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The short set: baby's first 'Nutcracker' December 13, 2007 Los Angeles Times by Los Angeles Times Nipper has had an admittedly stunted childhood. By age 5, he had enjoyed only the first halves of "Peter Pan," "Annie" and "Dr. Doolittle." One day he'll discover there's more to these popular stage musicals, maybe learn a little something about closure, but during his fidgety post-toddler years I had no qualms about bursting into applause as the curtain came down for intermission, gleefully exclaiming, "Wasn't that great?!" and then hurrying both of us to the exit. But he's 6 now, so I decided it was time to test his limits with "The Nutcracker." We went with the Los Angeles Ballet, mounting its well-received "Nutcracker" (pictured) for the second year. Would we make it to intermission without the boredom squirmies? Was there a chance of seeing an actual ending? Between the youngsters in Victorian costumes, flamboyant Uncle Drosselmeyer and a lissome Clara, Nipper was transfixed until intermission. (Full disclosure: A scrumptious $2 brownie bridged the gap.) Act 2 held new wonderments, including a Mother Giger perched atop her movable gingerbread house like a cheery Bride of Frankenstein, and fine displays of athletic prowess by the Spanish, Arabian and Russian dancers. When Nipper finally witnessed his first true ending, he applauded like he was related to the Sugarplum Fairy. "I want to see it every year until I'm a skeleton" came his review from the back seat on the drive home. His favorite part? "The fight between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker." His least favorite part: "When it ended." On the car stereo came Emerson Lake & Palmer's overwrought, manic prog-rock version of the Nutcracker theme. Nipper was appalled. "Turn that off!" he ordered. "That's not what Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky wanted us to hear!" Ilyich? Guess the kid is all grown up. For the Nutcracker mother lode, go to theguide.latimes.com. READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Behind the Scenes of Los Angeles Ballet November 21, 2021 Dorchester Collection ​ READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Dazzling Nutcracker Opens Los Angeles Ballet's 4th Season December 23, 2009 AisleSay.com by Penny Orloff With this touchstone Romantic ballet, LAB closes its fifth season with a stronger than ever claim for community support. Performances continue Saturday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale and the following weekend at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

11th Season Opening September 1, 2016 ​ LAB Public Relations Productions include Modernists/Ballet Visionaries, The Nutcracker and Balanchine/Master of the Dance Pre-performance Discussions to enhance the Season Los Angeles, September 7, 2016 - Los Angeles Ballet Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary present classical and contemporary productions and honor the legacies of August Bournonville and George Balanchine for LAB’s eleventh season. 2016-2017 includes two mixed bill programs, Modernists/Ballet Visionaries and Balanchine/Master of the Dance , and of course the holiday favorite, The Nutcracker . Season 11 will also reintroduce pre-performance discussions, hosted by LAB’s Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary and their guests (at select performances). After a history-making tenth season that included Los Angeles Ballet being the first American company to present famed choreographer’s Frederick Ashton’s Romeo and Juliet , plus sold-out productions and critical acclaim, Los Angeles Ballet’s eleventh season celebrates the masters, and introduces LA to a new choreographer that is changing the dance landscape. LAB opens the season with Modernists/Ballet Visionaries (October 2016) featuring works of three icons of their time: August Bournonville, 1805-79, creator of the Danish Bournonville style of ballet, still vibrant today; George Balanchine, 1904-82, Master choreographer who transformed American dance and created modern American ballet; Aszure Barton, contemporary choreographer who is leading ballet into rich, new territory. The program includes Bournonville’s Napoli Pas de Six and Tarantella , Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto and the Los Angeles Ballet Premiere of Barton’s Untouched (2010) . LAB has a strong history with Bournonville and Balanchine - Christensen is the only artistic director (and dancer) in Los Angeles who is an authority on the Bournonville style, and Neary was personally selected by Balanchine to teach his choreography to major companies all over the world as a Repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust. The holidays welcome back LAB’s popular The Nutcracker (December 2016), set in 1913 Los Angeles. This year LAB offers special Christmas Eve matinees, providing more opportunities to see this family favorite and to enjoy Tchaikovsky’s beloved music. To close the season, Los Angeles Ballet presents Balanchine/Master of the Dance (March 2017). In a Los Angeles Ballet premiere Balanchine captures Mozart in the crystalline Divertimento No. 15 . The program also includes the hauntingly beautiful Prodigal Son (Prokofiev) and the playful Who Cares? (Gershwin). “We are proud to present such a diverse program this season,” said Christensen and Neary, LAB’s Co- Artistic Directors. “With masters Balanchine and Bournonville, the holiday favorite The Nutcracker , and introducing our audience to Barton, a contemporary choreographer, we offer a smorgasbord of delights.” Continuing LAB’s mission to offer world-class professional ballet to greater Los Angeles, its programs are performed at LAB’s home theaters: UCLA’s Royce Hall, Glendale’s Alex Theatre, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. About Los Angeles Ballet - Founded in 2004 by Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, and Executive Director Julie Whittaker, Los Angeles Ballet is known for its superb stagings of the Balanchine repertory, stylistically meticulous classical ballets, and its commitment to new works. LAB has become recognized as a world-class ballet company in ten seasons, presenting 32 productions encompassing 54 works, including 15 commissioned world premieres. Los Angeles Ballet ‘tours’ throughout LA County, regularly appearing at four venues. Since its inception in 2006, LAB’s Power of Performance (POP!) program has provided thousands of free tickets to underserved or disadvantaged children, seniors, veterans, and their families. LAB's A Chance to Dance Community Days outreach program was launched in October 2012. About Thordal Christensen - Among Thordal Christensen’s many credentials are an impressive performing career, successful leadership of one of the world's major ballet companies, critically applauded original choreography, and a proven commitment to dance education. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Christensen received his ballet training at The Royal Danish Ballet School and at the School of American Ballet in New York City before a performance career that included the Royal Danish Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Christensen then returned to Denmark where he was Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet. This blend of Bournonville and Balanchine tradition is one of the defining themes of his career, and has shaped the unique artistic vision that Christensen, along with his wife Colleen Neary, bring to Los Angeles Ballet. In 2002, he was made Knight of the Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. About Colleen Neary - Colleen Neary brings to Los Angeles Ballet the benefits of her vast experience as one of George Balanchine's quintessential ballerinas. In her experience as a dancer, teacher, and ballet mistress, she also worked closely with other luminaries of 20th century dance, including Rudolf Nureyev, Maurice Béjart, and Jiří Kylián. Born in Miami, Florida and trained at The School of American Ballet, Neary danced in New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, then for Maurice Béjart's Ballet du XXième Siecle , and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Neary was personally selected by Balanchine to teach his choreography to major companies all over the world as a repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

Colleen Neary is invited to Korea and Norway September 1, 2006 Company News from the Staff at LAB Symphony in C, which will re-premiere in October. Ms. Neary originally set this piece on the company in 2003. In October Ms. Neary will be working with the Norwegian National Ballet, also rehearsing Symphony in C, which will have its re-premiere in November, 2006. This will be the first time Ms.Neary has worked with the Norwegian National Ballet. Home / News / New Item

Serenade 2014 LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble LAB Ensemble Balanchine / Tchaikovsky Previous Gallery Next Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation.

Bloom 2022 LAB Ensemble in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom Kate Inoue, McKenzie Byrne & Hannah Keene, LAB Ensemble in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom; Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry, McKenzie Byrne, Cassidy Cocke, Hannah Keene, Kate Inoue in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom Jasmine Perry, Fabrice Calmels LAB Ensemble in Bloom; Kate Inoue & LAB Ensemble in Bloom Kate Inoue & LAB Ensemble in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom Jasmine Perry in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom Kate Inoue, McKenzie Byrne & Hannah Keene, LAB Ensemble in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom; Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Jasmine Perry, McKenzie Byrne, Cassidy Cocke, Hannah Keene, Kate Inoue in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom Jasmine Perry, Fabrice Calmels LAB Ensemble in Bloom; Kate Inoue & LAB Ensemble in Bloom Kate Inoue & LAB Ensemble in Bloom LAB Ensemble in Bloom Jasmine Perry in Bloom Jasmine Perry & Fabrice Calmels in Bloom Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Previous Gallery Next Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation.

Los Angeles Ballet's 'New Wave LA' A Company for the 21st Century May 21, 2010 Culturespot LA by Penny Orloff I love ballet. I love the grace, the magic, the sheer beauty of it all. But, once in a while, ballet isn’t merely attractive young dancers in white tutus, assembling in lovely tableaus to strains of Mozart and Delibes. Once in a while, ballet is the tumultuous and heartstopping and transformative theatrical experience I had on May 15, when Los Angeles Ballet presented “New Wave LA” at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. Back in the 1950s my ex-ballerina mother hoarded her housekeeping money in order to take my sisters and me to the ballet. Having fallen in love with Tchaikovsky and Petipa at a young age, she favored classic “white” ballets like “Swan Lake” and other traditional works of the late 1890s and early 20th century. It wasn’t until I relocated to New York in the 1970s that I experienced what decades in the New World had done to an elitist European amusement. George Balanchine had revolutionized classical ballet, working with Stravinsky, Hindemith, and other giants of 20th-century music and creating a uniquely American style reflective of a post-war, increasingly urban culture. My mother found it disturbing, but I was an avid member of the young audience that flocked to the New York State Theatre, taking ownership of this suddenly relevant iteration of a traditional art form. In the 35 years since, I have seen the new audiences of the ’70s grow old and gray – like myself. Except for the young mothers of each new crop of baby ballerinas, today the majority of my fellow balletomanes – like the aging devotees of classical music and opera – are on the far side of the hill, a disturbing percentage of our decreasing numbers rigidly clinging to an increasingly irrelevant artistic sensibility. Or so I thought. Last week I watched, incredulous, as the lobby of the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center filled with a hyperactive horde of tattooed and pierced twenty- and thirty-somethings, eager – nay, impatient – for the unveiling of the four world premieres featured in Los Angeles Ballet’s production of “New Wave LA.” Inside the theater the electricity was palpable, the buzz deafening. No polite hand clapping greeted the appearance of co-artistic directors Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen. Instead, cheers worthy of European soccer erupted as the couple stepped on stage to welcome their audience. Unfamiliar with ballet, most of this young crowd has discovered dance through “American Idol,” “Dancing With the Stars,” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” where passionate demonstration has supplanted decorous appreciation. Largely ignorant of the current crop of TV dance shows, I was not acquainted with the work of Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, and Sonya Tayeh, all of “So You Think You Can Dance.” Together with MYOKYO founder and choreographer Josie Walsh, these young artists represent a new voice, new dance vocabularies, performed to new music – with nary a tutu in sight. Mandy Moore’s “Wink” opens the show, dealing with the tangled web of Internet dating “and all the awkwardly beautiful moments along the path to finding true love,” she writes in the program notes. The curtain rises on a lineup of 10 characters who deliver “profile” introductions directly to the audience: “Hi, I’m Chelsea…” “I love walks on the beach…” “I’m an Aries…” The music by Cirque Eloise underscores Moore’s complex interactions. She expertly weaves the daring with the lyrical, the humorous with a thread of melancholy, as richly detailed ensembles give way to a quasi-traditional pas de deux. The audience, unused to the capabilities of bona fide ballet dances, rewards individual virtuosity and group precision with a torrent of screams and applause – and just like that, we’re not in Kansas, anymore. After a brief intermission, choreographer and former international ballerina Josie Walsh, founder of MYOKYO Renegade Rock Ballets, offers “Transmutation.” The specially commissioned, driving rock score by Walsh’s husband, Paul Rivera, Jr., pulses and throbs as three couples act out the visceral “interplay between the male and female energies” in a tour de force display of physical exertion. Walsh told me that the greatest challenge of this piece was the sheer endurance factor for the dancers. Pressed to their limits, all six reveal uncommon depth of personality and character. Tiny Grace McLoughlin, especially, unleashes a raw, wild abandon. She is like an animal possessed. Drew Grant, Andrew Brader, and Alexander Forck are individually and collectively astonishing, as they negotiate the tremendous athleticism of Walsh’s huge compound leaps and spectacular lifts. The audience screams itself hoarse, until shocked into pin-drop silence by the transcendent finale. Travis Wall’s “Reflect. Affect. Carry On…” is a time-bending, nonlinear love story set to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” U2’s “With or Without You,” and Sigur Ros’ “Samskeyti.” His star is rapidly rising on the contemporary dance scene; nevertheless he is a master of classical ballet technique, infusing his sui generis style with enough tradition to satisfy the most rabid haters of the unfamiliar. Through a personal vocabulary of movement, Wall creates a surreal dreamscape of desire, memory, yearning. One cannot begin to guess what this 22-year-old phenom may become. The dancers execute the unique combinations with total commitment. At one point, their meticulous and precise delivery of an extended fugue provokes a long, audible gasp from the previously vociferous audience – literally taking our breath away. Sonya Tayeh’s “the back and forth” is a sexy, wild ride of a finale to music of the Paris Gotan Trio, Björk, and tango king Astor Piazzolla. The alchemy of Tayeh’s quirky, signature style of “combat jazz” melded with virtuoso ballet elements whips the packed house into a frenzy. The bullfight-inspired dance features unexpected, increasingly dramatic interactions between the bare-chested men and flamenco-clad women. This is dance as unbridled passion, dance as spectacle, dance as Theatre. The audience was on its feet, screaming even before the curtain came down. The dancers took a bow to deafening roars. The ovation surged again with the appearances of Neary, Christensen, and the four choreographers. After the show, hundreds of fans stood in long lines to get autographs and have their photographs taken with the young choreographers. I’d conclude that Neary and Christensen’s experiment bodes well for the future of classical ballet. Catch Los Angeles Ballet’s “New Wave LA” on May 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Alex Theatre, Glendale; on May 29 at 2 p.m. (just added) and 7:30 p.m. (sold out) and May 30 at 2 p.m. (sold out) at the Broad Stage, Santa Monica. Tickets and information: (310) 998-7782 or www.losangelesballet.org . DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

BCBGMAXAZRIA and Los Angeles Ballet Partner for an Exclusive Event December 30, 2010 Company News from the Staff at LAB Allyssa Bross danced the title role with appealing sweetness and vulnerability. She made her mad scene nuanced and sparked with creepiness, and if she had some unsteadiness in her ghostly extended balances, she more than compensated elsewhere with poise. Home / News / New Item

2013-2014 Season Announcement October 1, 2013 ​ LAB Public Relations The Nutcracker set in 1913 Los Angeles World premieres from Sonya Tayeh and Christopher Stowell • LAB premiere of Jiří Kylián’s Return to a Strange Land LAB premiere of George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes The full-length La Sylphide George Balanchine’s Serenade Los Angeles Ballet co-artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are excited to unveil the ballets selected for LAB’s eighth season, including classics from the 19th and 20th centuries, new works from 21st century choreographers, and Southern California’s holiday tradition, The Nutcracker . Continuing LAB’s mission to bring professional ballet to greater LA, each program will be performed at LAB’s four home theaters: UCLA’s Royce Hall, The Alex Theatre in Glendale, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, and Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge. The season opens with Los Angeles Ballet’s full-length The Nutcracker , set in 1913 California in a classic Spanish style home with Mexican, Spanish, and European influences. The story unfolds with a warm and inviting sense of being inside a children’s book, and follows Clara and her beloved Nutcracker as they travel to the Land of Snow and the Palace of the Dolls. In March 2014, Quartet combines masterworks from George Balanchine and Jiří Kylián with new works from rising choreographers Sonya Tayeh and Christopher Stowell. Known for her work on television’s So You Think You Can Dance , this will mark Tayeh’s fourth commissioned work for Los Angeles Ballet. Her ferocious jazz style blended with ballet has brought audiences and critics to their feet. Former Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theater and noted choreographer Christopher Stowell will be working with LAB dancers for the first time. Quartet will also include the company premiere of Return to a Strange Land , from master choreographer Jiří Kylián to music by Leoš Janáček, and Stars and Stripes by George Balanchine set to the rousing marches of John Philip Sousa. “The dancers always look forward to working with Sonya. And having seen Christopher’s work on a variety of companies across the nation, we are excited to see what he will be creating on our dancers,” Mr. Christensen explained. “We think works from these two young dancemakers will fit well with Jiří Kylián’s beautiful, elegiac ballet and Balanchine’s stirring valentine to his adopted country.” May/June 2014 pairs the rapturous two-act story ballet La Sylphide with Balanchine’s romantic Serenade. Some- times described as the Danish Giselle , La Sylphide recounts the tale of a Scotsman enamored of an entrancing woodland sprite, a sylph, and the poisonous interference of a witch, with tragic results. The program also includes Serenade , unquestionably one of Balanchine’s most popular and beloved ballets. Set to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String s, the ballet evokes a moonlit world of romantic attraction and betrayal. Colleen Neary says, “La Sylphide and Serenade are two of the most romantic and, some say, most tragic ballets choreographed – the former with a story and the other without a literal one. There is a deep spiritualism to both.” About Los Angeles Ballet Founded in 2004 by Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, and Executive Director Julie Whittaker, Los Angeles Ballet is known for its superb stagings of the Balanchine repertory, stylistically meticu- lous classical ballets, and its commitment to new works. LAB has become recognized as a world-class ballet company, presenting 21 productions encompassing 43 works, including 13 commissioned world premieres. Los Angeles Ballet ‘tours’ throughout LA County, regularly appearing at five venues. This past summer the Los Angeles Music Center presented Los Angeles Ballet at Grand Park, with 4,000 attending the outdoor performance on the July 4th weekend. Since its inception in 2006, LAB’s Power of Performance (POP!) program has provided thousands of free tickets to underserved or disadvantaged children, seniors, veterans, and their families. LAB’s A Chance to Dance Community Days outreach program was launched in October 2012. About Thordal Christensen Among Thordal Christensen’s many credentials are an impressive performing career, successful leadership of one of the world’s major ballet companies, critically applaudedoriginal choreography, and a proven commit- ment to dance education. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Christensen received his ballet training at The Royal Danish Ballet School and at the School of American Ballet in New York City before a performance career that included the Royal Danish Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Christensen then returned to Denmark where he was Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet. This blend of Bournonville and Balanchine tradition is one of the defining themes of his career, and has shaped the unique artistic vision that Christensen, along with his wife Colleen Neary, bring to Los Angeles Ballet. In 2002, he was made Knight of the Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. About Colleen Neary Colleen Neary brings to Los Angeles Ballet the benefits of her vast experience as one of George Balanchine’s quintessential ballerinas. In her experience as a dancer, teacher, and ballet mistress, she also worked closely with other luminaries of 20th century dance, including Rudolf Nureyev, Maurice Béjart and Jiří Kylián. Born in Miami, Florida and trained at The School of American Ballet, Neary danced in New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, then for Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXième Siecle, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Neary was personally selected by Balanchine to teach his choreography to major companies all over the world as a repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet: L.A. Ballet soloists show sense of purpose, if not peak skills, in season debut February 25, 2008 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal 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. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

‘New Wave LA’...is heavily influenced by 'So You Think You Can Dance’ choreographers. May 9, 2010 Los Angeles Times by Victoria Looseleaf – Special to the Los Angeles Times Three couples are negotiating a series of head-to-head moves, rapid-fi re turns and daring leaps to cranked-up tango music of Astor Piazzolla. At fi rst glance they could be contestants in a postmodern dance marathon. In reality, they are rehearsing a new piece for Los Angeles Ballet’s fi nal program of its fourth season. The benefi cent task mistress calling the shots is choreographer Sonya Tayeh, the heavily tattooed 33-year-old known for her work on Fox’s hit television show “So You Think You Can Dance.” “I want you to feel the energy in your temples,” says Tayeh, her rhinestone-dotted ponytail sprouting beneath a purple-streaked neo-Mohawk. “I need to see that connection.” Tayeh’s piece is one of four world premieres commissioned by LAB’s husband-and-wife co-artistic directors, Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen. Premiering Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, the program has been dubbed “New Wave LA “ and features numbers by “So You Think” choreographers Travis Wall and Mandy Moore and a work by Josie Walsh, an erstwhile ballerina who danced with Joffrey Ballet and Zurich Ballet and who made a work for LAB’s fi rst choreographic workshop last year. The program represents a departure from the young troupe’s usual mix of George Balanchine and story ballets such as “La Sylphide.” “These choreographers are young, they’re new, they’re exciting,” says Neary from her offi ce in LAB’s 4,000- square-foot Westside studios. A former New York City Ballet dancer, her svelte body still Balanchine-worthy at 57, Neary says she intended to showcase young choreographers from the start. “We’re building this company from a creative place, where L.A. people who are in the arts can come and create.” Christensen says: “Some of the choreographers haven’t really worked on pointe before, but that’s the uniqueness of a ballet company — the pointe shoes. How wonderful to be able to bring some of these more commercial choreographers in to classically trained dancers and also give the dancers a chance to do something different.” Straddling the commercial and concert world is not totally foreign to Los Angeles Ballet. A pair of its dancers performed on Fox’s dance show in 2008. And Christensen, who danced with Royal Danish Ballet and was also artistic director of that company before landing in L.A. in 2002 with Neary, choreographed a number for Melissa Sandvig, the show’s “naughty ballerina,” last season. “So You Think You Can Dance” creator, producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe (the new season begins May 27), says it’s win-win. “It’s important for Los Angeles Ballet to be seen on the cutting edge and show they are not elitist. And working with L.A. Ballet certainly benefi ts the choreographers from the opposite direction — they’re going to have to adapt their styles to a certain degree, to make the dancers look good.” With the exception of Walsh, the choreographers are accustomed to making three- to fi ve-minute works instead of meatier 20-minute fare. Detroit-born Tayeh, who graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelor’s degree in dance, relishes the challenge. “We only have two days of rehearsal for ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ which makes us have to get the point across right away. Working with L.A. Ballet is a nice change, but I’m trying to maintain that same sense of the way I move by being athletic with the pointe shoes.” At 22, Wall, who grew up in his mother’s Virginia Beach dance studio and won the Capezio A.C.E. Award as choreographer of the year 2009, is the baby of the bunch. Having danced on the recent Oscars’ telecast, as well as assisting producer-choreographer Adam Shankman, the tattooed dynamo with the bleached hair also choreographed a number for NYCB principal Tiler Peck for a recent appearance on “Dancing With the Stars.” Wall’s work is set to a pastiche of music, including a string version of U2’s “With or Without You.” His eight dancers are swaying to an elegiac violin melody before they begin a sequence of canon-like moves. Scrutinizing his charges and correcting a misplaced arm, Wall instructs them: “You’re telling a story. It’s a broken picture that then gets back to the way it was.” Wall says he’s used to working with contemporary dancers, but having the luxury to expand an idea is a welcome assignment. “Sometimes choreographers get wrapped up in ideas and average viewers won’t get it. I’m making sure my ideas will be visible to the naked eye.” A native Coloradan, Moore, 33, has performed on television shows as well as having made dances for “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Her work for Los Angeles Ballet, set to music by Cirque Eloize, features four couples executing whimsical unisons, with the girls in soft ballet slippers. “We have a tendency as dancers to compartmentalize,” says a bubbly Moore, “but movement is movement. It doesn’t matter if you stand at the barre or put on tap shoes. I think of somebody who’s used to only going to ballet performances, to see the work of Travis, Josie and me, it’s going to be thought-provoking.” As for the company’s dancers, they seem to thrive on the new movement vocabularies. Andrew Brader, 24, has been with L.A. Ballet since its inception and is in works by Walsh and Tayeh. “Sonya’s movement is not as familiar as what we’re used to. There’s a rawness to it, and getting it into the body is at fi rst uncomfortable, but she keeps pushing and it becomes ingrained. Josie’s movement is more accented. There’s more intention behind it.” Walsh, 38, has her own company, MYOKYO. She’s produced several full-evening works that are a mash-up of pointe shoes, aerial dances and industrial rock music, composed by her husband, Paul Rivera. She calls it “renegade ballet.” Walsh’s premiere for six dancers, “Transmutation,” while making use of classical technique, also features thrusting tango gyrations, huge grand plies on pointe and sexy split leg lifts — all to Rivera’s pulsating score. Says Walsh: “I’m constantly breaking my own barriers and exploring new movement, new dynamics. When it comes to my work with a ballet company, it’s defi nitely harder-hitting.” Los Angeles Ballet continues to dial up the heat. Of their recent all-Balanchine program, the Los Angeles Times wrote that the troupe “entered a new phase ... its dancers showing increasing mastery with a repertory that, while familiar, is unforgiving.” How they ultimately handle unfamiliar choreography, albeit works tailor-made for their bodies, will prove revealing, as will the dances themselves. “You want a choreographer to have ideas,” says Christensen, “and to be able to give them to the dancers. These choreographers are inventive and a good mix. We also like their moods in transition with each other.” “So You Think You Can Dance” notwithstanding, “We’re not here to do reality shows,” Christensen says. “We’re here to produce art.” calendar@latimes.com DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item