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Los Angeles Ballet announces the formation of the Los Angeles Ballet Guild September 1, 2009 Company News from the Staff at LAB The mission of LABG is to provide a vital link between Los Angeles Ballet, its artistic and executive leadership, its board of directors, and the Southern California community. It exists to support the mission of Los Angeles Ballet and provide the necessary assistance to organize all performances. Through its activities and fundraising, the Guild is by nature philanthropic, creative, entrepreneurial, and industrious. LABG is the major support group of LAB. Home / News / New Item

LAB's Open Children's Audition for The Nutcracker September 19, 2022 Los Angeles Ballet held open auditions for children who want to be part of the 2022/2023 Season production of “The Nutcracker” on Sunday. The event at the Dolby Theatre was attended by children ages 6 to 13. READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

Cesar Ramirez Castellano Hometown Trinidad, Cuba Seasons with LAB 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024, 2024/2025 Cesar Ramirez started his ballet training at Escuela Nacional de Ballet Fernando Alonso in Cuba under School Director Ramona de Saa. He also received his training from The Rock School for Dance Education under Bo and Stephanie Spassoff. Cesar has danced professionally with Ballet Nacional de Cuba and Los Angeles Ballet. He has had the pleasure of dancing to classical ballet repertoire and works by Christopher Wheeldon, Annab elle Lopez Ochoa, George Balanchine, and Melissa Barak. Cesar is grateful to be dancing another season with the Los Angeles Ballet and the company's diverse repertoire.

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

Season 2011-2012 Laura Anne Wallace, Chelsea Paige Johnston & Bianca Bulle in 'Colony' by Kitty McNamee Kitty McNamee Allyssa Bross & Zheng Hua Li in 'Duets in the Act of help' by Sonya Tayeh Julia Cinquemani & Vincent S. Adams in 'Duets in the Act of help' by Sonya Tayeh Molly Flippen & Nicholas de la Vega in 'Duets in the Act of help' by Sonya Tayeh Allynne Noelle & Alexander Castillo in 'Duets in the Act of help' by Sonya Tayeh Josie Walsh Sirens'ge Johnston in 'Sirens' by Josie Walsh Allynne Noelle, Alexander Castillo, Benjamin Winegar & Zheng Hua Li in 'Be Still' by Stacey Tookey Stacey Tookey Allyssa Bross in 'Be Still' by Stacey Tookey Allynne Noelle & Kenta Shimizu in 'Swan Lake' Christopher Revels in 'Swan Lake' Sophie Silna, Bianca Bulle, Ariel Derby & Julia Cinquemani in 'Swan Lake' Allyssa Bross & Ensemble in 'Swan Lake' 'Swan Lake" Katherine Coqgill & Zheng Hua Li in 'Swan Lake' Julia Cinquemani in 'Swan Lake' Kate Highstrete in 'Swan Lake'; Photo Allyssa Bross & Christopher Revels, with Nicholas de la Vega in 'Swan Lake' Allynne Noelle & Kenta Shimizu in 'Swan Lake' Kenta Shimizu in 'Swan Lake' Allynne Noelle & Kenta Shimizu in 'Swan Lake' Allynne Noelle & Kenta Shimizu in 'Swan Lake' Previous Gallery Next Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation.

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

Julia Cinquemani Promoted to Principal Dancer November 1, 2014 Company News from the Staff at LAB On November 1, 2014, LAB Co-Artistic Director Thordal Christensen announced Julia Cinquemani's promotion from Soloist to Principal Dancer. The announcement came minutes after the curtain went down on Julia's debut as Odette/Odile in Los Angeles Ballet's Swan Lake. Julia joined Los Angeles Ballet in 2010 and was promoted to Soloist in March 2013. Home / News / New Item

Los Angeles Ballet Featured in Dance Magazine - August 2010 Issue August 1, 2010 Dance Magazine 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. The company tours the greater LA area each season, performing at Glendale's Alex Theatre Performing Arts & Entertainment Center, Royce Hall at UCLA Live, the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, and-new this season-the Richard & Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach and the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge. "It's important we establish [ourselves in] LA first, before we tour anywhere else," says Christensen. The Nutcracker, this season's festive opening ballet, is "very important to present around the holidays," says Neary. "Kids love it; the dancers love it, and so do we." Home / News / New Item

Review: Missteps aside, Los Angeles Ballet brings new life to 'Giselle' October 4, 2015 Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal Los Angeles Ballet first danced “Giselle” in its fifth season. Now, at the start of Season 10, it has returned to the full-length Romantic tragedy with great freshness and authority. At the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on Saturday, the level of classical dancing remained praiseworthy, but the big news involved the attempt to bolster the work’s dramatic credibility in Act 1. The unfamiliar Desmond Heeley scenery and costumes (borrowed from the National Ballet of Canada) and the unusually detailed and convincing portrayal of the jealous Hilarion by Alexander Castillo showed that this traditional staging of “Giselle” was being reconsidered or improved. In the title role, longtime principal Allyssa Bross again displayed a touching sweetness and vulnerability in her early scenes, but the superb fierceness and fury of her mad scene proved a welcome innovation. As Albrecht, Kenta Shimizu always partnered her skillfully, but the passion in his performance flowered in Act 2, where his high Romantic fervor exceeded anything I’ve seen in Shimizu’s seven seasons with the company. Julia Cinquemani and Dustin True brought a sense of occasion and honed technical abilities to the Peasant Pas de Deux, along with a brilliant knack for recovering perfectly from slips -- she at the beginning of a solo, he at the end. Indeed, True’s improvisation could well become an original virtuoso step-combination, if he can repeat it. A few small problems remained in Act 1: Berthe’s incomprehensible pantomime-speech, for example -- not how it was executed by company co-artistic director Colleen Neary, but the mime-text itself. In Act 2 the company’s refined classicism couldn’t offset major dramatic lapses. Kate Highstrete’s technically flawless but small-scaled dancing and mime as Myrtha never dominated the stage, the corps or the men intended to be her victims. The role needed a diva, and it didn’t help that everyone stood around doing nothing in particular when Myrtha’s evil power should have faltered in the face of true love -- or the magic of the cross in some stagings. What’s more (spoiler alert), the dawn of Albrecht’s salvation became merely a music cue in this version, without the change in lighting or corps attack that can and should be thrilling. One final disappointment: our last look at Albrecht. When you’re walking away from love beyond the grave, dignity is no substitute for heartbreak. That left Act 2 all about footwork: satisfying work by the corps, even better when the deep rapport between Bross and Shimizu informed their dancing. Some of Adolphe Adam’s music (on tape) seemed a mite slow for this spirited Giselle. It would be exciting to find her exploiting sudden tempo shifts. But her floating pointe-work and Shimizu’s climactic batterie set the seal on an evening that sent Los Angeles Ballet into an ambitious season of full-length classics, boldly and confidently. ---------- “Giselle” Who: Los Angeles Ballet Where: Program repeats at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, and at 2 p.m. Nov. 1 at Royce Hall at UCLA Tickets: $31-$99 Info: (310) 998-7782, losangelesballet.org READ ARTICLE AT SOURCE Home / News / New Item

The Nutcracker 2019 Choreography by Christensen/Neary, Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Home / Video Gallery / Video

2024-2025 Season / Ticket Information / Privacy Policy Privacy Policy Los Angeles Ballet knows that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust. The following sets forth our policy regarding the privacy of those who visit Los Angeles Ballet's website. By visiting the Los Angeles Ballet website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice. Personal Information Collected by Los Angeles Ballet The information we learn from our visitors and customers helps us personalize and continually improve your experience at our website. Here are the types of information we gather. Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way with the exception of credit card or banking information. Los Angeles Ballet does not save, store or retain credit card or banking information. You can choose not to provide certain information. 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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