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

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. Akimitsu Yahata Hometown Tokyo, Japan Schools New National Ballet School, School of Tokyo City Ballet, Kiyoko Ishii Ballet Studio Companies National Ballet of Japan Los Angeles Ballet 6th Season

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

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). 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 Home / News / New Item

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. Abigail Gross Hometown St. Louis, MO Seasons with LAB 2023/2024, 2024/2025 Abigail attended the Miami City Ballet School and became an apprentice in 2021. She attended summer programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, the School of American Ballet, Chautauqua Institution, and The Rock School. Abigail has performed repertoire by Alexei Ratmansky, John Cranko, George Balanchine, Durante Verzola, Melissa Barak, Stanton Welch, and Kara Wilkes.

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. Poppy Coleman Hometown Portland, OR Seasons with LAB 2022/2023, 2023/2024, 2024/2025 Poppy studied at The Portland Ballet and joined the Pacific Northwest Ballets Schools Professional Division program in 2020. While a student, she performed in company productions of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake . Poppy joined Los Angeles Ballet as a company member in 2022.

Read the full article. Visions of Nutcrackers November 23, 2006 Los Angeles Daily News by Vicki Smith Paluch READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

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. Kiko Natalie Funaki Hometown Seasons with LAB 2024/2025 Bio Available Shortly

Los Angeles Ballet gave its final performance of "Nutcracker" on Saturday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale: a rite of passage, for the next time we see this brand-new company it won't be dancing a homemade version of the Christmas kiddie classic but rather grown-up masterworks from the international repertory. The New Troupe Learns From 'Nutcracker' and Forges Bravely Ahead with Balanchine and Bournonville January 1, 2007 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal Los Angeles Ballet gave its final performance of "Nutcracker" on Saturday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale: a rite of passage, for the next time we see this brand-new company it won't be dancing a homemade version of the Christmas kiddie classic but rather grown-up masterworks from the international repertory. That's a big step — one that dozens of Southland companies that present annual "Nutcracker" performances never take. It was brave of artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary to launch LAB with a ballet presented by virtually every classical school or troupe in the whole region plus visiting ensembles from Russia and Korea. And it's braver still to schedule serious Balanchine and buoyant Bournonville for the company's first 2007 performances in March. There's no place to hide in that kind of rep, and though guest artists will again ensure high standards in principal roles, the challenge will be to develop a company style beyond the well-drilled but essentially faceless corps dancing that "Nutcracker" provided. If that statement sounds cruel, consider that American Ballet Theatre — our nation's classical behemoth — seldom achieves anything beyond well-drilled and faceless corps dancing nowadays. But ABT doesn't dance Balanchine's super-refined "Concerto Barocco," and maybe that's just as well. "Nutcracker" looked better organized on Saturday than it had early in December, though the party scene again proved confused and there seemed no sense of purpose — dramatic or choreographic — in the battle between the toy soldiers and the mice. The important scenic and character transformations on view lacked magic. And it would have helped if the Nutcracker (Erik Thordal-Christensen, son of the artistic directors) actually looked like a nutcracker and not just another toy soldier. Act 2 confirmed the classical prowess and personal star power of Oleg Gorboulev and Corina Gill in the Arabian dance, provided a flashy showpiece for the 14-year-old wunderkind Lilit Hogtanian as Clara and allowed Maria Kowroski and Stephen Hanna (guests from New York City Ballet) to display formidable mastery in supported adagio intricacies. You could regret that their solos were moved earlier than Tchaikovsky intended and that the Mirlitons divertissement was cut, but the score was again given loving care by conductor Eimear Noone and her musicians. And, happily, the Alex Theatre offered more space for Catherine Kanner's scenic vistas than the cramped Wilshire Theatre stage allowed when this "Nutcracker" premiered. That's one lesson LAB learned in 2006 — that Southern California has many midsize theaters that look great from the seats but, because they are converted movie houses, have no room on the stage for elaborate scenery or large-scale choreographies. Another lesson — that the ballet public isn't interested in 5 p.m. shows — helped cause a cutback from 12 "Nutcracker" performances to nine. "We will consider everything we've discovered from this first run," the directors said in a statement, "and make necessary adjustments for our upcoming season." Necessary adjustments may be one key to LAB's survival in a ballet landscape haunted by memories of companies that started strongly and even flourished, for a time, without enlisting the longterm support of the public that flocks to touring attractions. There are always plenty of people who say they want someone to start a local ballet company with major artistic ambitions — but too many really mean they want ABT to relocate. Los Angeles Ballet estimates that it danced for more than 6,000 ticket-holders in December. That's a start, but not nearly a large enough audience base to sustain a year-round professional institution. If Christensen and Neary can't rely on the balletomanes in our community who yammer about homegrown classicism but don't show up at the ticket window, developing a new, loyal audience is the key to their future. And that will take more energy and imagination than everything they've done so far. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

In an era of catastrophic personal belt tightening and calamitous corporate downsizing, too many promising arts organizations have fallen face-first into the chasm of disappearing dollars. When even an established, respected old organization like the Pasadena Playhouse had to close its doors for a time, it is beyond astonishing that a new classical ballet troupe not only survives, but thrives. LA Ballet Opens Fifth Season with Exuberant 'Nutcracker' December 16, 2010 Culturespot LA by Penny Orloff In an era of catastrophic personal belt tightening and calamitous corporate downsizing, too many promising arts organizations have fallen face-first into the chasm of disappearing dollars. When even an established, respected old organization like the Pasadena Playhouse had to close its doors for a time, it is beyond astonishing that a new classical ballet troupe not only survives, but thrives. Since the debut of its original production of “The Nutcracker” in November 2006, the Los Angeles Ballet has been met with critical and commercial success, nearly doubling its budget over five seasons without a penny of government support. “Considering the colossal events of the last five years – Katrina, the tsunami in Indonesia, the financial collapse and subsequent recession, the Haiti earthquake – LAB’s steady growth from $900,000 to $1,624,000 is nothing short of a miracle,” says Julie Whittaker, the company’s executive director. The central ingredient in LAB’s success is the consistent high quality of the product. Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are clearly the stars of this enterprise. Their uncanny selection and inspired mentoring of some of America’s finest young dancers have resulted in a world-class corps de ballet and several important break-out soloists. Their vision and tireless dedication to the work have produced a large and reliable fan base, and ever-increasing ticket sales. LAB’s “Nutcracker” – playing in venues around LA County this month – is proof of the company’s stature as a game-changing force in the realm of international ballet. The original choreography by Christensen and Neary is fresh and exhilarating, demonstrating the technical skill, individual virtuosity, and razor-sharp precision ensemble work that distinguish this young company. After several reports, I am running out of superlatives to describe the exemplary work of the women’s corps de ballet in the Dance of the Snowflakes and the Waltz of the Flowers, two highlights of the production. Other highlights of this season’s LAB “Nutcracker” include the annual appearance of guest artist Sergey Kheylik as the Cossack Doll. The ecstatic cheers greeting his Act I entrance escalated to a roar as he flung himself into impossible leaps and turns. He was joined in Act II by LAB newcomers Aaron Bahadursingh and Christopher Revels, who matched Kheylik vault for astonishing vault. The off-the-charts athleticism of this Russian Dance whipped the audience into a prolonged, ear-splitting demonstration, literally stopping the show. Returning as Marie (Sugarplum Fairy), Monica Pelfrey remained serene and confident through the long and demanding pas de deux. Her dancing showed off clean stepwork, lovely ports des bras, and marvelous balance. She was partnered by Zheng Hua Li, her cavalier in last season’s Balanchine “Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2.” Li’s emotional physicality contrasts beautifully with Pelfrey’s cool elegance, creating a wonderful chemistry. The audience rewarded his big, floating jetees and effortless lifts with ample appreciation. Making her LAB debut in the Arabian Dance, Julia Cinquemani’s jaw-dropping beauty managed to stun a fairly demonstrative crowd into pin-drop silence. Wrapping her supple, snakelike torso in coils around her partner, newcomer Alexander Castillo, she mesmerized adults and children alike. The breathless silence was broken by an extended, vociferous ovation. Also new this season is Allyssa Bross as the Rose in the Waltz of the Flowers. This young ballerina clearly won over the crowd, her incandescent smile radiating throughout her performance. Thirteen-year-old Helena Thordal-Christensen plays Clara with fragile beauty and dramatic intensity. Having danced the role for the first time last season, this year she exhibits complete confidence and authority. Her long, slender legs extend forever, making an event of each arabesque. She has an arresting innocence about her, a lack of artifice which made her nightmare scene all the more harrowing as she darted, terrified, around the vast stage of Glendale’s Alex Theatre. Perhaps the most moving moment in the performance, for me, came when Clara’s mother – played by Thordal Christensen’s real-life mother, the great Balanchine ballerina, Colleen Neary – kissed the little girl before walking off the stage, a symbolic passing of the torch from the past to the future. Clara’s Nutcracker-turned-Prince is 18-year-old Jordan Veit of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School’s Professional Division. Dancing with strength and ease, and resembling a young Leonardo Di Caprio, this young man exudes charm. The long line of infatuated little girls waiting to meet him after the performance may be the harbinger of good things to come for Veit. Fans in search of guaranteed holiday magic have several chances remaining for performances of LAB’s “Nutcracker” in venues around LA: UCLA’s Royce Hall, Dec. 18 at 1 and 5 p.m., and Dec. 19 at 1 and 5 p.m.; and at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on Dec. 24 at 2 pm., and Dec. 26 at 1 and 5 p.m.. Tickets and information are available at (310) 998-7782, or at www.LosAngelesBallet.org . DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

For dance-world insiders, it may not come as a surprise that the company is flourishing. LAB's husband-and-wife artistic directors and cofounders, Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, are both former principal dancers and veteran balet instructors (and, in Christensen's case, artistic director) with decades of experience at some of the most venerated ballet companies in the world. Los Angeles Ballet Presents 'Giselle' May 26, 2011 CultureSpotLA by Penny Orloff For dance-world insiders, it may not come as a surprise that the company is flourishing. LAB's husband-and-wife artistic directors and cofounders, Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, are both former principal dancers and veteran balet instructors (and, in Christensen's case, artistic director) with decades of experience at some of the most venerated ballet companies in the world. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

LAB’s 9th season includes three full-length romantic story ballets with music by Tchaikovsky and a mixed bill program 2014-2015 Season Expansion June 1, 2014 LAB Public Relations LAB’s 9th season includes three full-length romantic story ballets with music by Tchaikovsky and a mixed bill program Los Angeles Ballet Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are excited to unveil LAB’s 2014-2015 season, which includes the Tchaikovsky Trilogy, with three full-length ballets featuring the music of Peter Tchaikovsky, plus a mixed bill program of 20th century masterworks. LAB’s ninth season marks the addition of a fall program for a total of four programs, an expansion from 3 productions in all of its previous seasons. A major goal of Los Angeles Ballet’s long-term plan, LAB is pleased to achieve this in Season 9! The Tchaikovsky Trilogy includes a new production of The Sleeping Beauty , the return of the company’s critically-acclaimed productions of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker all with choreography by Artistic Directors Christensen and Neary, and closes with a mixed bill program that will include works by 20th century choreographic masters. Continuing LAB’s mission to offer world-class professional ballet to greater LA, its programs are performed at LAB’s home theaters: UCLA’s Royce Hall, Glendale’s Alex Theatre, Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge and Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. In addition, LAB is proud to announce that in December of this year it will present four performances of The Nutcracker at its newest venue - the prestigious Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. LAB opens the season and its first fall program with the full-length Swan Lake (October/November 2014). The company premiered this production during the 2011-2012 season with sold out shows. “After Swan Lake sold out most performances, we had many requests to bring it back. Swan Lake is the perfect way to launch this expanded season and respond to our audience requests.” Mr. Christensen explained. The holidays welcome LAB’s popular The Nutcracker set in 1913 Los Angeles (December 2014). Additional matinees offer more opportunities to see this family favorite and enjoy some of Tchaikovsky’s most beloved music. Spring 2015 opens with the premiere of LAB’s new production of The Sleeping Beauty (February/March) with choreography by Mr. Christensen and Ms. Neary after the original choreography by Marius Petipa. “We have wanted to present The Sleeping Beauty for several years. The Tchaikovsky score is irresistible, but it is a big, classical ballet that requires a lot from all of the dancers, not just the Principals,” Ms. Neary said. “It’s an important measure of how the company has grown that we know LAB is ready to bring this magnificent ballet to life.” The season will close with Directors’ Choice , a mixed bill program that will include Theme and Variations by George Balanchine, (also with music by Tchaikovsky), and two other choreographic luminaries (May/June 2015). The specific repertoire will be announced later in 2014. 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 eight seasons, presenting 24 productions encompassing 50 works, including 15 commissioned world premieres. Los Angeles Ballet ‘tours’ throughout LA County, regularly appearing at four venues. In 2013, the Los Angeles Music Center presented Los Angeles Ballet at Grand Park, with more than 3,000 attending the outdoor performance. In June 2014, Los Angeles Ballet will tour outside of California for the first time, presenting La Sylphide and Serenade to Seattle, Washington audiences at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. 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