2021/2022 Season > Artistic Directors > Thordal Christensen Colleen Neary Artistic Director With stellar credentials in performing, teaching and staging ballets, Colleen Neary brought with her a wealth of professional expertise and experience when she and her husband, Thordal Christensen co-founded Los Angeles ballet in 2004. Born in Miami, Florida, Neary trained in New York at both the School of American Ballet and Harkness House for Ballet Arts. From 1969 to 1979, she danced as a soloist with New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine and became one of his quintessential ballerinas. Balanchine personally selected Neary to stage his ballets for other companies as a Répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust- the official guardian of the choreographer’s style and celebrated choreography. From 1975 to 1979, Neary honed her teaching talents as a faculty member at School of American Ballet and as Company Teacher for the New York City Ballet. Neary’s career path led her to Europe in 1979 when she became Rehearsal Director and Choreographic Assistant at Switzerland’s Zurich Ballet. She also continued to perform internationally as a guest artist. She staged Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote , and Manfred for Zurich Ballet, La Scala de Milan, and Arena di Verona. In 1984, choreographer Maurice Béjart recruited Neary as Guest Principal Artist and Company Teacher for his Ballet du Deuxième Siècle. She accepted the position of Principal Dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1986 and returned to Europe in 1992 to spend a decade with The Royal Danish Ballet as Rehearsal Director, Company Teacher, and First Instructor in charge of productions. Neary and her husband, Thordal Christensen, moved to Los Angeles in 2002. They founded Los Angeles Ballet in 2004, and in 2006, the company debuted a full-length Nutcracker set in 1912 Los Angeles, featuring new choreography by Neary and Christensen. Starting with that inaugural season, Los Angeles Ballet established its signature approach, touring the city with performances at six theaters throughout metropolitan Los Angeles, including the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Royce Hall at UCLA, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, and the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Since the opening season, the company’s touring approach has seen audience attendance increase, with favorable response to the company’s distinctive programming blend of ballet classics, new creations, and 20th century masterpieces. Neary and Christensen have choreographed full-length productions of Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote , and Sleeping Beauty for Los Angeles Ballet. Los Angeles Ballet has also commissioned new choreography from rising stars including Mandy Moore, Sonya Tayeh, Travis Wall, Stacey Tookey, Jennifer Backhaus, and Josie Walsh. In addition, Los Angeles Ballet has presented works by Aszure Barton and Alejandro Cerrudo, along with ballets by 20th century masters Jiri Kylian, Jose Limon, and Lar Lubovitch. Neary has staged more than 20 of the Balanchine ballets for Los Angeles Ballet. As a Répétiteur, Neary remains in demand far beyond Los Angeles and continues to stage Balanchine ballets for major U.S. and international ballet companies, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Ballet West, American Ballet Theatre, Oregon Ballet Theatre, The Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Korean National Ballet, and New National Ballet of Tokyo. In March 2022, Philadelphia Ballet plans to premiere a Balanchine program staged by Neary. Neary’s commitment to ballet education also resulted in co-founding Los Angeles Ballet School and Los Angeles Ballet’s many community outreach programs. In 2012, Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary received The Lifetime Achievement Award from the McCallum Theatre. In 2021-2022, Los Angeles Ballet presents its 16th Season.

2021/2022 Season 2021/2022 Season > DECEMBER 4, 2021 thru JUNE 11, 2022 Returning to Theaters Los Angeles Ballet presents a Season of legendary story ballets and contemporary masterworks. DECEMBER 4 thru 26, 2021 The Nutcracker The Nutcracker is LA’s holiday tradition, essential for celebrating the season. Clara and her beloved Nutcracker battle a most memorable Mouse King, encounter dancing Snowflakes, and travel to the Palace of the Dolls. GET TICKETS LEARN MORE APRIL 21, 22 & 23, 2022 Bloom Three ethereal contemporary works; Ghosts by Christopher Wheeldon, Apollo by George Balanchine, and Bloom by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, performed exclusively at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. LEARN MORE MAY 28 thru June 11, 2022 The Sleeping Beauty One of the greatest, most treasured story ballets of all time. The epitome of classical ballet, The Sleeping Beauty is considered to be the most authentic of Marius Petipa’s work. GET TICKETS LEARN MORE PARTICIPATE Become a Member Membership to the Los Angeles Ballet Guild provides a vital link between LAB leadership and the broader Southern California community. LAB Guild is philanthropic, creative, entrepreneurial, and industrious. We invite you to become involved. MEMBERSHIP PRIORITY ACCESS 2022/2023 Season Los Angeles Ballet’s 2022/2023 Season will be announced in June 2022. The breathtaking Season includes contemporary masterworks, LAB Premieres including an LA Premiere of romantic splendor, plus LA’s holiday tradition The Nutcracker . Be first to access best pricing and pre-sale of the Season. I WANT PRIORITY ACCESS

Los Angeles Ballet: A spring in its step February 24, 2008 To state the obvious, Los Angeles Ballet's identity will be forged through its repertory and how its dancers perform. But the fledgling company's true branding will take form from the dances it commissions: the ballets it has that no one else does. Los Angeles Ballet artistic directors Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen know that. So for this, the second season, they ordered up two new pieces for their 26 dancers. The first one, "Lost in Transition" by soloist Melissa Barak, debuted at the spring season opener this weekend at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. It is a smart, taut and whimsical winner. Ballet is not baseball, but let's just say that signing "free agent" Barak and bringing her back from Manhattan to her Los Angeles hometown was one of Neary's and Christensen's smartest decisions. Frustrated in the corps de ballet at New York City Ballet, and already an accomplished choreographic craftsman, Barak is blossoming further as a dancer with LAB. With "Lost in Transition," this 20-something advanced, too, as a dancemaker. Her four-movement premiere demonstrated clear purpose and great skill in execution, especially with the corps de ballet. The complicated layers and patterns she knitted for the all-female ensemble continuously surprised this viewer, and then delighted with each succeeding revelation. She gave us a trail of treats to follow using repeated motifs, which guided us gently, not obviously, through the piece. Barak's choreographic "voice" is rooted in the modernism of George Balanchine (like other NYCB alumni), but she is quickly finding her own movement colors and pitch. "Lost" is sleek abstraction, but with warm undertones, just like the (recorded) score, selections from two separate concerti by composer and virtuoso bassist Edgar Meyer. Barak began with an upstage line of women holding hands, their arms raised in a V. Like dominoes, they collapsed through a cascading canon. They pulled into a tight circle, and then burst open like flower petals exploding in fast motion. In the third movement, the corps was clumped in four tiered rows and occasionally burst into mechanistic, syncopated arm signals, a kinetic illustration of the chaotic musical outbursts unexpectedly sprinkled through Meyer's "Double Concerto for Cello and Double Bass." For her lead couples, Aubrey Morgan and Damien Johnson – two sensational newcomers – and Erin Rivera-Brennard and Peter Snow, Barak provided brisk, if less interesting, partnering challenges. But Barak was never timid – when Rivera-Brennard exited at one point, the abandoned Snow wandered sadly about until she returned. A trio for Sergey Kheylik, Lauren Toole and Kelly Ann Sloan was a sassy diversion, filled with loose torsos and rolling hips, big leaps for Kheylik and attacking footwork for Toole and Sloan. Patricia Guillem's neon-colored unitards and Tony Kudner's suggestively mysterious lighting were the appropriate finishing touches to this exciting piece. The program's other three ballets highlighted the many moods of Balanchine. Neary and Christensen spread about the solo parts, coaching every with exactitude. Overall, the dancers were more relaxed and greatly improved from a year ago. The cast approached the radical precision of "The Four Temperaments" (1946), to Paul Hindemith's equally revolutionary score, with still too much severity. But there were also sparks of adventurousness. In the "Melancholic" movement, Kheylik pulled his body to extremes, folding nearly in half forward and backward. His cat-like leaps soared ever upward and yet he still hit the floor, his body flat, on the beat. In "Sanguinic," Corina Gill amped up every inside and outside spin, losing a few, but still making the risks worthwhile. Her dependable partner, Peter Snow, also left caution at the wings and flew through his jumps. The dancers in the "Phlegmatic" section were one-note serious, but Andrew Brader's fluid arms and legs seemed to lengthen and ripple with each wave. The bravura "Tarantella" (1964, music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk) followed "Lost in Transition" on the program – a dessert when one was not needed. But Gill and guest artist Rainer Krenstetter made it the dance equivalent of sweet sherbet, a light entertainment intended only to please. Gill impressed with her pointe work and balance, while Krenstetter's sunny disposition and beautifully articulated beats made him an irresistible presence. The final act was devoted to "Who Cares?" (1970) and the dancers took to the Gershwin songs and the choreography's frothy sassiness with carefree and energetic eagerness. We were glad to see this other side of Los Angeles Ballet.. Barak was a sensuous and sophisticated soloist in "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise." Despite a few bobbles, Nancy Richer brought lyrical playfulness to "My One and Only." Morgan and guest artist Eddy Tovar filled "The Man I Love Duo" with aching love. The male ensemble sprang with palpable joy. Los Angeles Ballet presented itself in the 600-seat Freud Playhouse, taking the box-office risks on its own shoulders. This same weekend at Royce Hall, UCLA Live was presenting the similarly attractive but inferior State Ballet of Georgia, and audience members commented to me how happy they were to see classical dance on the lineup. This is a ridiculous state of affairs. Los Angeles Ballet is coming up fast. Wake up, you folks at UCLA Live (and all you other presenters around town). Take this young talented group under your wing, because everyone will benefit. Orange County Register by Laura Bleiberg DOWNLOAD PDF 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item

Hottest Ticket: On Their Toes Los Angeles Ballet...Pirouetting its Way to Top Honors December 1, 2011 Ballet in Los Angeles has had a rocky history. Marred by countless false starts, the City's classical dance scene has historically had trouble supporting a to-tier professional troupe-promoting iconic director/choreographer George Balachine to famously proclaim there was "no hope" for ballet in L.A. LA Confidential by Emili Vesilind DOWNLOAD PDF 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item

2021/2022 Season > Ticket Information > Terms & Conditions of Sales Terms & Conditions of Sales Before purchasing tickets, please carefully review the Terms and Conditions of Sale. ​ 1. Refund and Exchange Policy Pre COVID-19 there were No Refunds and No Exchanges. All Tickets sales were final. However COVID-19 has impacted Refunds and Exchanges. Please read the COVID-19 Ticketing Policy for updates. ​ 2. Reserved Seating This purchase is for tickets in designated seats at a designated price level, as chosen and/or approved by you as the ticket purchaser. Please be sure you are happy with your seat selection before finalizing your purchase. ​ 3. Confirmation Number Please be sure to record/save your confirmation number, as this is required for replacing lost tickets and locating reservations. The confirmation page is NOT a ticket. ​ 4. Mail Delivery The standard mailing fee is $1.50 per order for regular ticket purchases and $3 per order for group sales. If you choose to have your tickets mailed to you they will arrive within 7-10 business days. If your tickets have not arrived within one week of the performance date, please call the Los Angeles Ballet Box Office at 310.998.7782. Please have your confirmation number available. ​ 5. Will Call Will Call opens at all venue box offices one hour prior to each performance and remains open until the performance begins. Identification is required for Will Call pick-up. 6. Lost Tickets Lost tickets will be replaced provided you have your confirmation number available. Please call the Los Angeles Ballet Box Office at 310.998.7782 to request replacement tickets. 7. Performance Cancellation or Date/Time Change Policy If a performance is cancelled for any reason other than “force majeure,” (see Clause 7a below), Los Angeles Ballet will refund the face value of tickets purchased. Delivery charges are non-refundable. A performance is not considered “cancelled” if it is stopped at any point after Act 2 has begun, in which case Los Angeles Ballet is not required to refund the value of any tickets purchased for said performance. Los Angeles Ballet will accommodate you at subsequent performances when possible. ​ Los Angeles Ballet reserves the right to change the date and/or time of any performance no later than 5 weeks before the originally scheduled date of the performance. If a change occurs, patrons will be notified immediately and alternate accommodations or reimbursements will be arranged, as necessary. 7a. Force Majeure Los Angeles Ballet does not guarantee a refund or exchange on tickets purchased for a performance that is cancelled, or is rescheduled less than 5 weeks before the original performance date/time, as a result of “force majeure.” “Force majeure” means any event which Los Angeles Ballet could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events may include war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, terrorist activity or threatened terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather conditions, fire and all similar events outside Los Angeles Ballet’s control. In the event of a cancellation or rescheduling due to “force majeure,” Los Angeles Ballet will accommodate you at subsequent shows when possible. ​ 8. Late Seating Policy Arriving late to a performance can be extremely disturbing to the artists and your fellow audience members. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the house staff at an appropriate pause in the program. ​ 9. Reselling Policy Tickets may not be resold or offered for resale. Tickets may not be used for advertising, promotion, or other commercial purposes except with the express written consent of Los Angeles Ballet, Inc. Los Angeles Ballet reserves the right to refuse entry to any customer who has purchased tickets and resold them, or to any person attempting to attend a performance with such tickets. ​ 10. Reproduction Policy It is unlawful to reproduce any tickets in any form. In the event of reproduction, Los Angeles Ballet reserves the right to refuse entry to the original purchaser as well as any person attempting to attend a performance with reproduced tickets. ​ 11. Review Upon Receipt Please review your tickets and confirmation upon receipt. If any detail of your order is incorrect, please contact the Los Angeles Ballet Box Office immediately at 310.998.7782. Los Angeles Ballet will not be responsible for any discrepancies if you do not contact the box office within 24 hours after receiving your tickets. ​ 12. Agreement Submitting a ticket order indicates your AGREEMENT to these terms and conditions. In-person Ticket Sales Group Sales Venues Accessibility Gift Certificates Tax-Deductibe Donations Terms & Conditions of Sales In-house Policies Privacy Policy For additional information and assistance, please contact the Box Office Call (310) 998-7782 or email tickets@losangelesballet.org Our Commitment to You Please review our COVID-19 Ticketing Policy REVIEW POLICY

A backstage look at the Nutcracker December 14, 2014 Watch at CCTV.com CCTV.com by CCTV WATCH AT SOURCE 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item

Los Angeles Times Covers LAB Gala 2018 February 1, 2018 At the Los Angeles Ballet’s annual gala, the classical dance company honored three multi-talented, multi-hyphenates — Jenna Dewan Tatum, Derek Hough and Adam Shankman — all of them dancers among other accomplishments and passionate on the subject of dance. “Dance is my everything,” Dewan said during the cocktail hour. “All roads lead back to dance for me,” added the actress, dancer and host of “World of Dance.” “No matter what I do in my career, no matter what I do in my life, being a dancer informs me. It’s who I am.” A judge on “World of Dance,” Hough, an actor-dancer-author-choreographer, said he took his first official lesson at age 10, “but if I look at old home videos of myself and my family, and I can see we were dancing in our living room since we were born.” Hough holds a record on “Dancing With the Stars,” having won six mirror balls. Shankman said later from the podium, “As the story goes, I actually emerged from my mother doing cartwheels with a top hat and cane. … I dance to live and I live to dance, and God willing, I’ll die doing a cartwheel, still clutching my cane.” (The producer-director-choreographer’s current project is the “Enchanted” sequel, “Disenchanted.”) The Los Angeles Ballet celebrated “Swan Lake” on Feb. 24 with a black and white themed-gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. More than $1 million was raised for its programming and educational outreach. Artistic directors Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen introduced the dancers, who performed excerpts from “Swan Lake.” The interpretation of Spanish, Neapolitan, Hungarian and Russian folk dances and elegant black swan pas de deux were then followed by a young troupe from “A Chance to Dance,” Los Angeles Ballet’s program of free classes. Disney star Sofia Carson said earlier in the evening that she had recently taught one of these classes, which are offered to children ages 2 and older. Attending the gala with her sister Paulina, Carson said, “I was 3 when I took my first dance lesson, and it changed my life forever.” (She also said that her film “Descendants 3” would shoot in Vancouver this summer.) Mark L. Walberg, host of “Antiques Roadshow,” emceed the affair, with presenters Nigel Lythgoe, Brad Goreski and Mark Ballas; guests Camilla Belle, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Kimberly and James Van Der Beek, and others. Kirsten Sarkisian and Leslie Kavanaugh were co-chairs of the event, along with honorary committee chairs Sharon and Gray Davis, Marilyn and Robert Day, Ghada and Ray Irani, Lori and Michael Milken, Linda La Kretz-Duttenhaver and Richard Merkin. Tickets for the 325-plus guests began at $500, and tables ranged to $100,000. Proceeds also included a silent auction and additional donations. After suggesting that the crowd raise a glass to Los Angeles Ballet, “our beloved home team,” which he’d earlier described as “my Dodgers,” Shankman spoke, not only of his love of dance but also of the importance of supporting the arts. “If we are to leave any legacy of value to the next generations,” he said, “then it is our responsibility to support in every way imaginable institutions like the Los Angeles Ballet, and to do everything in our power both to bring people to us, and also to go into the communities, and to help this generation know that there is more to life than darkness and division and the arduous fight for justice, or even simply to be seen to feel safe.” LA Times by Ellen Olivier READ AT SOURCE 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item

L.A. Ballet's Balanchine Festival follows in master's steps March 8, 2013 March 8, 2013 | By Susan Josephs Colleen Neary will never forget the day when George Balanchine articulated the blueprint for her life’s work. She was in her early 20s, then a respected New York City Ballet dancer. “He put me in to teach company class,” she says. “He said to me, ‘This is what you will do in the future.’ I said I wanted to dance, but he said, ‘You won’t dance forever. You will teach dancers my ballets.” Fast forward to 2013, to a rehearsal of Balanchine’s 1941 “Concerto Barocco” at the Westside headquarters of Los Angeles Ballet. Neary, now 60 and the company’s co-founder, surveys her dancers with microscopic scrutiny as they attempt to master the rigorously precise footwork, high-energy unison phrases and tricky group formations of the 18-minute dance. Both critical and encouraging, she invokes the words of her mentor during the section where three female dancers must weave around the sole male dancer in the work, interlocking hands and arms to create sculptural yet quickly dissolving tableaux. “Balanchine always used to say, ‘You should be walking around like Grecian goddesses,’ “ she tells the female dancers. “You’re missing this thing. In all his ballets, there’s this thing that’s more than the steps. It’s about feeling beautiful within yourself, and I can’t teach you that.” Neary, however, can remember how the famous choreographer known as Mr. B made his dancers feel beautiful, and it’s this firsthand experience that serves as the guiding force behind her company’s Balanchine Festival 2013. “Colleen has this great gift for challenging dancers to embody the Balanchine aesthetic,” says Ellen Sorrin, director of the George Balanchine Trust, which authorizes the staging of Balanchine’s ballets worldwide. “It’s an enormous responsibility to do what she’s doing, to disseminate Balanchine’s works as fully and wonderfully as possible.” Los Angeles Times by Susan Josephs DOWNLOAD PDF 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item

Colleen Neary Stages Balanchine at The Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg June 1, 2011 In her capacity as a Répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust, Los Angeles Ballet Co-Artistic Director, Colleen Neary traveled to Saint Petersburg, Russia to rehearse with The Kirov, now known as The Mariinsky Ballet, in June 2011. She worked with the company for 2 weeks on Balanchine's Ballet Imperial and Symphony in C which she staged for them in 2004 and 2008. The works were performed in the annual White Nights Festival, and on tour in London. This is Colleen's third trip to Saint Petersburg to work with the Mariinsky Ballet. Company News from the Staff at LAB 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item

Los Angeles Balanchine Presents the Balanchine Festival February 1, 2013 Balanchine GOLD (March/April 2013) and Balanchine RED (May/June 2013) A celebration of George Balanchine’s life, choreography and his time working in Hollywood with performances of seven of his greatest ballets and discussions with noted dance critics, historians and répétiteurs of The George Balanchine Trust at: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center Royce Hall – UCLA Valley Performing Arts Center – CSU Northridge Alex Theatre – Glendale Carpenter Performing Arts Center – CSU Long Beach Los Angeles Ballet presents its Balanchine Festival , celebrating the genius of the most important and influential choreographer of the 20th century. Extending over three months, the Festival centers on seven of Balanchine’s greatest ballets performed in two programs (GOLD and RED), presented at each of LAB’s five home theaters. Special Festival events will include discussions and interviews with those who worked with Balanchine, and an examination of Balanchine’s Hollywood years with screenings of his film choreography. Los Angeles Ballet co-artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary assembled the program to represent Balanchine in his many styles and eras. Both Christensen and Neary danced with Balanchine’s New York City Ballet. Balanchine personally selected Neary to stage his ballets, and to become a répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust. She has staged his ballets for major companies in America and internationally, including the Paris Opera Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Mariinksy (formerly Kirov Ballet) and American Ballet Theatre, to name a few, as well as for Los Angeles Ballet. “Selecting only seven ballets from the rich trove Balanchine created over the decades was not easy,” Christensen said. Neary added, “Each of these ballets has a specific mood and reflects a distinct musical and choreographic composition and style. Each ballet also has stories surrounding its creation, the music, and those who danced it, which will be part of the conversations that ticket holders can also experience as part of the performances.” Balanchine GOLD includes La Sonnambula , a one-act story ballet with love, jealousy, murder and a mysterious sleepwalker; Concerto Barocco, one of Balanchine’s signature works set to Bach’s Concerto in D-minor for Two Violins ; Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux , a bravura duet set to what was the original music for the Black Swan pas de deux; and Four Temperaments, with music Paul Hindemith composed at Balanchine’s request and wherein the choreographer fused classical and contemporary movement to explore the medieval “humors” attributed to the human body. Balanchine RED opens with another one-act story ballet, La Valse , where Maurice Ravel’s music is the backdrop for a young woman’s fascination with a sinister figure at a ball. Agon employs Igor Stravinsky’s score for a series of contests among the dancers, and Balanchine returns to Stravinsky for Rubies , the jazzy, exuberant center section of the full length ballet, Jewels . George Balanchine, (or Mr. B as he was called by those who knew and worked with him), began his career in Russia, built his reputation as a choreographer at Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, then came to the United States where he established the School of American Ballet and built what became the New York City Ballet. But Balanchine also spent time in Hollywood, often choreographing for his then wife Vera Zorina. Balanchine’s time in Hollywood is one of the aspects of his career that will be explored by a rotating roster of guest commentators that includes arts journalists Lewis Segal, Victoria Looseleaf, and Sasha Anawalt, and Balanchine répétiteurs including Colleen Neary, her sister Patricia Neary, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell. During his life Balanchine selected répétiteurs authorized to stage his ballets. Since his death in 1983, The Balanchine Trust and its répétiteurs have continued to ensure the integrity of the staging of Balanchine’s ballets while introducing new generations to Balanchine’s legacy. (The George Balanchine Trust, established in 1987 with the mission of preserving and protecting Balanchine’s creative works, is the center from which the business operations relating to the licensing of George Balanchine’s creative output emanate. The Trust has the responsibility of disseminating and protecting the integrity and the copyrights of George Balanchine’s work in the present and for the future, and assigns répétiteurs to teach and coach Balanchine ballets around the world.) “April 30, 2013 marks the 30th anniversary of Mr. B’s death,” Christensen noted. “We had added two more theaters for a total of five home venues, and as Los Angeles Ballet was entering its seventh season in 2012-2013, it seemed the appropriate time for a festival to celebrate Balanchine’s genius and life. It was a happy coincidence when the Music Center announced its festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, L.A.’s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation, and Dance. ” “Our Balanchine Festival fit like a glove with the Stravinsky festival,” Neary said. “Balanchine and Stravinsky were great friends and loved to collaborate. With Agon and Rubies already part of Los Angeles Ballet’s Balanchine Festival, we were very pleased with the invitation to perform those ballets this summer as part of the Stravinsky festival to honor both Balanchine and Stravinsky at the same time.” ​ LAB Public Relations DOWNLOAD PDF 2021/2022 Season > News > Previous Item Next Item