Modern dance is concert dance form that developed in the early 20^th century, An experimental  form of dance, it begin as a movement against the constraints and conventions of classical ballet. While technique plays an important role in both classical and modern dance, modern dance emphasizes the creative process in both diverse choreography and performance. Influental pioneers of modern dance in the U.S include Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller and Ruth St. Denis in the first generation; and Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais and Merce Cunningham in the next. Rather than adhering to a set form and a limited range of gestures, as in ballet, pioneers of modern dance based their works on personal experience, using their bodies as instruments to express their emotions. New and abstract form in the worlds of music, theatre and visual art which became more available after the turn of the century influenced dancers and encouraged global collaboration with other artists.

U.S Embassy Ulaanbaatar is brought the Battery Dance Company, a leading New York City dance group, to Mongolia to conduct a series of master classes and workshops. Under the direction of Artistic and Executive Director Jonathan Hollander, the 33 year old company also presented an extraordinary public performance, “Moving Stories”, on May 5, sponsored by the American Embassy, with cooperation from the Arts Council of Mongolia and the Opera and Ballet Theater.

Washington -- Earth Day, April 22, is the annual U.S. celebration of the environment and a time for Americans to assess the work still needed to protect the natural gifts of our planet. Earth Day has no central organizing force behind it, though several nongovernmental organizations work to keep track of the thousands of local events in schools and parks that mark the day. It affirms that environmental awareness is part of the country's consciousness and that the idea of protecting the environment -- once the province of a few conservationists -- has moved from the extreme to the mainstream of American thought.

(Some of the outstanding people and events that moved women's rights forward) (941)

1848 U.S. Women's Rights Movement is sparked at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Delegates issue a Declaration of Sentiments calling for equality with men, including the right to vote. Related article: "Seneca Falls Convention Began Women's Right's Movement ( http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-nglish/2005/June/20080229183432liameruoy0.6444055.html )."

1849 Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. She becomes a pioneer in women's education in medicine.

1851 Abolitionist and former slave Sojourner Truth gives her famous speech "Ain't I a Woman?" to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. She is an eloquent champion of the rights of African Americans and women. Related article: "Sojourner Truth ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/womeninfln/truth.htm )."

1869 Wyoming, then a U.S. territory, is the first jurisdiction to grant women the right to vote. Many Wyoming legislators -- all male -- hope it will attract more single marriageable women to the region.

1881 Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross, expanding on the original concept of the International Red Cross to include assisting in national disasters as well as wars. Related article: "Clara Harlowe Barton ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/womeninfln/barton.htm )."

1916 Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to Congress, serving two nonconsecutive terms. She casts the only vote in Congress against war on Japan after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Related article: "Jeannette Pickering Rankin ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/womeninfln/rankin.htm )."

1920 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote, becomes law when it is ratified by two-thirds of the states. The League of Women Voters is founded. Related article: "League of Women Voters Educates U.S. Electorate ( http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/December/20061226164032berehellek0.5835077.html )."

1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross is the first woman governor of a state (Wyoming). In 1933, she is appointed first female director of the U.S. Mint.

1926 Gertrude Ederle is the first woman to swim the English Channel. Only five men had swum the Channel before her, and she cuts two hours off their fastest time.

1931 Jane Addams is the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams is an advocate for the poor, a pacifist, a reformer, and a feminist. Related article: "Jane Addams ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/womeninfln/addams.htm )."
 
1932 Amelia Earhart makes the first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic. She is the first woman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

1932 Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She is also the first to chair a Senate committee and to preside over the Senate. Related article: "Hattie Wyatt Caraway ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/womeninfln/caraway.htm )."
 
1933 Frances Perkins is sworn in as secretary of labor. She was appointed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the first woman ever to serve in the U.S. Cabinet.

1953 Jacqueline Cochran is the first woman to break the sound barrier. During her career, she sets more speed and altitude records than any of her contemporaries, male or female.

1955 Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, thus sparking the U.S. civil rights movement. Related article: "U.S. Marks 50th Anniversary of Montgomery Bus Boycott ( http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2005/November/20080225140519liameruoy0.664715.html )."

1962 Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, calls attention to the dangers of agricultural pesticides. It inspires a national environmental movement in the United States. Related article: "Rachel Carson: Pen Against Poison ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/carson/index.html )."

1963 Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, which galvanizes the women's rights movement. The Equal Pay Act prohibits paying women less than men for the same job.

1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race or sex. Related article: "Nation Celebrates Anniversary of Landmark Civil Rights Law ( http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2004/June/20040624160152jmnamdeirf0.1434442.html )."

1968 Shirley Chisholm is the first black woman elected to Congress. She makes an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1972. Related article: "Shirley Chisholm Dead at 80 (http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2005/January/20050104154338jmnamdeirf0.2672235.html )."

1972 Title IX of the Education Amendments bans sex discrimination in schools. Enrollment of women in athletics programs and professional schools increases dramatically.

1978 "Women's History Week" is first celebrated in Sonoma County, California. (Congress first passes a resolution on National Women's History Week in 1981.)

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, serving until 2006. Jeane Kirkpatrick becomes the first female U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Related article: "Sandra Day O'Connor ( http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/womeninfln/oconnor.htm )."

1983 Sally Ride is the first American woman in space, flying on the shuttle Challenger. She flies a second shuttle mission in 1984. Related article: "Women Star in Cosmic Quest ( http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/August/20060818165849bcreklaw0.4844324.html )."

1984 Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman nominated for vice president by a major party -- the Democrats -- when she is selected as Walter Mondale's running mate.

1987 Congress expands Women's History Week to a monthlong event celebrated in March. Related article: "Women's History, Accomplishments Celebrated Every March ( http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2008/February/20080227184124liameruoy0.1790735.html )."

1993 Toni Morrison becomes the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Janet Reno is the first woman attorney general of the United States.

1997 Madeleine Albright is sworn is as the first woman U.S. secretary of state. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, she became a U.S. citizen in 1957.

2005 Condoleezza Rice is the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state. Related article: "Biography of Condoleezza Rice ( http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/41252.htm )."

2007 Nancy Pelosi is sworn in as the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the most powerful posts in the U.S. government. Related article: "First Female Speaker to Preside at State of Union (http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-english/2007/January/200701191129461CJsamohT2.987307e-02.html )."

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

(Citi invests in volunteerism, microfinance, emissions reduction) (616)

By Howard Cincotta
Special Correspondent
 
Washington -- One of the world's largest financial services firms, Citi (formerly known as Citigroup), oversees philanthropic and volunteer programs that are almost as extensive and geographically dispersed as its global business activities.

These corporate giving programs range from a 10-year, $200 million commitment to financial education programs for children, teenagers and adults in schools around the world to an unprecedented effort to direct $50 billion over the next decade into "green" investments, alternative energy and new technologies.

VOLUNTEERS

The company's chief philanthropic arm, Citi Foundation, reports that in 2006 its total giving rose to nearly $93 million in 86 countries and territories, an increase of 37 percent over its international donations the previous year.

"Each day, thousands of Citi employees make a tremendous difference in their communities by donating their time and talent to local nonprofits," said Pamela Flaherty, Citi Foundation president.

One example of Citi's volunteerism was Global Community Day 2007, in November 2007, when more than 60,000 of the corporation's employees and its affiliates participated in hundreds of local and community projects. These projects ranged from tree planting in four provinces of Thailand to refurbishing a school in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

ENVIRONMENT AND GREENHOUSE GASES

Citi's decadelong environmental program is multifaceted. As much as $10 billion will be devoted to reducing Citi's own environmental "footprint," or impact, 10 percent a year by 2011, primarily through measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its extensive real estate holdings.

The undertaking encompasses 14,500 offices and facilities around the world. In Frankfurt, Germany, for example, Citi is constructing a data center that will be one of the most energy- and resource-efficient of its kind.

In contrast to conventional buildings of similar size, the Frankfurt center, opening in spring 2008, will use 25 percent less electricity, enough to power 3,000 homes for a year, emit 11,000 fewer tons of carbon dioxide and save 40 million liters of water annually.

Over the next decade, Citi plans to invest more than $30 billion in clean and alternative energy through programs. These programs range from "renewables," like wind, solar and geothermal energy, to such new technologies as highly efficient combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells.

Any successful effort to lower discharges of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will have to rely, in part, on allowing market forces to provide incentives to achieve national and international climate goals.

One such mechanism, which Citi is actively pursuing, is that of global carbon dioxide markets, also known as emissions trading. The basic concept is to establish an overall cap on the discharge of a specific gas, then allow companies and other emitters to buy and sell emission units among themselves while maintaining, or gradually lowering, the overall ceiling.

CITI AND MICROFINANCE

Microfinance, the practice of providing small-scale financial services to the world's poor, began as a Citi philanthropy 30 years ago. Now it is a separate business unit that has been particularly active in South Asia.

Citi has established relationships with microfinance institutions in 20 countries and thinks the number could soon grow to 30.

Its largest microfinance initiative is with BRAC, the major microfinance and development program in Bangladesh. The BRAC program encompasses 1,200 local nongovernmental organizations and serves more than 5 million members, most of them Bangladeshi women. Of a total of $55 million in financing, Citi is providing $42 million.

The bottom line, Citi believes, is that the growing carbon dioxide market could offer both profits for investors and major greenhouse gas reductions for the world.

For more information about Citi's giving, see the company's Web site ( http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/homepage/ ).

(USINFO is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov/)