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2024-2025 Season / Ticket Information / Terms and Conditions of Sales Terms and 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. For questions and support, please contact the Box Office at (310) 998-7782 to purchase by phone, Monday through Friday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm. In-person Ticket Sales Group Sales Venues Accessibility Gift Certificates Tax-Deductibe Donations Terms & Conditions of Sales In-house Policies Privacy Policy

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 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

Assistant Director of Development & Director of Special Events Lindsay Rosenboom After pursuing a music performance and composition career, Lindsay Rosenboom has found a home working behind the scenes of the performing arts as the Assistant Director of Development for Los Angeles Ballet. She supports the fundraising team in all areas, with a strong focus on event management, donor engagement, and memberships. Prior to joining the staff at LAB, Lindsay worked as the Special Events Coordinator for the Office of Advancement at California Institute of the Arts, her alma mater. Lindsay Rosenboom grew up in a household of artists, surrounded by musicians and performers, naturally compelling her to pursue the arts herself. She studied theater at Interlochen Arts Academy and continued to CalArts, where she completed a dual focus BFA in music performance and theater. As a firm believer in cross-disciplinary artistic study and exposure, Lindsay prescribes to the mission of providing access to the arts to as many people as possible in order to facilitate the cultivation of a well-rounded and culturally rich society. Home / Staff / Administrator

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

Commentary - Los Angeles Ballet on upswing in its fifth year December 5, 2010 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal 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. Home / News / New Item

Five Dancers Promoted March 7, 2013 ​ LAB Public Relations Los Angeles Ballet annnounces the promotion of five dances featured in the three-month Balanchine Festival beginning March 9, 2013 Los Angeles Ballet artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary announced the promotion of Zheng Hua Li to Principal Dancer and the promotion of Bianca Bulle, Alexander Castillo, Julia Cinquemani, and Chelsea Paige Johnston to Soloists. All five dancers will be featured in Balanchine Festival GOLD, opening Sat., March 9, 2013, and Balanchine Festival RED, opening Sat., May 11, 2013. Each program will be performed at Los Angeles Ballet’s five home theaters: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Royce Hall/UCLA, Valley Performing Arts Center, Alex Theatre, and Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Zheng Hua Li was born and trained in Shen Yang, China. He danced with Guangzhou Ballet before joining Los Angeles Ballet. This is his fourth season with Los Angeles Ballet. During the upcoming Balanchine Festival GOLD, Mr. Li will dance the Poet in La Sonnambula and the lead in Phlegmatic in The Four Temperaments. Since joining LAB, Mr. Li has danced featured roles including the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, the Pas de Trois in Swan Lake and danced in LAB’s world premiere programs NewWaveLA and NextWaveLA in choreography by Sonya Tayeh, Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, and Stacy Tookey. Li joins current principal dancers Allyssa Bross, Allynne Noelle, Christopher Revels and Kenta Shimizu. Bianca Bulle was born in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia where she trained at Ransley Ballet and Dance Centre before training at New York’s School of American Ballet. This is her second season with Los Angeles Ballet. During Balanchine Festival GOLD Ms. Bulle will dance the second lead (2nd Violin) in Concerto Barocco, and Second Theme in The Four Temperaments. Ms. Bulle has danced featured roles in The Nutcracker including Rose in Waltz of the Flowers and Marie (Sugar Plum Fairy), as well as in LAB’s world premiere program NextWaveLA in choreography by Kitty McNamee and Josie Walsh. Alexander Castillo was born in Bayside, New York and trained at Ballet Academy East, Boston Ballet, and School of American Ballet. This is Mr. Castillo’s third season with Los Angeles Ballet. During Balanchine Festival GOLD Mr. Castillo will dance the male lead in Concerto Barocco and Third Theme in The Four Temperaments. He has been featured in the Arabian dance in The Nutcracker, and the Pas de Trois in Swan Lake, as well in LAB’s world premiere program NextWaveLA in choreography by Sonya Tayeh and Stacey Tookey. Julia Cinquemani was born in Dallas, Texas and trained at the Dallas Ballet Center, Pacific Northwest Ballet and School of American Ballet. This is her third season with Los Angeles Ballet. During Balanchine Festival GOLD, Ms. Cinquemani will dance Third Theme in The Four Temperaments and the lead (1st Violin) in Concerto Barocco. Ms. Cinquemani has been featured in the Pas de Trois and the Russian dance in Swan Lake, as the Arabian and Marie (Sugar Plum) in The Nutcracker, as well as in LAB’s world premieres program NextWaveLA in choreography by Sonya Tayeh and Josie Walsh. Chelsea Paige Johnston was born in Carlsbad, California and trained with San Elijo Dance and Music Academy, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and UC Irvine. She danced with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Milwaukee Ballet II before joining Los Angeles Ballet. This is her fourth season with Los Angeles Ballet. During Balanchine Festival GOLD, Ms. Johnston will dance The Sleepwalker in La Sonnambula. Since joining Los Angeles Ballet she has danced the title role in Giselle, the Russian dance in Swan Lake, Marie (Sugar Plum) in The Nutcracker, and was featured in LAB’s world premiere programs NewWaveLA and NextWaveLA in choreography by Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, Kitty McNamee, and Josie Walsh. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet Center Opens June 1, 2008 Company News from the Staff at LAB Los Angeles Ballet announces the opening of the Los Angeles Ballet Center, the new home of LAB and the Los Angeles Ballet School. Home / News / New Item

Colony adds shine to Los Angeles Ballet's 'Next Wave LA' May 16, 2012 Los Angeles Times by Jean Lenihan The final bill of Los Angeles Ballet's sixth season, “NextWave LA” is the company's annual new works program (known previously as “New Wave LA”), featuring area choreographers. It’s where you can count on loud amplifiers, the shedding of tutus and hair clips, and the sight of the selfsame ballerina you saw comporting like a regal queen in “Swan Lake” or “The Nutcracker” now writhing in extreme throes. This year’s contemporary bill -- featuring premieres by TV veterans Sonya Tayeh and Stacey Tookey (“So You Think You Can Dance") plus established choreographers Josie Walsh and Kitty McNamee -- may feel to be even more of a stark and risky contrast than previous years since for the first time an L.A. Ballet season has offered only story ballets and no Balanchine. Besides smoothing the distance between classical serenity and stark abstraction, Balanchine ballets also deftly convey the rigorous design and rehearsal values that should bridge both worlds. Yet thanks to McNamee’s opener, a mature and mysterious Euro-style group work called “colony,” the company looks lustrous. The debut came Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center; the program moves next to Glendale’s Alex Theatre, then the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Set to Anna Clyne’s electronica and cello, “colony” features the metamorphoses of a mostly female brethren as one individualist (retiring dancer Kelly Ann Sloan) makes a break. Outfitted in Kanique Thomas’ ceremonial black coats and silhouetted in chill, harsh light by designer Ben Pilat, the group begins an eerie circling blizzard that morphs into many new geometries. McNamee’s ensemble pointe work here is mesmerizingly chilly -- inscribing arcs, measuring distances, the dancers’ precise feet move like the points and arms of drafting compasses. Meanwhile, the port de bras are kept minimalist and meaningful. Fresh and original, surely “colony” belongs in L.A. Ballet's permanent repertory, alongside Balanchine and Lar Lubovitch. Though well danced, sadly the bill falls off from here. Set to Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds, Tayeh’s “Duets in the act of...” features four obvious couples -- “cold desperation” (Allyssa Bross, Zheng Hua Li), “artificial seduction” (Julia Cinquemani, Vincent S. Adams), “fleeting nostalgia” (Kate Highstrete, Nicolas de la Vega) and “false ego” (Allynne Noelle, Alexander Castillo). Fleeting moments when Tayeh layered the duos, suggesting links between the differing motivations, signaled the stronger piece that might have been. Josie Walsh’s “Sirens,” scored by her husband Paul Rivera Jr., is yet another retelling of the Odysseus myth of sailors battling watery enchantresses. Men cover their ears, shaking their heads; women bourrée en pointe with undulating arms. One expects the likes of Rihanna to emerge from a trap door to hasten “Sirens”’ to its end. The final work, “Be Still,” with choreography by Tookey to a score featuring Matthew Banks (Blue Man group) and Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, is a subtle, dynamic group piece about time that is currently overwhelmed by its emphatic, confusing design (again by Thomas and Pilat). Why a piece about time’s echoes and waves occurs in fringed two-piece suits -- with white-hot spotlights-- distracts to an impossible degree. “NextWave LA” Los Angeles Ballet, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Alex Theatre, Glendale; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 26, 2 p.m. May 27, the Broad Stage, Santa Monica. $30-$95. (310) 998-7782 or www.losangelesballet.org DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet Brilliant! May 20, 2015 Fjord Review by Victoria Looseleaf Bubbles at the ballet! And what a fantastic way to end a program, which is precisely what Los Angeles Ballet did by presenting Jiří Kylián’s deliriously witty, “Sechs Tänze,” a 1986 bauble set to Mozart that should be required viewing for those who think ballet is a mysterious and elite art form. Indeed, as Pete Campbell of Mad Men might have said: “A thing like that!” Seriously, Los Angeles Ballet is the little company that could. Concluding its ninth season, the troupe has grown by leaps, fouettés and pirouettes over the years, continually proving its mettle in a town that’s been ballet-averse—at least to local talent. But with a dedicated husband-and-wife team at the troupe’s helm—Colleen Neary (a New York City Ballet dancer under Balanchine and répétiteur) and Thordal Christensen (erstwhile artistic director of Royal Danish Ballet)—Angelenos can take pride in this homegrown organization. And while story ballets are an easier sell than a mixed rep bill (LAB’s recent production of its own “Sleeping Beauty” made a greater impact on this reviewer than the gaudy world premiere presented by ABT in Orange County in March), this program showed the diversity, range and reach of the 37-member company. Opening with Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2,” the 1973 revision of the choreographer’s 1941 “Ballet Imperial” and his first foray into the Petipa style (LAB premiered the opus in 2010), the dancers had a chance to show their dreamy side, albeit one fueled by technique, grit and, well, smiles. Plotless, this is, nevertheless, a huge, majestic affair, with Allynne Noelle, Christopher Revels and Julia Cinquemani leading the charge—in this case a bevy of dancers clad in cream-colored attire (designed and executed by Marianne Parker), the women’s neo-Romantic tutus topped with sparkling bodices. The rich melodic score (alas, heard on tape—won’t some angel please donate a few million dollars to give this troupe an orchestra?), leaves no room for stillness. Teeming with numerous corps members offering constantly shifting patterns, including traversing the stage in diagonals, the work also features dancers’ angled arms held aloft, fingers and feet precisely positioned. Then there are the soloists: Noelle, who leaves the company after its final performances (Glendale’s Alex Theatre, May 30; U.C.L.A.’s Royce Hall, June 6), but who will guest in future, displayed a wonderful mix of feminine swagger, musicality and assured footwork, both graceful and muscular. Revels partnered Noelle with brio, his cabrioles and beating feet taking him to new heights. Cinquemani, who, at 23, also has her own dancewear line, accentuated the angst in Tchaikovsky’s music, her gorgeously fierce attacks a study in exactitude. Also noteworthy: Laura Chachich, Kate Highstrete, Zachary Guthier and Dustin True added to the work that is a testament to stamina and the power of art. José Limón first performed “The Moor’s Pavane—Variations on the theme of Othello” in 1949 at the American Dance Festival. Directed and reconstructed by Alice Condodina, a former Limón dancer under the master, himself, this 20-minute distillation of themes from Shakespeare’s play is a timeless tale of envy, intrigue and violence. Set within the formalism of a Baroque dance to Henry Purcell’s music, “Moor” is the apotheosis of concise storytelling, its four characters inspired by Othello, Iago, Desdemona and Emilia, though not named. Zheng Hua Li’s Moor has dug deep to seize the moment, his acting keen, his every move imbued with meaning: Outstretched arms at the work’s beginning define his nobility, only to later signify his rising jealousy and fury; and finally, his utter despair. Erik Thordal-Christensen (the directors’ son), at 20, does not yet have the maturity for a reptilian Iago, although his striking presence (he’s 6’4” and very blonde, decidedly the stuff of princes), is not to be ignored. In time, no doubt, one can see him investing the moves with more villainous rigor. Stepping in for an injured Bianca Bulle, Elizabeth Claire Walker gave her Desdemona the expected air of tragic innocence, her undoing a tableau of fragile prey. The splendid Allyssa Bross handled her dramatic duties with aplomb, occasionally acting as if these goings-on were games, realizing, too late, that they were, in fact, fatal. Such is the gestural language of the dance, where a handkerchief, untrustworthy friends and paranoia, spell doom. Neary and Christensen danced “Moor” in the 1980s, when they were with Pacific Northwest Ballet, and it is from that troupe that they borrowed the costumes (designed by Pauline Lawrence). A paean to the Renaissance, when heads were offed and suspicions ran rampant, these heavy gowns, billowing sleeves and tights, proved great concealers. “Moor,” also the tragedy of Everyman, rings true in today’s harrowing times, when we, too, might find ourselves occasionally cloaked in fear and agitation. We’re grateful for dance, then, to transport us to a higher level, which Kylián’s “Sechs Tänze” does by feeding the soul with unbridled joy. A Los Angeles Ballet premiere, staged by Fiona Lummis and Glen Eddy, the work is divided into six comical acts danced by four couples, with a supporting quintet upping the humor ante. A cheeky romp through the intrigues of Baroque court life, including men in powdery wigs and women sporting garish make-up, the prevailing octet cavorts about in flirty, absurd fun through a series of dangerous liaisons—hello fencing foils and mime! Throughout the six acts, dancers revel in nonsense, both individually and with each other. Faces are slapped, powder is suspended in air; evening gown facades are periodically paraded across the stage reminiscent of an I Love Lucy sight gag. Among the purveyors of silly: the always outstanding Christopher McDaniel (he leaves the troupe after five seasons, boo hoo), Britta Lazenga, Chelsea Paige Johnston, Chloé Sherman, Javier Moya Romero, Cinquemani, Guthier and True. Mozart would have loved it! Oh, yes: Those buckets of bubbles—champagne, anyone?—that rained down at the work’s end was not only a glorious finale to the Kylián, but to a beautifully rendered program by Los Angeles Ballet. We’ll drink to that! READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet Announces Quartet February 1, 2014 ​ LAB Public Relations Performances to include: World premieres from Sonya Tayeh and Christopher Stowell Commissioned score from Noah Agruss LAB premiere of Jiří Kylián’s Return to a Strange Land LAB premiere of George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes Los Angeles Ballet co-artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary are excited to unveil the ballets selected for LAB’s upcoming mixed program, QUARTET. This production adheres strongly to a main component of LAB’s mission: to passionately pursue innovation and creativity in performances by preserving the best choreographic work of the past and to become the impetus for the best choreography yet to come. Also continuing LAB’s mission to bring great, professional ballet to greater LA, each program will be performed at LAB’s four home venues: UCLA’s Royce Hall, The Alex Theatre in Glendale, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, and Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge. From March 1 to 22, 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 as well as on several celebrity concert tours and Broadway touring productions, Beneath One’s Dignity will mark Tayeh’s fourth commission for Los Angeles Ballet. Her ferocious, emotional 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, creating Cipher specifically for the company. This piece also marks the first commissioned composition for LAB, titled Modules by local composer Noah Agruss. 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 in Oregon, 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.” Los Angeles Ballet’s production of QUARTET promises four extraordinary pieces, with something for every audience member. 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. This past summer the Los Angeles Music Center presented Los Angeles Ballet at Grand Park, with more than 3,000 attending the outdoor performance. 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 Jiří Kylián Jiří Kylián is a Czechoslovakian dancer and choreographer who began his career in Stuttgart Ballet in 1968. After creating numerous new ballets at Stuttgart, he became the Artistic Director of Nederlands Dans Theater where he served until 1999 and continued to choreograph for the company until 2009. His work Return to a Strange Land is an LAB premiere. About Christopher Stowell Christopher Stowell led a distinguished 16-year career as a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet before becoming Oregon Ballet Theatre’s second Artistic Director from 2003 to 2012, where he significantly expanded the company’s repertoire. Cipher is his first commissioned work for Los Angeles Ballet. About Sonya Tayeh Sonya Tayeh was born in Detroit, Michigan and received a B.S. in Dance from Wayne State University. She has extensive stage credits and has choreographed for Miley Cyrus, Florence and the Machine, Kylie Minogue, and Madonna. She is a recurring choreographer and judge on So You Think You Can Dance. Beneath One’s Dignity will be her fourth commissioned work for Los Angeles Ballet. About George Balanchine Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine came to the United States in late 1933 following an early European career that included the Ballets Russes. Balanchine co-founded the School of American Ballet, and New York City Ballet where he served as the ballet master from its inception in 1948 until his death in 1983. To this day, Balanchine is regarded as world’s foremost contemporary ballet choreographer. Stars and Stripes is an LAB premiere. About Noah Agruss Noah Agruss is a Los Angeles based Composer who studied composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston and was mentored by Pulitzer Prize composer Wayne Peterson at San Francisco State University. Noah co-founded San Francisco's composer consortium, New Release Alliance, and served as Composer-in-Residence and Music Director on more than 20 productions for Sacramento's B Street Theatre. His edgy string quartet arrangements for Vitamin Records have garnered millions of hits on YouTube and have been chosen by choreographer Mia Michaels for her work on So You Think You Can Dance. His Film and Television credits include the Lionsgate's feature Five Fingers and NBC's broadcast of the Beiijing Olympics. Noah is honored to have been chosen to collaborate with Christopher Stowell in creating "Modules" for Los Angeles Ballet. DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

LA Observed End-of-Year 2016 Review December 27, 2016 LA Observed by Donna Perlmutter Call them a team. Some team. They are, arguably, the greatest living theater artist and the greatest living dancing actor, in magical cahoots with each other. Namely, Robert Wilson and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Two years ago they brought us "The Old Woman," a revelatory piece that instead of being a fluke with rich resources was just the first combustion of a duo bound for the poetic cosmos. But return they did to UCLA's Royce Hall (and it couldn't happen for more appreciative hosts) -- this time with "Letter to a Man," otherwise known as their Nijinsky piece, based on the legendary dancer's madman journal writings to his nemesis, Sergei Diaghilev, that haute impresario of the early Parisian 1900's, who sponsored and bedded him, then sent him into exile; this, after his misdeed of marriage to aristocrat Romola de Pulszky. Did you miss it? Well, you missed a stunning event. What kind? The kind that makes you crave to see the 60-minute show again. To jump on a plane to Paris next week, where it plays for 8 days. And what makes it so? The moment-to-moment montage, a kaleidoscope that frames the ever-magnetic Misha in a myriad of physical portrayals, his voice projections of the Russian lines set down by Vaslav Nijinsky in the Zurich sanatorium. It's where he lived in otherwise silence for the subsequent 30 years to his life's end. What Wilson does is drop each vignette into a stage picture, developed through ingenious lighting and set pieces that form a captivating tableau. There's the stark shock value of Misha in white face, with tux shirt and black bow tie, strobe-lit in a freeze of madness, the stage fronted by a row of yellow bulbs. But that's just to start. Soon the sardonic good times get going. A little song and dance, Bausch-style, with the nostalgia of '30s pop tunes, Misha still doing a fluidly integrated turn or step that advertises his authoritative wit and showmanship. But elsewhere this Nijinsky's expression goes dark and his downcast eyes gaze into the same abyss seen on an LP jacket picturing the dancer as a tragic Petrouchka. If we're lucky UCLA's Royce Hall will stage an encore. Meanwhile there's another Russian supernova commanding our attention: Daniil Trifonov, the 25-year-old pianist whose name often brings up talk of Vladimir Horowitz -- although this current virtuoso comes without personal peculiarities. He's simply an extraordinary artist. So when the Disney Hall crowd, packed wall-to-wall, heard him with Gustavo Dudamel leading his LA Philharmonic, it was blown away. Naturally. They ventured that beast of the literature, Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. A knuckle-buster if there ever was one, it became the world Trifonov inhabits, wholly absorbing, intense in its intricacies and rapacious demands, its live-or-die heat, all of it stitched together in unrelenting concentration. Unlike many others, he even took on the lush romantic theme with an elegant, classical approach -- no swoosh and swoon and swell, no quarter with easy, over-indulgence, but just a modicum of restraint for contrast with the surrounding finger fury. To be sure, Dudamel kept his band stepping along in unflagging sympathy with the soloist. But there were moments when they swamped him -- so that Rachmaninoff's advanced harmonics (1st movement), as heard when Trifonov played under the Verbier Festival's Yuri Temirkanov, got swallowed up here. No check on orchestral power came in the remaining program. Dudamel gave his forces their head and then some for Prokofiev's mystical Scythian Suite, followed by Scriabian's "Poem of Ecstasy." For those who have yet to hear the Philharmonic in all its sonic brilliance, this has to be a resolute goal. But those seeking a massive visual component to music had only to catch LA Opera's production of Philip Glass's "Akhnaten" -- you know, that supposedly androgynous pharaoh, made more so in this re-telling of Egyptian history by the title character's gradual gender change before our very eyes. Extraneous commotion abounded here, and not just for the staging and majestically static score, momentous music of mounting drama (a Glass specialty). First, there was the Music Center Pavilion's protest rally by "Black History Matters" questioning that the company did not cast an African-American as the lead counter-tenor, despite its color blind composition of numerous others, including Queen Nefertiti. And then there was Akhnaten (himself/herself), sung by Anthony Roth Costanzo in a somewhat scratchy, appropriately high voice, who appeared nude at one lengthy ceremonial point, head and body shaven, only to be dressed in this glacially slow production by attendants. (One wag was heard saying "what a way to put your pants on!" referring to the choreographed lifting of the whole body and slow guiding of his legs into their coverings). Later, under sheer garments, he appeared with a semblance of breasts. You could call the entire show a processional, with much sung declaiming, a contingent of jugglers and some stunning scenic triumphs -- all of it underpinned by a score with ongoing arpeggios, led perfunctorily here by Matthew Aucoin (a talked-about composer named to three years as the company's artist-in-residence). But coming after Glass's "Einstein on the Beach," staged three years ago, it doesn't nearly match the power of that celebrated piece. As a breather LA Opera gave us Leonard Bernstein's charming, upbeat "Wonderful Town" -- and didn't even insist on an operatic conversion, except for baritone Marc Kudisch, the only self-consciously formal voice here, who sang off-pitch much of the time. So, yes, the Broadway musical has a place here, especially if you believe that music drama can be inclusive. Quality counts, not genre. And although its orchestration fully acknowledges terrific tunes and musical comedy rhythms, Bernstein's interior scoring also lets us in on his compositional kernels for "On the Waterfront" and even "West Side Story." Grant Gershon led the whole shebang lovingly and energetically (revealing his early roots) -- with the orchestra onstage behind the performing cast. Faith Prince made a comically jaded Ruth with Nikki James her deliciously starry-eyed sister Eileen. Roger Bart, that utterly versatile impersonator, changed voices, accents and characters in the flick of an eye. Steven Sondheim joined the Broadway focus when Beverly Hills' Wallis Theater put on the composer's still problematic "Merrily We Roll Along." Despite the staging's over-the-top, unintended caricature (an SNL skit?) and George Furth's now fatuously melodramatic book, Sondheim's marvelous songs and lyrics make the effort well worth our while. Can anyone ever resist the chance to hear "Not a Day Goes By"? Even when up against this show's politically correct diversity casting that makes not a whit of sense? Of course, if you close your eyes and just listen. Among notable locals there was the best of them, LA Ballet, an enterprise that keeps on amazing us with its often sterling programs.The latest, in a string of successes, led off with signature Balanchine, the "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" and let me say here that the piece is always startling; it is its choreographer's neo-classical genre emblem. Pull it out of the box, amid many diverse ballet formats, and it will outshine everything else. Of course, that's assuming the dancers, their coach and the general staging can match the demands. No question this time. The soloists made the most eloquent complement to Stravinsky's quirky, convoluted and melancholy score. And the ensemble was not far behind. The other grateful entry on the bill was Aszure Barton's "Untouched," a clever cowboy's lament set in a dance hall (brothel?) that uses Graham expressionism in an original, characterful way. Again, the dancers rose to the high level of national companies with big budgets. Establishment Los Angeles and its private benefactors must do more to secure this gem of a dance troupe. READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item