SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REMARKS AT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE ON OCCASION OF UNITED STATES INDEPENDENCE DAY
Press Release
SG/SM/6625
SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REMARKS AT AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE ON OCCASION OF UNITED STATES INDEPENDENCE DAY
19980702 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY This is the text of remarks to be delivered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in New York City on Saturday, 4 July:Thank you for the invitation to spend this evening with ABT and its extended family in the audience. To show my appreciation to ABT, I offered to dance a small part in tonight's performance. But for your sakes, we agreed that diplomats make better talkers than dancers, and that I should just say a few words of thanks instead.
My friends, I am deeply moved to be honoured on this day, the celebration of your great country's independence, because it was the United States that gave the world the United Nations. And because the United States and the United Nations strive in concert to promote the rule of law, human rights, human dignity, and peace with justice.
I am especially pleased to be guest of honour of the American Ballet Theatre. For ABT is not only America's premier ballet company. It is also America's most international ballet company, as tonight's cast shows. And through its superior command of the global language of dance, ABT unites audiences throughout the world.
Dance is perhaps the most universal of art forms. By means of the harmonized movement of human bodies, dance expresses, above all, our common humanity -- the sentiments and sensibilities that we share simply by virtue of being human. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is also what the United Nations represents -- our common humanity.
So thank you ABT, and all of you in the audience tonight. Happy birthday America. And now, lets enjoy Le Corsaire.
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