 Susan Strohman is one of America's most prolific and innovative theater directors and choreographers. A consummate storyteller, her work is truly multidimensional and multidisciplinary. In addition to being deeply musical, Susan's work is consistently hilarious and spans musical theater, ballet, opera, and film. She's won too many awards to list, but among them are five Tonys, two Lawrence Olivier Awards, and a record four Astaire Awards. We honor her today as the first woman to be commissioned by the New York City Ballet to choreograph a full-length ballet. Ladies and gentlemen, Susan Strohman. Well, thank you so much. I thank you, Elizabeth, and to the Sackler Center for this recognition and for including me in the company of these extraordinary women. I am truly, truly honored. And I have to thank Peter Martin's for giving me the chance to create the ballet double feature for the New York City Ballet. They are extraordinary dancers. When I create for them, I'll say, turn three times, and then they turn eight times, and I'll say, I meant that. Or they'll, you know, I'll have them leap in the air, and I'll say, come down on the count of eight. And up they go, they hover, come down on the K-13, and I say, I meant that. So I went to dancing school when I was five. I've been in dancing school since I was five, and I spend every day still like I'm heading for class trying to learn. Growing up, I was influenced by many choreographers representing all different types of jazz, tap, ballet. And they all inspired me to dream, but it was women I admired and inspired me to try, like Martha Graham and Agnes DeMille and Ginger Rogers. Dance has the power to transform, sitting in the theater. What we see on the stage reflects back to us who we are as a culture. Sometimes what we see allows us the chance to laugh and to feel the joy and the pleasure of laughing together. Other moments in the theater challenge us to examine what we believe. And if we find ourselves lacking, it can give us the courage to act. That is what dance can do, and that is what art does. It connects you to the world. It emboldens you to act. I know I stand on the shoulders of the women choreographers that came before me. I am very lucky to be where I am today, to be doing exactly what I want to do. I love it so. And to have the chance to create and what it is that I want to create, I am very, very fortunate. There's a step that I know that you've all seen when a dancer leaps up in the air and into the wing and blackout. The lights go out. And it's very exciting for the audience. But for the dancer, you're wondering, am I going to land properly? Am I going to land on top of someone? And am I going to make it for my next entrance? So that moment is very thrilling and very scary, but it makes you feel so alive. And there's a quote from Agnes DeMille. She said, the artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark. And we hope for the best. Supporting the craft of others like you've done tonight, it gives the future of women artists the strength to take these leap in the dark. And feel like we're alive, very alive. I thank you so much for this honor. Thank you.