first child.

CNBC newswoman Bertha Coombs

Bertha Coombs is a CNBC reporter who does general assignment stories for the business channel.



A onetime local anchor in markets such as New York and Hartford, she was rpeorter for ABC News before joining CNBC.

Newswoman Mika Brzezsinki

Mika Brzezsinki is a rising star on MSNBC.



The daughter of foreign policy expert Zbigniew Brzezsinki, national security adviser to President Carter, Mika Brzezsinki got her start on local newscasts in Connecticut before she joined CBS News. Since joining MSNBC, she has become the straight woman to commentator and former congressman Joe Scarborough on his morning talk show.

Actress Jane Asher

The one and only.



When the Beatles first met the teenaged, classically trained London actress in the early sixties, legend has it that they all proposed marriage on the spot. She soon became Paul McCartney's girlfriend, and they became the hottest item in Swinging London. But like most Hollywood romances in America, this couple was doomed to part. They did so in 1968.

Also known as the sister of pop rocker and record producer Peter Asher (formerly of Peter and Gordon), Jane Asher managed to become a star in her own right, having starred in several BBC television and radio productions, as well as several movies from Alfie in 1966 to, more recently, Death At a Funeral in 2007.



Now 62 and having been married to illustrator Gerald Scarfe (you know the caricatures in the sleeve of Pink Floyd's The Wall? him) for 37 years, Jane Asher has written three novels, wtires, cake decorating books, runs a cakemaking business, and is involved in several British philanthropic institutions.

And she's still beautiful. :-)

165 Beautiful Women and Counting

I have now displayed pictures of 165 diferent women, and I'm looking for more picutres of more women. Back soon with the results.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Olympic Edition: Janet Evans!

Here's another picture of the lovely Olympic swimming champion Janet Evans, who turns 37 today. She's wearing all six of her Olympic medals - four gold, two silver.



Miss Evans has had a touch of the sublime and the ridiculous this year. She covered the 2008 Olympics for Yahoo, and saw British swimmer Rebecca Adlington break her 800-meter world record. She remains in demand as a motivational speaker, but also as a reality show star - she appeared on "Celebrity Circus" this year.

And to think it's been twenty years since she made her Olympic debut in Seoul. Happy birthday, Janet. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Part Five: Karen Graham, One More Time!

This picture of Karen Graham from her long and illustrious initial Estée Lauder campaign is from 1985, toward the end of that run.



She quit when she turned forty in 1985 because she didn't want to see herself going downhill as a model. Like, how was that possible? :-)

The Golden Girls of Track and Field

Pictured below are the very lovely and very fast U.S. women's 4x400-meter track relay team that won the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics. It's proof that Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh didn't have a monopoly on hotness in Beijing.



From left: Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg, Monique Henderson, and Allyson Felix.

Swifter, higher, stronger, ladies!

Model/singer Rosie Vela

You've heard of models who became actresses, but models who became singers? :-)



Rosie Vela was a top model of the 1970s and 1980s who turned to music in 1986, recording her album Zazu with help from Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan. Subsequent attmepts at a followup were met with resistance by her record company. She has also collaborated with Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne.

Actress Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick is the one actress who has the ultimate connection to Kevin Bacon. She's married to him. :-)



She has many credits to her career, but she's currently known for her role as Brenda Johnson in the TV police drama The Closer.

Actress Rene Russo

Rene Russo is the American version of Famke Janssen - a beautiful model who can act. :-)



Discovered by a modeling agent at a Rolling Stones concert, Russo went on to be featured prominently in major film roles, including movies such as Major League and In the Line of Fire. Her most notable role might very well be as Karen Flores in 1996's Get Shorty.

Actress Mary McCormack

Mary McCormack is a familiar face to movie and TV fans alike.



In addition to her role as national security adviser Kate Harper on "The West Wing," she has apppeared in movies such as Deep Impact and the Howard Stern biopic Private Parts (she played Stern's first wife!).

Supermodel Liya Kebede

Ethiopian model Liya Kebede is one of the highest-profile black models of the past decade.



Her big break came when she was asked for an exclusive contract for a Gucci fashion show. After several other modeling jobs, Kebede was named the newest face of Estée Lauder cosmetics in 2006, the first person of color to serve as that company's spokesmodel ever. The picture above is from the Lauder campaign.

In 2005, Liya Kebede was appointed as the World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

Model Patti Hansen

I promised an individual photo of supermodel Patti Hansen long ago, so here it is.



Patti Hansen was all over fashion ads and magazines in the 1970s and early 1980s. Originally from the Tottenville section of Staten Island - the southernmost point of New York City - she's now married to Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

I don't get it, either.

Tottenville? :-D ;-)

Actress America Ferrara

On this Fourth of July, you gotta love America. :-)



America Ferrera is an actress making plenty of headlines these days. After her movie breakthrough in Real Women Have Curves and her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, she now has the title role in the hit TV series called - ironically enough - "Ugly Betty." :-D :-O

Actress Laura Dern

The daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, Laura Dern has long since made it as an actress in her own right.



She broke out in David Lynch's controversial 1986 film Blue Velvet, and shes's since appeared in everything from small films like Rambling Rose (which also featured her mother) and Citizen Ruth to blockbusters like Jurassic Park.

Though a beautiful woman, Dern had to make herself look ugly for her most recent role - that of former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the HBO movie about the Bush/Gore election, Recount. :-p