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Kirsten Turkle began as a Stage Manager with Los Angeles Ballet in 2019 for The Nutcracker. In summer 2022, she was promoted to Production Manager and took up her new responsibilities with enthusiasm. Kirsten started life as a performer, taking ballet lessons from age 2 to 13. She was singing and dancing in community productions through elementary and middle school, as well as taking piano and voice lessons. In high school she began Stage Managing and learning the technical arts, including lighting, costuming, and scenic carpentry. At UC San Diego she founded a Shakespearian theater group and helped produce 8 plays during her college career, most notably Cymbeline and Hamlet. She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and worked with many different companies and venues for the next decade, including The Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center, AGBU Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Performing Arts Center, Moving Arts, Jaxx Theatricals, and Royce Hall at UCLA. She looks forward to growing with Los Angeles Ballet, producing new works and classics, and touring this beautiful artform to even wider audiences. Home / Staff / Administrator Kirsten Turkle Production Manager Kirsten Turkle began as a Stage Manager with Los Angeles Ballet in 2019 for The Nutcracker. In summer 2022, she was promoted to Production Manager and took up her new responsibilities with enthusiasm. Kirsten started life as a performer, taking ballet lessons from age 2 to 13. She was singing and dancing in community productions through elementary and middle school, as well as taking piano and voice lessons. In high school she began Stage Managing and learning the technical arts, including lighting, costuming, and scenic carpentry. At UC San Diego she founded a Shakespearian theater group and helped produce 8 plays during her college career, most notably Cymbeline and Hamlet. She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and worked with many different companies and venues for the next decade, including The Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center, AGBU Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Performing Arts Center, Moving Arts, Jaxx Theatricals, and Royce Hall at UCLA. She looks forward to growing with Los Angeles Ballet, producing new works and classics, and touring this beautiful artform to even wider audiences.

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 4 Seasons with LAB Poppy studied at The Portland Ballet and joined the Pacific Northwest Ballet 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 the Los Angeles Ballet as a company member in 2022.

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

For all the opening-night jitters and imperfections, Los Angeles Ballet gave a credible, even moving, performance of “Giselle” on Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. The essential Giselle experience remained intact: Love survives the grave, bestows forgiveness on an unworthy bad boy and transforms him into a decent human being. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet Dances 'Giselle' May 15, 2011 Los Angeles Times by Chris Pasles For all the opening-night jitters and imperfections, Los Angeles Ballet gave a credible, even moving, performance of “Giselle” on Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. The essential Giselle experience remained intact: Love survives the grave, bestows forgiveness on an unworthy bad boy and transforms him into a decent human being. Hmm. Sounds like the plot of a movie or two, or a dozen. Giselle is a village girl courted by a prince disguised as a peasant. She falls in love with him, but when she finds out his identity -- and that he’s engaged to someone else -- she loses her mind and dies. End of ballet? Not by a long shot. In Act 2, she appears as a spirit newly enrolled in the ranks of the Wilis, night creatures that wreak vengeance on perjured suitors. Giselle resists her new duties and saves her prince. 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. Giselle’s character is straightforward, but that of Prince Albrecht is ambiguous. Is he merely dallying, really in love, torn between court and country? Unfortunately, Christopher Revels gave no clear take on the prince’s motives, although his repentance and sense of loss at the end looked genuine. Revels danced with princely bearing, partnered with consideration, and executed his second act marathon challenges with strength, though he looked more on the edge of real rather than dramatic exhaustion. Chehon Wespi-Tschopp was an intense Hilarion, a villager also in love with Giselle. His prestissimo spins to his death at the hands of the Wilis were terrific. Kate Highstrete made Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis, an other-worldly creature of pitiless steel. The Peasant Pas de Deux was danced by Allynne Noelle and Zheng Hua Li (who alternates in the role of Prince Albrecht). Noelle was sunny and graceful. Li had crisp, flashing legwork, but tended to land badly. The corps looked well-schooled, although earthbound. The company danced to pre-recorded music. The production was from the Louisville Ballet. Ben Pilat provided the dramatic lighting. L.A. Ballet company co-director Thordal Christensen tweaked the traditional Coralli-Perrot-Petipa choreography, cutting some virtuosic demands, adding some mime, and inventing a poor couple who provide their cottage as the prince’s local digs. Christensen’s wife and company co-director, Colleen Neary, enacted Giselle’s mother, Berthe, with fuss and worry. 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

Los Angeles Ballet's diverse program forms a robust whole. It's hard enough for dancers trained in different styles of ballet — sometimes in different countries — to form a unified ensemble. Home / News / New Item The new company's diverse dancers form a robust whole in a program of Balanchine and Bournonville. March 17, 2007 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal Los Angeles Ballet's diverse program forms a robust whole. It's hard enough for dancers trained in different styles of ballet — sometimes in different countries — to form a unified ensemble. It's harder still to display that unity in the distinctive dance languages of two choreographic masters. Born just four months ago, Los Angeles Ballet passed that test in its first repertory program Thursday at UCLA's Freud Playhouse — maybe not perfectly, maybe not without a pervasive sense of effort, but splendidly enough to make three challenging pieces come alive for a large, enthusiastic audience. Classical Balanchine, contemporary Balanchine and buoyant, Romantic Bournonville all received scrupulous performances in stagings by company artistic directors Colleen Neary (a Balanchine specialist) and Thordal Christensen (an alumnus of Bournonville's Royal Danish Ballet). Whether or not it can survive in our traditionally inhospitable dance landscape, their Los Angeles Ballet is the real thing, a force for many kinds of excellence that deserves the community's attention and support. One could wish that as the company moves from Westwood to Redondo Beach and then to Glendale this month, the dancers might relax into their roles and enjoy their dancing as much as the audience does. It's not a matter of smiles (of which there were plenty Thursday) but of the sense of interpretive freedom within the choreography that only Melissa Barak and a very few others showed opening night. Barak's individual and often spontaneous attacks came in Balanchine's "Concerto Barocco," which always seems to be a showcase for conservative classical purity until you look more closely and see the innovative body-foldings, partnering experiments and other creative wonders that Balanchine devised in 1941 to music by Bach. Mirroring Barak in the outer sections and becoming the work's focus in the central duet, Corina Gill gave a rapt, secure performance, partnered with great nobility by Oleg Gorboulev. Gill and Gorboulev also brought their remarkable ability to deliver a string of choreographic fireworks as one brilliantly sustained phrase to Balanchine's "Agon," an inspired 1957 game of neoclassic one-upmanship played with and against Igor Stravinsky. All fire and ice, whimsical forays into off-balance balance and a modernistic milestone, the choreography can look a lot jauntier than it did Thursday, but Neary's deadpan staging did allow all the non sequiturs to take you by surprise. As with "Concerto Barocco," the company as a whole often managed the complex passages more artfully than the simplest steps, but Lauren Toole endowed both with a serene confidence in her technical control. Sergey Kheylik threw himself into his solo with complete abandon, but neatness definitely counted here, and his wild vivacity proved far more useful in the divertissements from Bournonville's "Napoli." With music by Helsted and Paulli, the celebratory "Napoli" pas de six and tarantella date from 1842, before classical bravura acquired the edge of aggression it gained, for better or worse, in Russia. If "Agon" is consummately spiky and "Concerto Barocco" supremely flowing, this quasi-Italianate showpiece is indomitably fluffy, marked by major shifts in tempo and pressure (to which the company needs greater attention) but always light and genial. On Thursday, exposed balances in extension sometimes proved shaky and terminations not always ideally clean. But it was fascinating to see what elements of Bournonville style attracted the individual soloists and dominated their performances. Guest Rainer Krenstetter of the Berlin Staatsballett had the sparkle, Masahiro Suehara the precision, Gill the sweetness and Toole the calm center. Kheylik, as always, brought invigorating energy to the party. The excerpt also displayed the talents of Peter Snow, Kelly Ann Sloan, Alexandra Blacker, Nancy Richer and Erin RiveraBrennand. Everyone looked yummy in Soren Frandsen's prismatic abstractions of folk costumes and behaved as if an L.A. company dancing a Danish interpretation of Italian folklore was, somehow, natural casting. Taped music accompanied all the pieces on the program. lewis.segal@latimes.com DOWNLOAD PDF

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. 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

Los Angeles Ballet ended its benchmark 10th season in June as the first American company to dance Frederick Ashton’s distinctively intimate and poetic “Romeo and Juliet.” Unfortunately, that season left the company fiscally overextended, so the 11th season, which opened Saturday, has cutbacks in the roster and the repertory. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet At the Top of its Form October 20, 2016 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal Los Angeles Ballet ended its benchmark 10th season in June as the first American company to dance Frederick Ashton’s distinctively intimate and poetic “Romeo and Juliet.” Unfortunately, that season left the company fiscally overextended, so the 11th season, which opened Saturday, has cutbacks in the roster and the repertory. That’s disappointing, of course, but the situation forced artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary to capitalize on their bedrock artistic strengths in an invigorating program at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. From Christensen’s Danish birthright came August Bournonville’s antique Pas de Six and Tarantella from “Napoli.” From Neary’s career at New York City Ballet came an authoritative staging of George Balanchine’s wondrous “Stravinsky Violin Concerto.” The directors’ longstanding commitment to new work brought Canadian modernist Aszure Barton’s quirky, challenging “Untouched” to the program too. The celebratory Bournonville divertissement began with a classical abstraction of folklore and then unleashed a nonstop barrage of bouncy, heel-and-toe folk steps. Technical strain from the women and hard landings from the men marred the opening section. But those shortcomings soon yielded to spot-on contributions from the excellent Julia Cinquemani and Kenta Shimizu, as well as Javier Moya Romero and Madeline Houk (replacing the injured Allyssa Bross), plus a stellar newcomer, Tigran Sargsyan, able to project Bournonville style effortlessly at opera house scale. The “Napoli” excerpt also confirmed the growing importance of Dustin True, a versatile soloist previously seen in subsidiary roles but given major assignments in all three works Saturday. In the Bournonville and Barton pieces, you could admire his skill and spirit without feeling he’d outclassed his colleagues. But in the “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” opposite Elizabeth Claire Walker (replacing Bross), the almost contemptuous force and sensuality of his dancing made it impossible to watch anyone else — even Shimizu and Cinquemani, efficient if subdued in their duet. In a tribute to his friendship with the composer, Balanchine initially reshuffled soloists and small ensembles, then explored two moody, intricate duets before launching a folk-accented finale requiring extraordinary precision from the whole cast. It is one of the prime neoclassic creations of the 20th century and, discounting a few lapses in stamina, the Los Angeles Ballet performance delivered its greatness impressively. Crammed with musical and movement eccentricity, Barton’s 2010 “Untouched” looked at the tensions between group identity and individual expression. For much of the work’s length, the title proved prophetic: Everyone danced in juxtaposition but with no contact. And even when fleeting interactions occurred, the participants remained untouched in a fundamental sense: locked in their own pain and processes. With everyone wearing Fritz Masten’s floral prints, the piece evoked an upscale party at which everyone expected relationships to form but nobody really connected. Along the way, newcomer Leah McCall dominated the stage in a dramatic solo, and Bianca Bulle endured partnering assaults stoically, but everyone in the 12-member cast took to Barton’s twisty, wiggly, off-kilter style as if ballet dancing always incorporated such oddities. Nicole Pearce designed the claustrophobic set (borrowed from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago). Obviously, few would rejoice at Los Angeles Ballet’s cutbacks. But the company’s value stayed resplendent Saturday with no need for more of anything — expect possibly live music. Indeed, this is why we need these dancers in Los Angeles, not for hand-me-down stagings of Russian warhorses but for sustaining the living legacy of modernism (even 19th-century modernism) that has distinguished it for the last decade. The L.A. Ballet program will visit other Southland venues in weeks to come; no doubt, other audiences will see what the Alex audience witnessed: an invaluable community resource suffering growing pains, perhaps, but still near the top of its game. ------------ Los Angeles Ballet In Redondo Beach: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd. In Westwood: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at Royce Hall, UCLA Tickets: $29.50-$104 Info: (310) 998-7782, www.losangelesballet.org Follow The Times’ arts team @culturemonster. ALSO An ode to an avant-garde Japanese dance legend USC celebrates the opening of a $46-million building for dance 40 years of Martin Scorsese movies, mashed up as a concert-musical READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE

On Wednesday the Los Angeles Ballet announced that its Board of Directors has appointed dancer and choreographer Melissa Barak as the company’s artistic director. Home / News / New Item For the first time, Los Angeles Ballet will have one artistic director: Melissa Barak August 24, 2022 Los Angeles Times Jessica Gelt READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE

Season 2008-2009 George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine Jennifer Backhaus George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine Jennifer Backhaus George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville August Boumonville Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Christensen and Neary / Tchaikovsky Previous Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation. Next Gallery

Until now, that is. The Los Angeles Ballet (LAB), which kicks off its sixth season Decemeber 3 with The Nutcracker, has slowly evolved into LA's official resident company, renowned for its high-caliber dancers and next-generation repertoire- a mix of old chestnuts and original works by innovative young choreographers. Home / News / New Item Los Angeles Ballet Awarded Grant from LA County Arts Commission August 1, 2011 Company News from the Staff at LAB Los Angeles Ballet was awarded its first Los Angeles County Arts Commission grant, in support of its 2012 production of Swan Lake. LAB is grateful to LACAC staff, and LA County Supervisors Gloria Molina, Zev Yaroslavsky, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Don Knabe, and Michael D. Antonovich, Mayor.

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