The creators of MSN Video's Dance Nation series followed Los Angeles Ballet Soloist Chelsea Paige Johnston for a day to discover what a typical work day is like for her. Home / News / New Item Soloist Chelsea Paige Johnston featured on MSN Video August 1, 2013 Company News from the Staff at LAB The creators of MSN Video's Dance Nation series followed Los Angeles Ballet Soloist Chelsea Paige Johnston for a day to discover what a typical work day is like for her. Watch her interview to learn more about Chelsea's daily dance routine. WATCH VIDEO

On December 16th, 2008 Los Angeles Ballet appeared on the Dr. Phil show. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet Appears on Dr. Phil! December 1, 2008 Company News from the Staff at LAB On December 16th, 2008 Los Angeles Ballet appeared on the Dr. Phil show. Excerpts from The Nutcracker were performed on a special holiday program, and Dr. Phil's studio audience was invited to attend LAB performances throughout the 2008/2009 Season.

Los Angeles Ballet is excited to appear at Santa Monica's The Broad Stage as part of the theater's Inaugural Season. LAB’s Director's Choice program was presented at the theater March 15 and 16, 2009. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet at The Broad Stage March 1, 2009 Company News from the Staff at LAB The story is simple. James, a Scottish highlander, dreams of a magical, otherworldly creature, the Sylph, on the very day of his wedding to his beloved Effie. Suddenly incarnate, the Sylph lures James away from the wedding and into the forest. There, she inexplicably appears and disappears at will, always managing to stay just out of his grasp.

After seeing Los Angeles Ballet’s The Nutcracker this past Thursday during a 2pm matinee at The Dolby Theatre, I am convinced it’s the only time of day to see the ballet. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet Enchants with Nutcracker Tradition December 28, 2022 LA Dance Chronicle Grace Courvoisier After seeing Los Angeles Ballet’s The Nutcracker this past Thursday during a 2pm matinee at The Dolby Theatre , I am convinced it’s the only time of day to see the ballet. All the excited children sat anxiously in their seats, bows in, ties on, and buzzing with holiday fever. During the entire course of the production, the children would laugh at the Rat King, or verbally shout “behind you!” to Uncle Drosselmeyer in Act I, and I was suddenly reminded how inviting and magical this production is and continues to be each Christmas season. Besides its traditional staging value, it continues to be an interactive ballet, perhaps the only one that can reach the hearts and dreams of children and adults alike. LAB truly delivered a spectacular creation under its new Artistic Director Melissa Barak who noted in the program, “Los Angeles is a city brimming with talent, resources, and creativity. There is nothing that can stop Los Angeles Ballet from becoming a major dance force on the world stage.” After seeing tiny little tweaks that elevated this enchanting ballet, I began to believe every word Barak wrote. Keeping with tradition, Act I, scene one with the arrival of the guests remained fairly traditional with Clara and Fritz eagerly anticipating the gifts of their Uncle, and the festivities of the Stahlbaum Family Christmas party. In Act I, scene two is where we see a slight reimagination of events, as Uncle Drosselmeyer, played by Eris Nezha, gives Clara a life size Nutcracker instead of a small toy version. Another variance is Fritz, played by Spencer Collins, who ends up being knocked over by the life size Nutcracker, when traditionally speaking Fritz would accidentally break the beloved toy version of the Nutcracker sending Clara into tears. Clara also had more challenging choreography, being played by company member Poppy Coleman , instead of a member of the youth ballet. From the audience’s perspective, she was believable as Clara, an adolescent girl with a hyper imagination and zest for big dreams and seemed to have been more loved by the adults than the children. Coleman, who played Clara slightly older, was able to tap into that beautiful moment in life when you are wanting more freedom and ready to break out. Still needing the comforts of home, Mr. and Mrs. Stahlbaum, played by Jacob Ray and Julianne Kinasiewicz , tuck Clara into bed before entering Act I, scene three when Clara dreams. The dreamland production value did not disappoint, as Clara’s brass bed, with a lacy white quilt and bed skirt moved clear across the stage, and the already large Christmas tree, placed upstage, began to grow taller and taller and taller. These are the traditional elements of the ballet world that keep surprising you no matter how old you get. With physical props, and larger than life costumes, we enter the epic battle scene between the Mouse King, played by Ryo Araki , and The Nutcracker, played by Santiago Paniagua . In Nutcracker’s past, I have gotten through this scene without much attention or remembrance, but LAB made this incredibly memorable with its costuming and humor. The mice came out with enormous heads and tails, making the scene surreal and larger than life. The mouse king, and all his little followers, were high-spirited and theatrical with each movement. Not only dancing for the first few rows but being just outlandish enough that the back row of the theater would understand each emotion. Not to mention the children’s excitement with each lunge of the sword, and each march of the nutcracker. It’s the tale of good vs evil, of right vs wrong, that stands the test of time. The exceptional choreography, with all its hazards of heads and tails flinging about, was well executed and enjoyable to watch. After the Mouse King is killed, and whisked away off stage, Clara and her Nutcracker are taken to the beautiful land of snow in a moving golden sleigh pushed by Uncle Drosselmeyer. The effect of snow falling from the rafters was the extra touch during the snowflake dance that made you feel like you’ve entered another world. And the Los Angeles Ballet, with set design by Catherine Kanner , continued this whimsy with dramatic icicle head pieces and long iridescent skirts that sparkled in the light. The dance of the snowflakes, a milestone casting for any aspiring ballerina, remains quite simple in its execution by challenging the body in its duration and longevity. The dance of the snowflakes mimicked the fall of snow, having moments of lull and coasting through the air, until a gust blows and swirls a snowflake into a frenzy of exciting leaps and bounds. It’s with this mimicry that we begin to understand the dreamland, and this is made more apparent by Los Angeles Ballet upon the introduction of Marie, played by Kate Inoue . Each ballet across the world seems to have a different imagination of The Palace of the Dolls, and the Dolby Theater stage was transformed into a Palace by the Sea for the grand entrance of all of Clara’s dolls come to life. Marie, or traditionally known as The Sugar Plum Fairy, directly reflected Clara’s costuming in a simple off white gown with red satin details. Marie, likewise, wore an off white tutu with three large red satin bows down her torso. The simple decision of costuming, by Mikael Melbye, really honed in on the idea that Clara is dreaming by reflecting her costuming. In Act II, Scene One we are introduced to the Spanish, Arabian, Russian, Harlequin and Columbine, and the Sunflower dances. By far, the crowd pleaser of the evening was the Russian dancers, played by Cesar Ramirez Castellano , Ryo Araki , and Jacob Soltero . The three men defied gravity all together, while the audience broke out into a rhythmic clap of celebration! Feeling the power of community through dance, is perhaps the only true attribute of a ballet to begin with. And while we had a sense of awe with the Arabian dancers, and a sense of play with the Harlequin dancers, it’s that interactive choreography that breaks the wall between audience and dancer, between what is a dream and what is reality. In the dance of the Sunflowers, we were introduced by another show stopper, the Rose played by Petra Conti , who remains LAB’s only female principal artist. The Sunflowers and Rose were another showstopper in the Palace of the Dolls by engaging us with their stamina and ease rather than complicated footwork and quick staging. The long petaled skirts and bonnets were muted in earth colors and tones rather than the usual bright flashy costumes of the past. It all became so easy on the eyes, and incredibly calming and enjoyable to sit back, take it all in, and watch. And as Act II, scene two opens with Clara on the floor, her parents come in to see that she’s fallen asleep. Upon lifting her back into her own bed, the drums desist, and Clara quickly sits up, eyes wide, mouth gaping, and we wonder if it was in fact a dream or real. The Nutcracker has continued to defy audiences since its premier in 1892, and has been revisited, reconceptualized, and remains relevant to the spirit of Christmas and the holidays today. Los Angeles Ballet was able to tweak and modify the original story in a playful and simple way that continued to delight and surprise. If this is anything like what we have to look forward to under Melissa Barak’s direction, then audiences are in for a real treat this 2023 season. For more information about Los Angeles Ballet, please visit their website . Written by Grace Courvoisier for LA Dance Chronicle. Featured image: Los Angeles Ballet – Kate Inoue and Santiago Paniaqua in The Nutcracker – Photo by Reed Hutchinson READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE

Los Angeles Ballet will perform at Grand Park on July 6, 2013 as part of The Music Center's L.A.'s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation, and Dance, a festival honoring the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). Home / News / New Item LAB to Perform in Grand Park February 1, 2013 Company News from the Staff at LAB Los Angeles Ballet will perform at Grand Park on July 6, 2013 as part of The Music Center's L.A.'s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation, and Dance, a festival honoring the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). The performance is free to the public and will be followed by a discussion with LAB Artistic Directors Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen. "Los Angeles Ballet is pleased and honored to present collaborative masterpieces of George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky for this occasion. George Balanchine was the innovator that changed classical dance forever, and is responsible for what it has become today. Together with his dear friend Igor Stravinsky they created works of pure musical and choreographic genius. These ballets remain timeless, an inspiration to us all," said Christensen and Neary.

At the Los Angeles Ballet’s annual gala, the classical dance company honored three multi-talented, multi-hyphenates — Jenna Dewan Tatum, Derek Hough and Adam Shankman — all of them dancers among other accomplishments and passionate on the subject of dance. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Times Covers LAB Gala 2018 February 1, 2018 LA Times by Ellen Olivier At the Los Angeles Ballet’s annual gala, the classical dance company honored three multi-talented, multi-hyphenates — Jenna Dewan Tatum, Derek Hough and Adam Shankman — all of them dancers among other accomplishments and passionate on the subject of dance. “Dance is my everything,” Dewan said during the cocktail hour. “All roads lead back to dance for me,” added the actress, dancer and host of “World of Dance.” “No matter what I do in my career, no matter what I do in my life, being a dancer informs me. It’s who I am.” A judge on “World of Dance,” Hough, an actor-dancer-author-choreographer, said he took his first official lesson at age 10, “but if I look at old home videos of myself and my family, and I can see we were dancing in our living room since we were born.” Hough holds a record on “Dancing With the Stars,” having won six mirror balls. Shankman said later from the podium, “As the story goes, I actually emerged from my mother doing cartwheels with a top hat and cane. … I dance to live and I live to dance, and God willing, I’ll die doing a cartwheel, still clutching my cane.” (The producer-director-choreographer’s current project is the “Enchanted” sequel, “Disenchanted.”) The Los Angeles Ballet celebrated “Swan Lake” on Feb. 24 with a black and white themed-gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. More than $1 million was raised for its programming and educational outreach. Artistic directors Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen introduced the dancers, who performed excerpts from “Swan Lake.” The interpretation of Spanish, Neapolitan, Hungarian and Russian folk dances and elegant black swan pas de deux were then followed by a young troupe from “A Chance to Dance,” Los Angeles Ballet’s program of free classes. Disney star Sofia Carson said earlier in the evening that she had recently taught one of these classes, which are offered to children ages 2 and older. Attending the gala with her sister Paulina, Carson said, “I was 3 when I took my first dance lesson, and it changed my life forever.” (She also said that her film “Descendants 3” would shoot in Vancouver this summer.) Mark L. Walberg, host of “Antiques Roadshow,” emceed the affair, with presenters Nigel Lythgoe, Brad Goreski and Mark Ballas; guests Camilla Belle, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Kimberly and James Van Der Beek, and others. Kirsten Sarkisian and Leslie Kavanaugh were co-chairs of the event, along with honorary committee chairs Sharon and Gray Davis, Marilyn and Robert Day, Ghada and Ray Irani, Lori and Michael Milken, Linda La Kretz-Duttenhaver and Richard Merkin. Tickets for the 325-plus guests began at $500, and tables ranged to $100,000. Proceeds also included a silent auction and additional donations. After suggesting that the crowd raise a glass to Los Angeles Ballet, “our beloved home team,” which he’d earlier described as “my Dodgers,” Shankman spoke, not only of his love of dance but also of the importance of supporting the arts. “If we are to leave any legacy of value to the next generations,” he said, “then it is our responsibility to support in every way imaginable institutions like the Los Angeles Ballet, and to do everything in our power both to bring people to us, and also to go into the communities, and to help this generation know that there is more to life than darkness and division and the arduous fight for justice, or even simply to be seen to feel safe.” READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE

Los Angeles Ballet aimed high with the final program of its inaugural season. In the first of four Southland performances, the company danced three masterworks by George Balanchine at UCLA's Freud Playhouse on Thursday. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet Braves the Balanchine Test May 26, 2007 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal Los Angeles Ballet aimed high with the final program of its inaugural season. In the first of four Southland performances, the company danced three masterworks by George Balanchine at UCLA's Freud Playhouse on Thursday. There's no place to hide in this repertory — you can't charm or fake your way through the steps. And everyone would notice if you tried. Familiar to local ballet audiences, "Apollo," "Serenade" and "Rubies" each requires a different attack — a different mediation between technical and expressive challenges — and many of the dancers on view were new to their roles. Inevitably, the results proved imperfect, but also entertaining, instructive, even redemptive. Certainly Colleen Neary's authoritative staging of "Apollo" made a stronger case for this historic 1928 collaboration between Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky than the wrongheaded, cutesy-poo Joffrey Ballet production recently danced at the Music Center. Oleg Gorboulev hadn't yet pulled together all the facets of the title role on Thursday, but his nobility of bearing and partnering skills sustained him even when interpretive issues became unfocused. Melissa Barak and Erin Rivera-Brennand easily outclassed their Joffrey counterparts as Polyhymnia and Calliope — and, as Terpsichore, Corina Gill scored the first of her two Balanchine/Stravinsky triumphs on Thursday. In staging Balanchine, Neary has to decide which versions of the choreography to adopt, sometimes opting to include passages that Balanchine deleted late in his lifetime (the birth scene in "Apollo," for example), but elsewhere incorporating the revisions he made (as in "Serenade"). Her sense of the dynamic contrasts within a work always yield maximum interest — the playoff between sharp footwork and floating arms in the crucial "Serenade" corps passages being especially artful. This 1935 creation to music by Tchaikovsky also benefited from Lauren Toole's varied, sympathetic portrayal of the central ballerina in distress — yearning for a connection with Gorboulev but preempted by the mysterious Elizabeth Claire Walker. Dancing a buoyant interlude with the technically accomplished guest artist Brooklyn Mack, the fleet, vibrant Kelly Ann Sloan offered further evidence of the company's careful casting and coaching. The playful virtuosity of "Rubies" (more Balanchine/Stravinsky, this time from 1967) found Toole a little too passive as a kind of classical showgirl but Gill positively radiant, untroubled by every hazard in the galvanic pas de deux and solos. Opposite her, Sergey Kheylik again demonstrated his ability to turn choreography into a passionate personal statement, a spontaneous act of affirmation. Sometimes the outcome can look impossibly willful — ragamuffin neoclassicism in this case. But it's never unsure or half-hearted, even when he ends the ballet and the whole evening one count behind everyone else. After the final repeat of this program on June 2, Los Angeles Ballet has scheduled no more performances until "Nutcracker" time nearly half a year from now. Plans for 2008 are pending. This first season has clearly been a learning experience for artistic directors Neary and her husband, Thordal Christensen. The number of performances was cut back from initial announcements, live music abandoned in favor of tape and the use of guest dancers curtailed. But Neary and Christensen delivered consistently fine dancing on every program, with the corps and the principals always matched stylistically (a virtue often missing in long-established, star-laden companies) and the prowess of leads such as Gill, Barak and Gorboulev something to cheer about. They've proved that they can give Los Angeles a classical company worth supporting in its growth from an underfunded 31- dancer ensemble offering sporadic performances to the kind of large-scale, year-round institutions that are the source of local pride in cities such as Houston, Boston, Seattle, Miami and San Francisco. They've done their job and so have the dancers. The rest is up to Los Angeles itself. lewis.segal@latimes.com DOWNLOAD PDF

Los Angeles Ballet staff are comprised of talented non-profit arts professionals dedicated to supporting and producing outstanding productions for the LA community and southern California. Home / Staff / Artistic Staff Catherine Kanner Design Director Catherine Kanner worked as a founding Board Member and Design Director for Los Angeles Ballet from 2005 to 2022. During that period she oversaw and provided all promotional materials for Los Angeles Ballet. For more about Catherine Kanner catherinekanner.com Previous Artistic Staff

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Read at the Los Angeles Times Home / News / New Item 'The Nutcracker' from Los Angeles Ballet As Los Angeles Ballet matures, so too does its first full-length production... December 7, 2009 Los Angeles Times by Laura Bleiburg Read at the Los Angeles Times DOWNLOAD PDF

Try summing up the themes of August Bournonville’s romantic 1836 ballet, “La Sylphide.” You might get a list something like this: Dreams, illusions, ideals versus reality and worse — irrational, implacable evil. No wonder the ballet survives, not only to entertain but to trouble, even deeply disturb. Home / News / New Item LA Ballet Presents La Sylphide June 3, 2009 CultureSpotLA by Penny Orloff Try summing up the themes of August Bournonville’s romantic 1836 ballet, “La Sylphide.” You might get a list something like this: Dreams, illusions, ideals versus reality and worse — irrational, implacable evil. No wonder the ballet survives, not only to entertain but to trouble, even deeply disturb. Los Angeles Ballet, founded in 2006, marked its latest stage of artistic growth by mounting a handsome production of “La Sylphide” Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, with period sets and costumes borrowed from the Houston Ballet. (Performances continue over the next two weekends at other venues.) (Freud Playhouse, UCLA, May 23 and 24, and at the Alex Theater in Glendale, May 30.) The story is simple. James, a Scottish highlander, dreams of a magical, otherworldly creature, the Sylph, on the very day of his wedding to his beloved Effie. Suddenly incarnate, the Sylph lures James away from the wedding and into the forest. There, she inexplicably appears and disappears at will, always managing to stay just out of his grasp. James and the Sylph soon meet their destruction, however. James has deeply though mindlessly offended the witch Madge earlier during the wedding day. Now, seeking to bring his ideal Sylph into his arms, he drapes a veil he doesn’t know has been poisoned by Madge over the Sylph’s shoulders and winds it around her arms. The Sylph immediately loses her wings, comes to earth and quickly dies. James is stunned and collapses in grief. As danced Saturday by Eddy Tovar, a permanent LAB guest from Orlando Ballet, James was a bewildered dreamer, torn between the Sylph and Effie. He was also impulsive, flaring into outraged anger upon seeing Madge warming herself by the fire. A handsome, compact dancer, Tovar had the strength and style to execute Bournonville’s demanding foot beats with speed and clarity. Corina Gill was the poised, ethereal Sylph, balancing lightly and cleanly in high extensions. Her most arresting moments, however, came in her death scene, where she seemed to lose the power of sight as well as of flight. The other plum role, of course, is the evil Madge. She is first discovered cowering by James’ fire but is last seen towering triumphantly above his body. Why did she wreck such evil, so out of proportion to the original offense? Her answer is a drumming of her fingers on her chest. “I,” “I,” “I,” she gestures, because James offended her. The ballet ends with a terrible image. Madge pulls the fallen James up by the hair to see his beloved but dead Sylph float up into the heavens. With insouciant flicks of her wrists, Madge then dismisses James’ lifeless form. All in a day’s work, she seems to say, and easy work at that. Final curtain. Co-artistic director Colleen Neary, a former New York City Ballet principal, made a formidable Madge, only gradually revealing her malevolent powers. It was easy to laugh at her mumbo-jumbo antics with her four witch friends around the black cauldron at the start of Act 2. But nobody was laughing at the end of the ballet. In other roles, Grace McLoughlin danced Effie with sweet innocence. James Li was Gurn, James’ best friend, a naïf who winds up marrying Effie after James’ disappearance. (Peter Snow will take over the role in two of the three remaining performances.) Andrew Brader and Drew Grant were the friends. The corps, including the children, danced strongly. Melissa Barak, the First Sylph, gave notice of incipient major Sylph duties. The ballet, staged by co-artistic director Thordal Christensen, a former principal with the Royal Danish Ballet, was danced to pre-recorded music. DOWNLOAD PDF