FACES ’93 : Some Names to Be Reckoned With in the New Year : DANCE

Ahhh, a new year and so many unknowns: Will Jay, Dave and Johnny be genetically spliced to produce the Ultimate Talk Show Host? Will the Yuppie-in-Chief name Stevie Nicks to run the NEA? Who will Sinead pick as her tag team partner against Madonna and the Pope? Will the activist group AWOE (Actresses With One Eyebrow) demand that one of them be chosen to play Frida Kahlo? Oh well, frivolity aside, one thing is certain: You’ll be hearing these names and seeing these faces in the next 365.

Rhoda Grauer

Although she’s directed the dance program of the National Endowment for the Arts and served as executive director of Twyla Tharp’s company, Grauer is best known as a PBS producer--more accurately as both associate director of performance programs and production executive of “Great Performances” at Thirteen/WNET in New York. However such acclaimed Grauer achievements as “Gregory Hines: Tap Dance in America” and “Baryshnikov by Tharp” proved merely the warm-up for her eight-part, globe-trotting series “Dancing,” set to air throughout 1993. Intended to be the “Cosmos” of dance, the series tries to reflect a multicultural perspective without dishonoring the heritage of Western Europe in this century--no easy task. Grauer, 48, created “Dancing” and held the title of executive producer. Just recently, she became director of performance, film and lectures at the prestigious Asia Society in New York. Clearly, a Vassar grad who made good.