Search LAB

Unlike certain 20th-century artists who found themselves miserable in Hollywood — F. Scott Fitzgerald comes to mind — George Balanchine was fond of the place in the 1930s. Balanchine's Palm-Fringed Muse May 17, 2013 New York Times by Victoria Looseleaf LOS ANGELES — Unlike certain 20th-century artists who found themselves miserable in Hollywood — F. Scott Fitzgerald comes to mind — George Balanchine was fond of the place in the 1930s. He loved the orange groves, Romanoff’s glamorous boîte and choreographing dances for movies. But after founding New York City Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein in 1948, the man who changed America’s dancescape became synonymous with the East Coast. Now, 30 years after his death, Mr. Balanchine is having another West Coast moment, through the prism of different ballet troupes. The Balanchine repertory is standard fare for the Los Angeles Ballet, founded in 2006 by the husband-and-wife team of Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen. Yet this year, having grown to 35 dancers from 21, with an annual operating budget to $2.5 million, the directors felt the time was right for a full-fledged Balanchine Festival. The festival, which opened in March, is presenting seven works over four months. The remaining performances in the second and final installment, featuring “La Valse,” “Agon” and “Rubies,” will be presented at three theaters in May and June. The latter two works, set to Stravinsky, are also part of the program for July in Grand Park, in line with the Los Angeles Music Center’s yearlong Stravinsky celebration “Balanchine loved this city,” Ms. Neary said in an interview, “and it is my wish that the passion he felt in his work is given to L.A. in these programs.” Ms. Neary, 60, first met Balanchine as an 8-year-old student at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet. She joined City Ballet in 1969 and was a soloist from 1975 to 1979. In 1985 the George Balanchine Trust authorized her to teach and stage his ballets. Ms. Neary says she feels a responsibility to the choreographer, who created more than 400 works. “It’s my job to help dancers get to know him,” she said during a rehearsal break at the company’s Westside headquarters. “It’s not only teaching steps he taught us, and the intention, but also the ballets’ different styles. One thing I always say he told us is, ‘You shouldn’t save anything — you should give all your energies to what you’re doing now.’ ” On a recent afternoon in the Los Angeles Ballet’s 12,000-square-foot studios, Ms. Neary scrutinized her dancers, who range in age from 19 to 31, as they rehearsed the fiendishly difficult steps of “La Valse,” a 1951 ballet about death set to Ravel’s work.“Don’t bounce, glide,” Ms. Neary urged Allyssa Bross, the female lead in white, while Mr. Christensen, 47, leapt onto a chair to observe the unsettling funereal circling in the finale. Ms. Neary and Mr. Christensen’s 28-year partnership has included dancing with City Ballet, and their exchanges in the studio veer from detail-oriented simpatico to the occasionally prickly. “She’s been my boss, and I’ve been hers,” he said, “but because we know each other so well, there’s a certain aesthetic we try to pull from the dancers together.” Renae Williams Niles, the Music Center’s vice president for programming, suggested in an interview that promoting Balanchine’s legacy is strategically smart for a young dance company seeking a bigger profile. “When I think of Balanchine here, I think of Colleen, one of our local treasures,” she said. Preconcert talks are also part of the Balanchine Festival, and they help to shed light on the time he spent in Southern California. Audiences learn that Balanchine adored the climate, food markets and movie culture of Los Angeles, where he choreographed five films, all featuring Vera Zorina, then his wife, from 1938 to 1944. For the first, “The Goldwyn Follies” (1938), he worked with the composer Vernon Duke, a friend who wrote music for the “Water Nymph Ballet,” a Botticelli-esque sequence in which Ms. Zorina rose from a pool. The sequence is said to have been beloved by Samuel Goldwyn, the film’s producer. Hollywood also proved congenial for Mr. Balanchine’s collaborations with Stravinsky, with whom he worked on some 40 pieces over the years. Conversing in their native Russian over many a meal, the pair worked on masterpieces like “Orpheus,” which had its premiere in 1948 with Maria Tallchief. Another Los Angeles troupe seeking to lay claim to part of Balanchine’s legacy is the American Contemporary Ballet, now in its second season. The 10-member company is directed by the choreographer Lincoln Jones, a native Angeleno who returned here in 2010 after spending seven years performing and teaching in New York. While laying the groundwork for forming the company, he spent hours devouring all things Balanchine at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. “Dance is fairly limited as a storytelling medium, but as a musical one that works in a visual realm, it’s unlimited,” Mr.Jones said in an interview. “It was Balanchine’s realization of this — and his development of its musical vocabulary, aside from the works themselves — that was his greatest contribution.” Mr. Jones said he was drawn back to Los Angeles by its widening classical music scene. He took along his muse, the ballerina Theresa Farrell, who is now the company’s associate director; seeking to expand the audience for dance, they soon paired with Da Camera Society, a group that was founded four decades ago and performs chamber music at historic sites. Its top musicians accompanied American Contemporary Ballet last year when it gave its first concerts — two instrumental works interspersed with a pair of dances — in a warehouse in the city’s mid-Wilshire area. Next month four more concerts are scheduled over two nights. “The fact that they’re so good and just getting started, I feel I owe it to the art of dance to help build whatever I can,” said Martin Chalifour, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s principal concertmaster, who donates his time to performing with the troupe. “Lincoln caters to the complexities of the musical score and, like Balanchine, that’s his inspiration. Music transports you, and when you augment that with beautiful dance, it becomes a unique sensory experience.” Another troupe with Balanchine ties is the Barak Ballet, founded by Melissa Barak, a Los Angeles native who danced with New York City Ballet for nine years. For now, no Balanchine works are planned for the ballet’s inaugural concert in October, she said, “but my choreography is influenced by him, and I’d like to think he may have seen something special in me.” While Los Angeles has metamorphosed into a sprawl-to-the-wall metropolis since Balanchine walked its palm treelined streets, his spirit lives on here for these choreographers. “When we’re teaching and talking about him, Mr. B is with us,” Ms. Neary said. “I believe that.” DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary will tour its acclaimed rendition of the beloved classic The Nutcracker to five venues for the very first time. The Nutcracker in its Seventh Season at Five Venues November 1, 2012 LAB Public Relations Los Angeles Ballet Takes The Nutcraker to Five Venus to Launch its Seventh Season (Los Angeles, CA) Los Angeles Ballet [LAB] Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary will tour its acclaimed rendition of the beloved classic The Nutcracker to five venues for the very first time. Each weekend in December will feature evening and matinee performances at a different location, including the Alex Theatre, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Royce Hall (UCLA), Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach and Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge. “Seven years ago, The Nutcracker served as LAB’s introduction to the City of Los Angeles, and as the years have gone by it continues to produce new fans of all ages to the world of ballet,” said Christensen. “With this ambitious expansion to five venues, LAB will have the opportunity to reach new audiences and give them a chance to participate in what has become a holiday tradition.” Added Neary, “The Nutcracker is such a great showcase for our principal dancers Allynne Noelle and Allyssa Bross.” An original production choreographed by Christensen and Neary set to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s illustrious score, The Nutcracker will see principal dancers Allynne Noelle and Allyssa Bross reprise their role as Marie at alternating performances, as well as principal dancers Christopher Revels and Kenta Shimizu as The Prince. Featuring sets with Los Angeles flair by LA designer Catherine Kanner and costumes originally designed by Mikael Melbye, The Nutcracker has become a staple for the city of Los Angeles, and LAB is excited to be able to bring this endearing ballet to broader audiences and new venues. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

"...A native of New York City, [Elisabeth Claire Walker] studied at American Ballet Theatre’s elite Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School as a teenager. LAB Dancer Elizabeth Claire Walker featured in Harvard Magazine June 1, 2016 Harvard Magazine by Maggie Shipstead "...A native of New York City, [Elisabeth Claire Walker] studied at American Ballet Theatre’s elite Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School as a teenager. Her senior year of high school—even after she’d been accepted to Harvard—was spent attending massive cattle-call auditions for professional companies. Just when she was about to give up, she spotted a notice for Los Angeles Ballet, a new company with impressively pedigreed artistic directors. The audition happened on a rainy day, she remembers; her mother encouraged her to go. “She said I’d regret it if I didn’t. I was sewing pointe shoes in the car.” A week later, she got the call..." READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Dancing through its first nine seasons, Los Angeles Ballet has bravely tackled one rite of passage after another — not merely the major Balanchine and Bournonville choreographies that are its stylistic birthright but, increasingly, the top-of-the-list, full-length 19th century classics that can leave dancers in any company cruelly exposed. L.A. Ballet delivers a classically pure 'Sleeping Beauty' March 30, 2015 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal Dancing through its first nine seasons, Los Angeles Ballet has bravely tackled one rite of passage after another — not merely the major Balanchine and Bournonville choreographies that are its stylistic birthright but, increasingly, the top-of-the-list, full-length 19th century classics that can leave dancers in any company cruelly exposed. The latest example: a three-hour “Sleeping Beauty” Sunday afternoon in Royce Hall at UCLA that justified company (and civic) pride both as an index of growth and for sustained achievement. The Royce performance was the final of five performances over the last five weeks. With its tiny morsels of plot and cornucopia of formal dances, “Sleeping Beauty” is a daunting challenge that Marius Petipa, the original choreographer, intended not as a typical Romantic story-ballet but an evocation of a much older theatrical dance tradition. Shared purity of style is essential here, and long before the nominal leading dancers made their first entrances on Sunday, the women who performed short blessing-solos in the first half-hour of the ballet delivered the vibrant yet uninsistent classicism that co-directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary have made into a company signature. What’s more, Christensen and Neary boast backgrounds with the Royal Danish Ballet — long the acknowledged masters of 19th century ballet sign-language — so the vital mime conversations in “Sleeping Beauty” that can look clumsy or even ridiculous when other companies attempt them became utterly natural on Sunday. You try telling people, without speaking, that a baby is going to grow up, be beautiful, dance nicely yet prick her finger on a spindle and die. A lot easier to text it. You might argue that the last act of this version suffers from extensive cuts that leave only classical showpieces, omitting the character and comic specialties that Petipa included for variety. And you might also note that the company’s skimpy male roster definitely needs the guests that have been popping up here and there. A month earlier, at the Valley Performing Arts Center, Luke Schaufuss (son of ballet superstar Peter Schaufuss) danced a raw but powerful Bluebird in the production. And on Sunday, the role of King Florestan gained authority from the great dancing-actor of New York City Ballet, Adam Lüders. Of course, a young company that dances to recorded music in borrowed sets has more to worry about than guests, and, indeed, there were times on Sunday when the slow, canned Tchaikovsky and the cramped Royce Hall stage took their toll. For example, in Act 1 alone the Garland Waltz needed more musical oomph, and Aurora’s solo after the Rose Adagio needed more space in front of the scenery. But that’s about all Julia Cinquemani needed as Aurora. Gifted with a technique that made every high extension seem a major event, she had the unerring balances for the Rose Adagio, the dreamy inaccessibility for the Vision Scene and the radiant star power for the Grand Pas de Deux, all presented with a devastating freshness, as if she might be discovering the role as she danced it. Allyssa Bross displayed many of these same qualities as Aurora on Feb. 28 at the Valley Performing Arts Center, and she ably transferred them to the role of the Lilac Fairy on Sunday, standing up to Neary’s furious Carabosse with dramatic flair. Neary’s special achievement was letting you see how genuinely injured this character felt — deep human emotion clashing with the stylized sweetness surrounding her. Among the men, pride of place incontestably belonged to Kenta Shimizu, the one and only Prince Desire in every company performance. Admittedly he couldn’t do much with his dull, inexpressive I’m-so-lonely choreography in Act 2. But the mime, partnering and sense of urgency in the Vision Scene proved exemplary, and his elegance in the Grand Pas de Deux ideally complemented his Auroras, whether Cinquemani or Bross. Allynne Noelle wasn’t in the cast on Sunday, but at VPAC last month her Lilac Fairy had regal eloquence, and she also danced Aurora during the five-week run. Dustin True made a diligent, low-flying Bluebird opposite Bianca Bulle, who soloed impressively both here and in the first fairy variation of the Prologue. The other fairies and/or jewels included Ashley Millar, Madison McDonough, Chloé Sherman, Elizabeth Claire Walker and Kate Highstrete. Without them, the staging would have lacked credibility as a whole. A “Swan Lake” can thrill you with just a great Prince and Swan Queen, but “Sleeping Beauty” needs classical multitudes — especially sparkling women soloists. Heading toward its 10th season in September, Los Angeles Ballet clearly has them, and they may be sorely tested by the anti-classical modern dance and crossover repertory on their agenda this summer. For a company as ambitious as this one, the rites of passage never stop — and neither does the excitement. David Walker’s scenery for a Boston Ballet production looked ideally sumptuous on the wide stage of Valley Performing Arts Center, but whatever could be accommodated at Royce Hall framed the dancers richly. calendar@latimes.com READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Five slender women in flesh-toned leotards emerge from shadows into powerful spotlights. They unpin their ballet buns. Long brown, black and blond hair cascades down. Sonya Tayeh Tells Her Dancers to Keep Their Hair Down. Why Is That So Radical? March 14, 2014 L.A. Weekly by Ann Haskins Five slender women in flesh-toned leotards emerge from shadows into powerful spotlights. They unpin their ballet buns. Long brown, black and blond hair cascades down. Leaning toward the audience, they sweep their hair over their faces; for most of the next 20 minutes, Los Angeles Ballet's classically trained ballerinas dance with their hair covering their faces during a dress rehearsal for Sonya Tayeh's Beneath One's Dignity, her fourth LAB commission. It's one of two world premieres and two company premieres in LAB's Quartet, onstage at Glendale's Alex Theater this Saturday and UCLA's Royce Hall next week. Tayeh first drew widespread attention for her ferocious combat-jazz choreography on television's So You Think You Can Dance, but she has been extending her artistic horizons since her first LAB commission enhanced her cred as a multifaceted choreographer. She relocated to New York City to choreograph Kung Fu, an off-Broadway musical bio about martial arts movie legend Bruce Lee, but returned to create Beneath One's Dignity for LAB.] Known for her own distinctive, often asymmetrical hair – sometimes shaved, sometimes punctuated with red and blue – Tayeh keeps her long, wavy dark mane pulled to one side, low-key for her, as she watches the dress rehearsal. When her dance ends, Tayeh bounds onto the stage. As she gives the dancers notes, her flannel shirt and combat boots contrast starkly with the women in their flesh-colored leotards and the quintet of men in diaphanous, long black skirts. During the ballet, the women don dresses in the same black see-through material, but at this moment the dresses lie crumpled around the stage, shed and kicked away by the women, with the men repeatedly retrieving and throwing the dresses back at the women, who continue to furiously kick the dresses away. In the final moments, they finally move their hair away from their faces. After notes, in an interview, Tayeh talks about the hair and the dresses as props. “My starting point was in the title; acts or behaviors I've done, sometimes repeatedly, that I felt uncomfortable about or even shame, things beneath my dignity, but that I found myself repeating and the shields I built up to hide behind to protect myself and keep going,” Tayeh explains. “I wanted the women to start out like newborns but then put on the dress, develop the emotions and the realization of something demeaning, something beneath their dignity. The hair is like a protective mask – they want to go without it but retreat behind the hair for protection.” Tayeh says she knew working with their hair in their face was asking a lot of the dancers. “Dancing blind” was LAB principal dancer Alyssa Bross' description.”But we have come to trust Sonya,” Bross adds. “Many ballet choreographers come in, tell us the steps, turn on the music and we dance. Sonya certainly has a direction in mind, but she wants feedback. She asks us to try things and then asks what we need to be comfortable to take it further. Finding that comfort level with her allows us to find the forceful movement and even more powerful emotional levels she wants from our dancing.” The hair made unison dancing particularly difficult. “Working with the music helped, and Sonya developed breathing cues, so we were listening to each other rather than relying on visual cues,” Bross explains. The next night at the premiere, the audience cheers. Tayeh is pleased. “I had a tear in my eye,” she admits. “The dancers captured my struggle and I feel I can make my own positive changes.” Like her dancers, kicking the dress away. READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Chehon Wespi-Tschopp was an intense Hilarion, a villager also in love with Giselle. His prestissimo spins to his death at the hands of the Wilis were terrific. Los Angeles Ballet Featured in Dance Magazine - August 2010 Issue August 1, 2010 Dance Magazine Chehon Wespi-Tschopp was an intense Hilarion, a villager also in love with Giselle. His prestissimo spins to his death at the hands of the Wilis were terrific. The company tours the greater LA area each season, performing at Glendale's Alex Theatre Performing Arts & Entertainment Center, Royce Hall at UCLA Live, the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, and-new this season-the Richard & Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach and the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge. "It's important we establish [ourselves in] LA first, before we tour anywhere else," says Christensen. The Nutcracker, this season's festive opening ballet, is "very important to present around the holidays," says Neary. "Kids love it; the dancers love it, and so do we." Home / News / New Item

Something rare is afoot in Los Angeles. To put it simply, “Swan Lake.” Yes, that icon of classical exactitude and style is popping up on stages all over. And the producer turns out to be not some long-standing, well-endowed enterprise on tour here, but the LA Ballet, which is a mere six years old. Swan feathers float down on local stages March 14, 2012 LA Observed by Donna Perlmutter Something rare is afoot in Los Angeles. To put it simply, “Swan Lake.” Yes, that icon of classical exactitude and style is popping up on stages all over. And the producer turns out to be not some long-standing, well-endowed enterprise on tour here, but the LA Ballet, which is a mere six years old. Why? Why would brand-name husband/wife directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary be confident enough to mount this behemoth of a ballet? This vast spectacle designed for the likes of kingly companies with multi-millions -- the Bolshoi, American Ballet Theatre, Royal Covent Garden, Royal Danish? Answer: They have the chops now, that is, the dancers, together with their deep, artistic savvy. And they know it. All I did was tip-toe into Royce Hall - the first stop in a city-wide tour of major Southland venues that continues through March 31 - only to discover a production of the Petipa-Ivanov-Tchaikovsky ballet that approximated world-class standards. The capstone of all this cheering came in the second act - you know, the famed lakeside scene, that moonlit mirage with the snowy white swan corps floating about and Prince Siegfried sensing the imminent appearance of his fateful inamorata Odette, aka the Swan Queen, turned from maiden into an avian creature by an evil sorcerer. And when she alit onstage, in the person of Allynne Noelle, the effect was dazzling -- as that first sighting was meant to be. Tall, with perfect proportions and gorgeously tapering long limbs, this Swan Queen had both bird-like spark and human pathos, her hand articulation spelling out regal elegance. She danced with alacrity and definition and fluid musicality. It was as though she’d been in training at Vaganova since adolescence - not a girl from Huntington Beach - although she’d done stints at redoubtable dance oases (National Ballet of Canada, Villella’s Miami City Ballet and not least, Vicky Koenig’s Inland Pacific Ballet). So...with Noelle and a host of others now just in their second season with LAB, Christensen and Neary knew this was their moment. In fact, the bench is deep enough to alternate the lead role, as well as others. But that’s not all. These high-pedigree directors (he a Royal Dane, she a Balanchine Trustee), who have both formerly danced the “Swan Lake” lead roles for years, boast wide contacts for bringing resources to the company -- the dancers, for instance -- and this production, originally designed for Pacific Northwest Ballet. Besides Noelle, who joined LAB only 18 months ago, is Alyssa Bross, the alternate lead. I glimpsed her rehearsing Odile (the Black Swan), and saw richly expressive qualities - she used every enticement to undermine the Prince’s oath to Odette and was a dewy seductress, not the hard, haughty type who would laugh at her easy conquest. And when she danced Odette, it was with aching vulnerability - which belies her photograph on the program book cover, a misleadingly placid look. No wonder Christensen went forward with “Swan Lake.” He knew he’d recruited the talent - many had trained at prestigious schools and had danced with top companies. As Noelle’s and Bross’s partners, both Kenta Shimizu and Christopher Revels acquitted themselves nobly, if not exactly at the danseur level. Guest artist Akimitsu Yahata did his thrilling bravura stuff as the Jester. But down to the last coryphée, the coaching was scrupulous. Everyone had clear focus and a sense of unanimity, even the mimed gestures were natural. What’s more, the muted, old-world sets and costumes looked lovely on the Royce Hall stage, as if made for it. Considering that taped music allows for no moment-to-moment variation, the company coped well. DONNA PERLMUTTER is an ASCAP-Award winning music/dance critic and journalist whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and many other publications. She is also the author of “Shadowplay: The Life of Antony Tudor.” Email her at donna.perlmutter@gmail.com . DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

A delightful party in honor of Los Angeles Ballet was held at the historic South Pasadena home of Paige and Scott Hornbacher, generously co-hosted by Ariel and Jeff Carpenter. Event for LAB with the Cast of “MAD MEN” May 1, 2009 Company News from the Staff at LAB A delightful party in honor of Los Angeles Ballet was held at the historic South Pasadena home of Paige and Scott Hornbacher, generously co-hosted by Ariel and Jeff Carpenter. Home / News / New Item

It takes commitment, nerve, and ridiculous sums of money to build a successful ballet company. And that’s just the kindling. Returning in Full Force Los Angeles Ballet Kicks Off Its Third Season March 9, 2009 Los Angeles Times by Laura Bleiburg It takes commitment, nerve, and ridiculous sums of money to build a successful ballet company. And that’s just the kindling. To get a real blaze going, it helps to have the high-powered dance connections of Los Angeles Ballet’s co-directors, Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary. For their fl edgling company’s third repertory season, launched Saturday at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Christensen and Neary brought out their big-gun friends and family, and there was noticeably more heat onstage. Colleen’s sister Patricia Neary, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, staged the George Balanchine-Sergei Prokofi ev 1929 masterpiece “Prodigal Son.” One of that ballet’s greatest interpreters of the title part, Miami City Ballet director Edward Villella, loaned them costumes and sets (modeled on Georges Rouault’s originals). Karin von Aroldingen, another former City Ballet powerhouse, was brought in to help stage “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” (1972), one of Balanchine’s neoclassical gems. Finally, there was a snazzy premiere, “An American Camelot” by Jennifer Backhaus, with party costumes by Franco Martinez and hanging light shades by Tony Kudner. “Prodigal” requires an oversized acting style of another era, yet the L.A. Ballet dancers managed it and the dance’s quirky athleticism fl awlessly. This century-old ballet, based on the biblical parable, crackled with freshness. L.A. Ballet shares Cuban-born leading-man dancer Eddy Tovar with Orlando Ballet, and thank them very much. Tovar has dark good looks, not to mention that classic, unfussy Cuban technique. He inscribes beautiful, open shapes with his etched, muscular body. His son took us on a believable journey, leaving home full of insolent bravura and crawling back a repentant, broken man. Ballerina Melissa Barak, coached also by Westside Ballet’s Yvonne Mounsey, came to inhabit the Siren’s wily personality more slowly. She had the moves and an exacting style. Barak wrapped the Siren’s red cape seductively around her thigh and unfurled her turned-out legs in high sideways kicks and those provocative lunges. Barak more fully became the temptress in her pas de deux with Tovar. In one pretzel coupling after another, Barak emotionally reeled Tovar in, and when she became his, her raised hand signaled triumph. The L.A. Ballet men made a notable transformation as the grotesque Drinking Companions. Flopping and rollicking about the stage, they took to this weirdness with all-out freedom. Backhaus’ “An American Camelot” was her second piece for L.A. Ballet. The fi rst work misfi red so badly (last season’s “she said/he said”) that the latest commission came as a surprise. This time, Backhaus and the six couples she cast were on much fi rmer ground. “An American Camelot” advocates dancing through your troubles, and Backhaus’ loose, hip choreography was persuasive. How can you go wrong with Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Eartha Kitt, singing “Bal Petite Bal”? (The night’s music was taped.) The choreographer melded jitterbug, jazz and classic steps in six sections. Male dancers were given virile leaps and push-ups. The women did the Charleston -- never comfortable in toe shoes -- but pointe work too. The tall and loose-limbed Andrew Brader was in his element as leading man. “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” on the other hand, was occasionally effortful. But the corps de ballet held heads high, and that deer-in-the-headlights expression everyone used to wear has vanished. Hallelujah. Barak and Peter Snow made a complementary match in the fi rst duet. Paired with Brader in the second duet, Corina Gill was a shining light of newfound strength and complexity. Her continued growth and onstage joy were infectious. That’s the fun of having a local ballet company -- watching it grow and develop. Experience it yourself. -- Laura Bleiberg READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

American Ballet Theater icon Misty Copeland has over 402,000 followers on Instagram. To compare, athletes like Venus and Serena Williams have 89,500 and 992,000 followers, respectively. Michael Phelps has 462,000. Danica Patrick has 26,900. These Are The Ballerinas And Ballerinos Of Instagram February 5, 2015 HuffingtonPost.com by Katherine Brooks American Ballet Theater icon Misty Copeland has over 402,000 followers on Instagram. To compare, athletes like Venus and Serena Williams have 89,500 and 992,000 followers, respectively. Michael Phelps has 462,000. Danica Patrick has 26,900. Of course, ballet is easily the most photogenic of the sports. An art form that toes the line between performance and feats of athleticism, it’s filled with pirouettes and arabesques that when frozen in a frame appear like paintings or perfectly sculpted statues. Misty’s Instagram account is filled with shots both on and off a stage, flexing her muscles and practicing her craft. And she’s hardly the only ballerina — or ballerino — to grace the platform. One glimpse at the popular Ballerina Project account, followed by an impressive 641,000, and it’s easy to see why dance fans are quick to double click on the endless stream of posed portraits. We’ve explored the power of a ballet hashtag before. But now we’re focusing on the photos we share and their ability to communicate so much about a realm built on visual splendor. Below we’ve compiled a list of our favorite ballet and dance-related Instagram accounts, from principals and soloists across the country to the companies that document their every performance and rehearsal with the touch of an iPhone. For those not lucky enough to live down the subway line from Lincoln Center, it’s pretty astounding the degree of backstage access you can get from perusing your favorite dancers’ accounts. READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet [LAB] Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are pleased to present Giselle, the timeless story of a young peasant girl who, betrayed by her lover, dies of a broken heart. Los Angeles Ballet to Debut Giselle April 19, 2011 LAB Public Relations Season 5 Culminates with a Gala Celebrating the Achievements of Five Years April 19, 2011 – Los Angeles Ballet [LAB] Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are pleased to present Giselle , the timeless story of a young peasant girl who, betrayed by her lover, dies of a broken heart. The Company continues to build a repertoire that underscores the creative leadership of its artistic directors, presenting timeless classics as well as innovative choreography from today’s contemporary artists. The full-length premiere of Giselle , with choreography by Artistic Director Thordal Christensen (after Coralli, Perrot and Petipa), is no exception. First premiered in 1841, Giselle is one of the most beloved romantic ballets of all time, and the title role has given the world its greatest ballerinas. Giselle tells the tragic tale of a maiden who falls in love with Albrecht, a nobleman so enchanted by Giselle’s innocence and purity that he recklessly leads her to believe that he is a peasant. When his betrothed Bathilde reveals his true identity, Giselle dies of a broken heart. Albrecht visits Giselle’s grave, overcome with remorse. Giselle rises to protect him from the Wilis, vengeful female spirits that haunt the forest. Giselle’s forgiving, profound love saves Albrecht from certain death. The Season 5 Gala Celebration will take place Saturday, May 28th at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, following the 6:00 pm performance of Giselle. The event will hosted by LAB Board members/Gala Co-Chairs Lori Milken, Ghada Irani, and Jeanette Trepp. Designed by Billy Butchkavitz and catered by Wolfgang Puck, guests will be transported to an enchanting ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ setting. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

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. 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. Home / News / New Item