Somen Banerjee Somen Banerjee Somen "Steve" Banerjee (; October 8, 1946 – October 23, 1994) was an Indian American entrepreneur and co-founder of Chippendales. After operating a Mobil gas station and a failed backgammon club, Banerjee bought a failed Los Angeles club named "Destiny II" and turned it into a nightclub that featured female mud wrestling and a "Female Exotic Dancing Night." It was the first of its kind in the United States. He partnered with Paul Snider (husband and eventual killer of Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten) and attorney Bruce Nahin. Banerjee was later charged with having enlisted the aid of Ray
White Oak Dance Project to concentrate on the 2004 opening of the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan. The company featured alumni of major dance companies and commissioned new pieces from Morris, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, David Gordon and others. White Oak Dance Project The White Oak Dance Project was a dance company founded in 1990 by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris to be the touring arm of the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation. The company took the name of the animal preservation and land plantation made famous by dance supporter Howard Gillman, who built dance studios on his White Oak Plantation near Jacksonville, Florida