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Nancy Zeckendorf, small town Big Dreams: The Life of Nancy Zeckendorf
Nancy Zeckendorf, small town Big Dreams: The Life of Nancy Zeckendorf

Fri, Nov 18

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Collected Works Bookstore

Nancy Zeckendorf, small town Big Dreams: The Life of Nancy Zeckendorf

Nancy will be in conversation with Catherine Oppenheimer. This is a story of a young girl from a small town with a big dream that took her to Juilliard, Broadway, summer stock, the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera, and introduced her to her husband William Zeckendorf Jr.

Date, Time & Location

Nov 18, 2022, 6:00 PM MST

Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA

About the Event

This will be an in-store presentation and we will also live stream the evening on Zoom, please register to watch here.

Pre-order Small Town Big Dreams online here or call the store (505) 988-4226

Nancy Zeckendorf's memoir, small town Big Dream, overflows with the glamour of a life lived among the famous figures of mid-century New York society and the grit necessary to succeed in the professional world of dance. Fascinated by art and architecture, the vivacious ballerina Nancy Zeckendorf became a formidable development partner with her husband and a philanthropic leader in the performing arts–her fundraising ability is an art form unto itself. “I love hardware stores and tools,” she said of her common-sense approach to construction projects. Indeed, Nancy was a guiding force in the expansion of the Santa Fe Opera, the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and the premier community of Los Miradores where she lives now in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About the Authors

Nancy King Zeckendorf, formerly a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Santa Fe Opera, is a founding director and chair of the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe. After her years as a dancer, she began a new career creating special events and fundraising for the arts. A design partner on projects in Santa Fe and New York with her late husband and New York real estate developer William Zeckendorf Jr., she is as comfortable with an architect’s blueprints as with a choreographer’s direction. Jane Scovell has written books with Elizabeth Taylor, Ginger Rogers, Tim Conway, Marilyn Horne, and a biography of Oona Chaplin. She is currently writing with director Brian Large. 

Founder of National Dance Institute of New Mexico (NDI-NM) and the New Mexico School for the Arts—New Mexico’s first residential public high school for the performing and visual arts—Catherine Oppenheimer has long been dedicated to bettering the future for New Mexico’s youth. In addition to her work with New Mexico students, Ms. Oppenheimer danced with New York City Ballet under the leadership of choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and with Twyla Tharp Dance Company. She is a current trustee of Save the Children and the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University.

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