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The Nutcracker 2018 Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky SarahAnne Perel & LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel, Zheng Hua Li & LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel, Elizabeth Claire Walker, Joshua Brown & Marc LaPierre SarahAnne Perel & LAB Ensemble Marc LaPierre & Mangus Christoffersen Madeline Houk & Chelsea Paige Johnston Misa Kuranaga & Kenta Shimizu Elizabeth Claire Walker & Joshua Brown Bianca Bulle LAB Ensemble Petra Conti Tigran Sargsyan LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel & LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel, Zheng Hua Li & LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel, Elizabeth Claire Walker, Joshua Brown & Marc LaPierre SarahAnne Perel & LAB Ensemble Marc LaPierre & Mangus Christoffersen Madeline Houk & Chelsea Paige Johnston Misa Kuranaga & Kenta Shimizu Elizabeth Claire Walker & Joshua Brown Bianca Bulle LAB Ensemble Petra Conti Tigran Sargsyan LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel & LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel, Zheng Hua Li & LAB Ensemble SarahAnne Perel, Elizabeth Claire Walker, Joshua Brown & Marc LaPierre SarahAnne Perel & LAB Ensemble Marc LaPierre & Mangus Christoffersen Madeline Houk & Chelsea Paige Johnston Misa Kuranaga & Kenta Shimizu Elizabeth Claire Walker & Joshua Brown Bianca Bulle LAB Ensemble Petra Conti Tigran Sargsyan LAB Ensemble Previous Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation. Next Gallery

Bird-watchers flocked to UCLA’s Royce Hall over the weekend as Los Angeles Ballet, now in its sixth season, continued to prove its pointe shoe prowess with the premiere of “Swan Lake.” And while everything was not always picture-perfect Saturday, husband-and-wife directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, who choreographed the four-act work after Petipa and Ivanov, continue to confound balletic naysayers with their little company that could. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet opening weekend of ‘Swan Lake’ March 5, 2012 Los Angeles Times by Victoria Looseleaf Bird-watchers flocked to UCLA’s Royce Hall over the weekend as Los Angeles Ballet, now in its sixth season, continued to prove its pointe shoe prowess with the premiere of “Swan Lake.” And while everything was not always picture-perfect Saturday, husband-and-wife directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, who choreographed the four-act work after Petipa and Ivanov, continue to confound balletic naysayers with their little company that could. A classic bipolar drama of joy and tragedy set to Tchaikovsky’s sweeping score (heard here, alas, on tape), “Swan Lake” lives and dies -– literally –- by its Odette/Odile, the sweetly vulnerable white swan/cunningly malevolent black swan. (Additional performances with cast changes are on tap in four other venues). A sturdy, stylish corps is also a must. And though Allynne Noelle’s Odette captivated with fragile, fluttering arms and superb footwork (Allyssa Bross alternates in the role), the dancer’s Odile was more smiles than seduction, her Act III fouettés less a study in surety than traveling –- or was it fatigue? One hopes, over time, that Noelle will come to fully embody both avians. The well-drilled corps, though lovely in held poses, is short on emotionally expressive steps, a cygnet requirement for representing unadulterated femininity. In the challenging pas de quatre (Bianca Bulle, Julia Cinquemani, Ariel Derby and Sophie Silna), technique again trumped finesse, another sign of LAB’s youthful makeup. As every Swan Queen needs a noble Siegfried, Kenta Shimizu was not only a gallant partner but also a thrilling soloist. His Act III variations shimmered with airy-as-meringue leaps, his landings rock solid. Also notable: Guest artist Akimitsu Yahata’s Jester generated heat with splashy split kicks, Christopher Revels’ Benno made easy work of his jetés and Christopher McDaniel’s Neapolitan dance (with Isabel Vondermuhll) was sassy and precise. A requisitely nasty Von Rothbart, Nicolas de la Vega as the bare-chested, cape-swooshing sorcerer, boosted the drama, especially in his final death throes. Kudos, also, to Oregon Ballet Theatre’s scenery and costumes: Neo-opulent castle and moonlit forest backdrops accentuated plush royal garb and crisp, sparkly tutus. While this “Swan Lake” may feature a bit of fowl play, its heart is in the right place. Long may Los Angeles Ballet spread its wings. -- Victoria Looseleaf Los Angeles Ballet’s “Swan Lake,” Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach. 7:30 p.m. March 10; Also: Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. 7:30 p.m. March 17; Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. 7:30 p.m., March 24; Valley Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 7:30 p.m., March 31. $24-$95. (310) 998-7782. www.losangelesballet.org DOWNLOAD PDF

Don Quixote 2016 Christensen and Neary after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorky /Minkus Adam Lunders with Abby Callahan & Andrea Fabbri Adam Lunders as Don Quixote Julia Cinquemani, Kenta Shimizu & LAB Ensemble Julia Cinquemani Julia Cinquemani Erik Thordal-Christenssen & LAB Ensemble Allyssa Bross Jeongkon Kim, Andrea Fabbri Julua Cinquemani Zheng Hua Li & LAB Ensemble Adam Lunders, David Renaud & LAB Ensemble David Renaud & LAB Ensemble Elizabeth Claire Walker Elizabeth Claire Walker & Adam Lunders Ashley Millar, Kate Highstrete & Elizabeth Claire Walker Julia Cinquemani & LAB Ensemble Julia Cinquemani & LAB Ensemble Erik Thordal-Christensen Chelsea Paige Johnston & LAB Ensemble Allyssa Bross Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Bianca Bulle Julia Cinquemani & Kenta Shimizu Julia Cinquemani & Kenta Shimizu Julia Cinquemani Previous Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation. Next Gallery

After dancing with Los Angeles Ballet as a Soloist for nine years, Laura Chachich is thrilled to transition into a new administrative role. Laura is a passionate educator who supports and nurtures Company dancers in rehearsals, and oversees the children performing in Los Angeles Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. She brings the joy of dance to communities in Los Angeles through the outreach programs she manages, A Chance to Dance and POP! Power of Performance. Laura received her dance education at Miami City Ballet School, North Carolina School of the Arts and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet before joining The Washington Ballet in DC in 2011. She joined Los Angeles Ballet in 2014 and immediately fell in love with the company and the city. During her time as a dancer, Laura served as LAB’s Outreach Coordinator and helped to grow the company’s outreach programs. She feels that art has the power to connect and heal diverse audiences and looks forward to continuing to serve the LA community. Home / Staff / Administrator Laura Chachich Ballet Master Director of Education Programs After dancing with Los Angeles Ballet as a Soloist for nine years, Laura Chachich is thrilled to transition into a new administrative role. Laura is a passionate educator who supports and nurtures Company dancers in rehearsals, and oversees the children performing in Los Angeles Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. She brings the joy of dance to communities in Los Angeles through the outreach programs she manages, A Chance to Dance and POP! Power of Performance. Laura received her dance education at Miami City Ballet School, North Carolina School of the Arts and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet before joining The Washington Ballet in DC in 2011. She joined Los Angeles Ballet in 2014 and immediately fell in love with the company and the city. During her time as a dancer, Laura served as LAB’s Outreach Coordinator and helped to grow the company’s outreach programs. She feels that art has the power to connect and heal diverse audiences and looks forward to continuing to serve the LA community.

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

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. Bryce Broedell Hometown HobeSound, FL Seasons with LAB 2 Seasons with LAB Bryce began his formal dance training at age six at Artstage in Palm Beach County, Florida. At 11, he was cast as the Prince in Miami City Ballet’s Nutcracker , a role he performed for two consecutive years. The role launched his pre-professional training at Ballet East Palm Beach, Miami City Ballet, School of American Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. At 16, he moved to Los Angeles to attend The Colburn Dance Academy. After graduating in 2023, Bryce joined Los Angeles Ballet as a trainee and was promoted to Company member for the 2024/2025 season.

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

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. Paige Wilkey Hometown Los Angeles, CA Seasons with LAB 3 Seasons with LAB Paige began her ballet training at the age of three in Los Angeles. She trained year-round with the Boston Ballet School as a Professional Division student before joining Oregon Ballet Theatre, where she danced for five seasons. In 2021, Paige joined American Contemporary Ballet, performing principal roles before joining Los Angeles Ballet in 2023. Some of Paige’s favorite roles and performances in her career so far have been with Los Angeles Ballet, including the title role in Yuri Possokhov’s Firebird and the Arbenita pas de deux in Melissa Barak’s Memoryhouse .

Los Angeles Ballet Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are excited to unveil the ballets selected for LAB's eighth season. Home / News / New Item LAB Announces 2013/2014 Season August 1, 2013 Company News from the Staff at LAB Los Angeles Ballet Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are excited to unveil the ballets selected for LAB's eighth season. The season opens with Los Angeles Ballet's original production of The Nutcracker. In March 2014, Quartet presents Return to a Strange Land, by Jiří Kylián; World Premieres by Christopher Stowell and Sonya Tayeh; and Stars and Stripes, by George Balanchine. The season concludes in May/June 2014 with the two-act story ballet La Sylphide, paired with Balanchine's romantic Serenad

Los Angeles Ballet stepped into its sixth season with a delightful holiday performance of The Nutcracker at The Alex Theatre in Glendale last weekend. LAB alternately charmed and thrilled its audience with dancing that conveyed emotional depth, and bravura displays that combined strength and grace. Home / News / New Item ‘The Nutcracker’ is a Triumph for Los Angeles Ballet December 12, 2011 BurbankNBeyond by Greg Simay Los Angeles Ballet stepped into its sixth season with a delightful holiday performance of The Nutcracker at The Alex Theatre in Glendale last weekend. LAB alternately charmed and thrilled its audience with dancing that conveyed emotional depth, and bravura displays that combined strength and grace. Act I, Scene One (hallway) features wonderfully expressive acting by Clara (Mia Katz) and her annoying brother Fritz (Aidan Merchel-Zoric). The charm continues into Scene Two (The Party) with engaging choreography and a stunning performance by the Cossack Doll (Chehon Wespi-Tschopp): ten consecutive turns (tour a la seconde) followed by a quadruple pirouette. And Scene Three is both playful and serious in its dispatch of the Mouse King. Act II, Scene One is a feast of superb performances that range from exquisite to vigorous. And the final scene when Clara awakens marks Mia Katz as a gifted actress as well as dancer. Like The Wizard of Oz would do in the 20th century, Tchaikovsky’s 19th century masterpiece celebrates the amazing worlds a young woman unleashes in her dreams. In The Wizard of Oz, the heroine Dorothy creates a world that enables her to work through relationship issues with the adults around her. In The Nutcracker, our heroine Clara is a bit more ambitious. She dreams of a romantic ideal. The scene opens just before the guests arrive at the Christmas Eve party at the Stalbaum Family’s festive home.Clara is being tormented by her brother Fritz, who attempts to wrestle her baby doll away from her. Later on, when the party is underway, we see Fritz and other boys waving toy guns and running through the crowd as Clara and the girls hug their dolls all the more tightly. And so we see, through a child’s eyes, society’s central problem: how to harness the male energy so that it protects fragile life rather than destroys it. Clara’s dear Uncle Drosselmeyer presents Clara with a life-sized Nutcracker, an example of male energy properly harnessed: the Nutcracker is able to crack the shell without destroying the nut. And was it just a coincidence that Fritz got knocked over in his presence when he persisted in teasing Clara? That night, Clara’s dream is that of an innocent young girl, not yet sailing into the storms of adolescence. So, her vision of men behaving badly is not a gang of wolves or even rats, but overgrown mice. Uncle Drossmeyer, personifying the civilizing tradition, summons The Nutcracker, symbolizing the young hero who must defend civilization anew. The Nutcracker dispatches the Mouse King; man’s better nature has triumphed over his baser one. As a result, Uncle Drossmeyer can now usher both Clara and her Nutcracker into a world where the delicate things—like snowflakes—can safely dance. A world where strength serves beauty and grace. The Nutcracker is a young girl’s wonderful dream of civilization as it might be. And for a few hours, Los Angeles Ballet made that dream a glorious reality. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to become more culturally involved, put LAB on your list. Then you’ll have at least one resolution you’re likely to keep long after the pounds have returned. The Nutcracker plays at Royce Hall, UCLA on Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th, at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 pm. Then it plays at the Redondo Beach performing Arts Center on Thursday the 22nd at 7:30 p.m., Friday the 23rd at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday the 24th at 1:00 p.m. Call the Box Office at 310-998-7782 or visit www.losangelesballet.org . DOWNLOAD PDF

One of the most beloved ballets of the Romantic era, Giselle is a haunting story about a young peasant girl who falls in love, only to be betrayed and driven to madness and death. Tempted in the afterlife by spirits to seek vengeance, Giselle’s enduring love ultimately saves her beloved. A combination of tender romance, dramatic betrayal, and ethereal beauty, Giselle remains a cornerstone of the classical ballet repertoire. 2025/2026 Season / Giselle / Giselle, May 3, 2026, 7:30 pm / Tickets

The evening included fine food and wine, live music, and a first glimpse of Los Angeles Ballet! Exhibits of the new sets and costumes for Los Angeles Ballet’s The Nutcracker were also on display. Home / News / New Item Bergamot Station Hosts Art for the Arts November 1, 2006 Company News from the Staff at LAB The event, with Honorary Chair Anjelica Huston, offered works by celebrity artists Tony Bennett, Orlando Bloom, Jeff Bridges, Tommy Chong, Leonard Cohen, David Cowles, Tony Curtis, Gil Garcetti, Joel Gray, Buck Henry, Dennis Hopper, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Joni Mitchell, Viggo Mortensen, Martin Mull, Jane Seymour, Richard Schiff, and Yoko Ono, among others. The auction was conducted live by Santa Monica Auction House auctioneer, Robert Berman. The evening included fine food and wine, live music, and a first glimpse of Los Angeles Ballet! Exhibits of the new sets and costumes for Los Angeles Ballet’s The Nutcracker were also on display.