def3083e-88bb-4367-8f2e-a22057e8e220 2026-2027 Season / Ticket Information / In-house Policies In-house Policies Children Los Angeles Ballet recommends a minimum age of 6 years old for children attending a performance. Children are required to have tickets and separate seats. As a courtesy to audience members and performers, please use discretion regarding your child's ability to sit quietly and enjoy a performance. Venues have differing policies regarding the minimum age of children in attendance. Please contact the LAB Box Office or visit the venue website where you plan to attend for more information. Cameras and Mobile Devices Cameras and recording equipment are not permitted in the theaters. All mobile devices must be turned off and alarm watches must be silenced before the start of the performance. For questions and support, please contact the Box Office at (310) 998-7782 to purchase by phone, Monday through Friday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm. In-person Ticket Sales Group Sales Venues Accessibility Gift Certificates Tax-Deductibe Donations Terms & Conditions of Sales In-house Policies Privacy Policy

a166a047-ee69-4ca0-b214-93c97e73ac98 2026-2027 Season / Ticket Information / Gift Certificates Gift Certificates Give the gift of ballet to friends and family! Los Angeles Ballet Gift Certificates are available in a variety of denominations and are redeemable for all regular performances. Los Angeles Ballet Gift Certificates can be purchased by phone at (310) 998-7782 For questions and support, please contact the Box Office at (310) 998-7782 to purchase by phone, Monday through Friday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm. In-person Ticket Sales Group Sales Venues Accessibility Gift Certificates Tax-Deductibe Donations Terms & Conditions of Sales In-house Policies Privacy Policy

4b5457fd-90e1-4bec-8706-9e8f86d0494e 2026-2027 Season / Ticket Information / In-Person Ticket Sales In-Person Ticket Sales Tickets may be purchased in advance in person at the Central Ticket Office at UCLA for Royce Hall, The Wallis in Beverly Hills, and Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Please visit venue websites directly for box office hours . The LAB Box Office at all venues will be open 90 minutes before the performance. No in-person purchases at LAB Offices at this time. For questions and support, please contact the Box Office at (310) 998-7782 to purchase by phone, Monday through Friday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm. In-person Ticket Sales Group Sales Venues Accessibility Gift Certificates Tax-Deductibe Donations Terms & Conditions of Sales In-house Policies Privacy Policy

Download this article Home / News / New Item The Curtain Rises for L.A. Ballet November 22, 2006 Palisadian-Post by Libby Motika Download this article DOWNLOAD PDF

Los Angeles Ballet presents a company of outstanding dancers from local communities and around the world. LAB dance artists master classical as well as contemporary techniques. John Dekle Hometown Jacksonville, FL Seasons with LAB 3 Seasons with LAB John commenced his ballet training at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville. At 16, he pursued additional training with the Florida Ballet. Subsequently, he received a full scholarship to the Miami City Ballet School. Upon completing his second year, he secured an apprenticeship for the 2023/2024 season. During this time, he performed in Balanchine's The Nutcracker , Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake , Romeo and Juliet , Concerto DSCH , and Firebird . In this past season at LAB, John showcased his artistry in Maté Szentes' premiere piece, "Lost in Time," "The Nutcracker," Melissa Barak's "Memory House," and Edward Liang's "Cinderella."

The Sleeping Beauty 2015 Christensen and Neary after Petipa / Tchaikovsky Allyssa Bross as Aurora Allynne Noelle as The Lilac Fairy Fairy Ensemble Colleen Neary as Carabosse Allyssa Bross with LAB Ensemble Allynne Noelle Kenta Shimizu as Prince Desire & Allynne Noelle as The Lilac Fairy Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Bianca Bulle as The Diamond Julia Cinquemani as Princess Florine Julia Cinquemani as Princess Florine & Luke Schaufuss as The Bluebird Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu LAB Ensemble Allyssa Bross as Aurora Allynne Noelle as The Lilac Fairy Fairy Ensemble Colleen Neary as Carabosse Allyssa Bross with LAB Ensemble Allynne Noelle Kenta Shimizu as Prince Desire & Allynne Noelle as The Lilac Fairy Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Bianca Bulle as The Diamond Julia Cinquemani as Princess Florine Julia Cinquemani as Princess Florine & Luke Schaufuss as The Bluebird Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu LAB Ensemble Previous Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation. Next Gallery

L.A. Ballet's Balanchine Festival follows in master's steps. Home / News / New Item LA Times Previews the Balanchine Festival March 7, 2013 Los Angeles Times L.A. Ballet's Balanchine Festival follows in master's steps "Company co-founder Colleen Neary brings a first-person familiarity with George Balanchine's exacting methods as a former dancer with New York City Ballet." Read Susan Joseph's full story on Los Angeles Ballet's Balanchine Festival. DOWNLOAD PDF

Colleen Neary will never forget the day when George Balanchine articulated the blueprint for her life’s work. She was in her early 20s, then a respected New York City Ballet dancer. Home / News / New Item L.A. Ballet's Balanchine Festival follows in master's steps March 8, 2013 Los Angeles Times by Susan Josephs March 8, 2013 | By Susan Josephs Colleen Neary will never forget the day when George Balanchine articulated the blueprint for her life’s work. She was in her early 20s, then a respected New York City Ballet dancer. “He put me in to teach company class,” she says. “He said to me, ‘This is what you will do in the future.’ I said I wanted to dance, but he said, ‘You won’t dance forever. You will teach dancers my ballets.” Fast forward to 2013, to a rehearsal of Balanchine’s 1941 “Concerto Barocco” at the Westside headquarters of Los Angeles Ballet. Neary, now 60 and the company’s co-founder, surveys her dancers with microscopic scrutiny as they attempt to master the rigorously precise footwork, high-energy unison phrases and tricky group formations of the 18-minute dance. Both critical and encouraging, she invokes the words of her mentor during the section where three female dancers must weave around the sole male dancer in the work, interlocking hands and arms to create sculptural yet quickly dissolving tableaux. “Balanchine always used to say, ‘You should be walking around like Grecian goddesses,’ “ she tells the female dancers. “You’re missing this thing. In all his ballets, there’s this thing that’s more than the steps. It’s about feeling beautiful within yourself, and I can’t teach you that.” Neary, however, can remember how the famous choreographer known as Mr. B made his dancers feel beautiful, and it’s this firsthand experience that serves as the guiding force behind her company’s Balanchine Festival 2013. “Colleen has this great gift for challenging dancers to embody the Balanchine aesthetic,” says Ellen Sorrin, director of the George Balanchine Trust, which authorizes the staging of Balanchine’s ballets worldwide. “It’s an enormous responsibility to do what she’s doing, to disseminate Balanchine’s works as fully and wonderfully as possible.” DOWNLOAD PDF

Ballet in Los Angeles has had a rocky history. Marred by countless false starts, the city's classical dance scene has historically had trouble supporting a to-tier professional troupe-promoting iconic director/choreographer George Balanchine to famously proclaim there was "no hope" for ballet in L.A. Home / News / New Item Hottest Ticket: On Their Toes Los Angeles Ballet...Pirouetting its Way to Top Honors December 1, 2011 LA Confidential by Emili Vesilind Ballet in Los Angeles has had a rocky history. Marred by countless false starts, the City's classical dance scene has historically had trouble supporting a to-tier professional troupe-promoting iconic director/choreographer George Balachine to famously proclaim there was "no hope" for ballet in L.A. DOWNLOAD PDF

Thordal Christensen choreographed a Romeo and Juliet pas de deux for SYTYCD competitors Melissa Sandvig and Ade Obayomi that aired on July 1st, 2009. Home / News / New Item Thordal Christensen, Los Angeles Ballet's Co-Artistic Director, Makes His Choreographic Debut on SYTYCD July 1, 2009 Company News from the Staff at LAB Thordal Christensen choreographed a Romeo and Juliet pas de deux for SYTYCD competitors Melissa Sandvig and Ade Obayomi that aired on July 1st, 2009. This marked the first time classical ballet was introduced as a component of the competition.

A celebration of George Balanchine’s life, choreography and his time working in Hollywood with performances of seven of his greatest ballets and discussions with noted dance critics, historians and répétiteurs of The George Balanchine Trust Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Balanchine Presents the Balanchine Festival February 1, 2013 LAB Public Relations Balanchine GOLD (March/April 2013) and Balanchine RED (May/June 2013) A celebration of George Balanchine’s life, choreography and his time working in Hollywood with performances of seven of his greatest ballets and discussions with noted dance critics, historians and répétiteurs of The George Balanchine Trust at: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center Royce Hall – UCLA Valley Performing Arts Center – CSU Northridge Alex Theatre – Glendale Carpenter Performing Arts Center – CSU Long Beach Los Angeles Ballet presents its Balanchine Festival , celebrating the genius of the most important and influential choreographer of the 20th century. Extending over three months, the Festival centers on seven of Balanchine’s greatest ballets performed in two programs (GOLD and RED), presented at each of LAB’s five home theaters. Special Festival events will include discussions and interviews with those who worked with Balanchine, and an examination of Balanchine’s Hollywood years with screenings of his film choreography. Los Angeles Ballet co-artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary assembled the program to represent Balanchine in his many styles and eras. Both Christensen and Neary danced with Balanchine’s New York City Ballet. Balanchine personally selected Neary to stage his ballets, and to become a répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust. She has staged his ballets for major companies in America and internationally, including the Paris Opera Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Mariinksy (formerly Kirov Ballet) and American Ballet Theatre, to name a few, as well as for Los Angeles Ballet. “Selecting only seven ballets from the rich trove Balanchine created over the decades was not easy,” Christensen said. Neary added, “Each of these ballets has a specific mood and reflects a distinct musical and choreographic composition and style. Each ballet also has stories surrounding its creation, the music, and those who danced it, which will be part of the conversations that ticket holders can also experience as part of the performances.” Balanchine GOLD includes La Sonnambula , a one-act story ballet with love, jealousy, murder and a mysterious sleepwalker; Concerto Barocco, one of Balanchine’s signature works set to Bach’s Concerto in D-minor for Two Violins ; Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux , a bravura duet set to what was the original music for the Black Swan pas de deux; and Four Temperaments, with music Paul Hindemith composed at Balanchine’s request and wherein the choreographer fused classical and contemporary movement to explore the medieval “humors” attributed to the human body. Balanchine RED opens with another one-act story ballet, La Valse , where Maurice Ravel’s music is the backdrop for a young woman’s fascination with a sinister figure at a ball. Agon employs Igor Stravinsky’s score for a series of contests among the dancers, and Balanchine returns to Stravinsky for Rubies , the jazzy, exuberant center section of the full length ballet, Jewels . George Balanchine, (or Mr. B as he was called by those who knew and worked with him), began his career in Russia, built his reputation as a choreographer at Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, then came to the United States where he established the School of American Ballet and built what became the New York City Ballet. But Balanchine also spent time in Hollywood, often choreographing for his then wife Vera Zorina. Balanchine’s time in Hollywood is one of the aspects of his career that will be explored by a rotating roster of guest commentators that includes arts journalists Lewis Segal, Victoria Looseleaf, and Sasha Anawalt, and Balanchine répétiteurs including Colleen Neary, her sister Patricia Neary, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell. During his life Balanchine selected répétiteurs authorized to stage his ballets. Since his death in 1983, The Balanchine Trust and its répétiteurs have continued to ensure the integrity of the staging of Balanchine’s ballets while introducing new generations to Balanchine’s legacy. (The George Balanchine Trust, established in 1987 with the mission of preserving and protecting Balanchine’s creative works, is the center from which the business operations relating to the licensing of George Balanchine’s creative output emanate. The Trust has the responsibility of disseminating and protecting the integrity and the copyrights of George Balanchine’s work in the present and for the future, and assigns répétiteurs to teach and coach Balanchine ballets around the world.) “April 30, 2013 marks the 30th anniversary of Mr. B’s death,” Christensen noted. “We had added two more theaters for a total of five home venues, and as Los Angeles Ballet was entering its seventh season in 2012-2013, it seemed the appropriate time for a festival to celebrate Balanchine’s genius and life. It was a happy coincidence when the Music Center announced its festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, L.A.’s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation, and Dance. ” “Our Balanchine Festival fit like a glove with the Stravinsky festival,” Neary said. “Balanchine and Stravinsky were great friends and loved to collaborate. With Agon and Rubies already part of Los Angeles Ballet’s Balanchine Festival, we were very pleased with the invitation to perform those ballets this summer as part of the Stravinsky festival to honor both Balanchine and Stravinsky at the same time.” DOWNLOAD PDF

Maleficent isn’t the only witch in town. Madge, the evildoer in August Bournonville’s 1836 Romantic ballet “La Sylphide” also has been creating misery (and laughs). Home / News / New Item Review: Los Angeles Ballet floats with 'La Sylphide and Serenade' June 9, 2014 Los Angeles Times by Victoria Looseleaf Maleficent isn’t the only witch in town. Madge, the evildoer in August Bournonville’s 1836 Romantic ballet “La Sylphide” also has been creating misery (and laughs). As devilishly portrayed by Los Angeles Ballet’s co-artistic director Colleen Neary and choreographed by her co-director husband, Thordal Christensen (after Bournonville), this witch is only one element that gave “La Sylphide” its wings Saturday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The program, which also presented George Balanchine’s 1934 classic “Serenade,” featured about three dozen dancers breathing life into these difficult, alluring works. One performer in particular proved unstoppable. Allyssa Bross danced the lead in both numbers on little notice, replacing an ailing Allynne Noelle in “Sylphide.” The pair alternates in the role, so Bross knew her stuff; the question was stamina. But Bross brought insouciance, grace and technique to burn in a sumptuous production last presented by the troupe in 2009. What man wouldn’t fall for her? Set in Scotland to taped music by Herman Severin Løvenskjold, “La Sylphide” told the story of the kilt-clad James as he succumbed to this exquisite creature’s charms. Kenta Shimizu as James offered powerful leaps and turns — pesky sporran aside — as well as quicksilver, precise beats. Alas, he already was betrothed to Effy, articulately danced by Chelsea Paige Johnston, with their wedding scheduled that day. James’ cottage teemed with people, including best pal Gurn (a wonderful Zheng Hua Li), a semi-buffoon who winds up marrying Effy after James disappears, as well as a corps of tartaned-out friends, six children and a pair of bagpipers. But wedded bliss wasn’t meant to be. After James offended the witch, Madge was out for blood — or at least death by sylph wing-removal. Act II’s forest scene had Madge and four crones hexing it up around a caldron to make a poisoned scarf. Neary, a former New York City Ballet principal, dove into Madge with glee, adding luster to this production that’s originally from the Royal Danish Ballet, a company Christensen once headed. The sylphs were also out in fairy force, with lovely, airy dancing by Bianca Bulle, Julia Cinquemani and Paige Johnston, a fine corps abetting them. But after James gifted the Sylph (Bross) that scarf, she began her death spiral. Yes, the ballet ends badly: James crumpled in grief; seeing his dead fairy float up to heaven, he’d lost everything. “Serenade,” set to taped Tchaikovsky and staged by Neary, could also be seen as a work about loss. A poetic vision of yearning, 17 women in diaphanous dresses filled the stage with intricate patterns and circlings. There were also off-balance arabesque lunges, legs scissoring in lifts and an impassioned waltz; hair streamed loose, and several men came and went. Bross was stunning as lead ballerina, sharing the stage at first with a capable Ulrik Birkkjaer, then the able Alexander Castillo, as well as a divine Cinquemani and a thin Kate Highstrete. And, of course, there was the corps, among whom crisp footwork and floating arms were paramount. The ballet had the love-disillusioned-by-destiny theme of Balanchine’s later neo-Romantic works, but its propulsive energy and beauty came from the pure movement patterns that continually introduced new motifs and variations. Los Angeles Ballet, on a roll, made the old new again. calendar@latimes.com ------------ Los Angeles Ballet What: “La Sylphide” and “Serenade” When and where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach; also 7:30 p.m. June 21 at Royce Hall, UCLA Tickets: $24-$95 Information: (310) 998-7782, losangelesballet.org READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE