Major Giving
Elevate the Stage:
Invest in the future of Los Angeles Ballet
As Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) begins Season 19, our mission to bring high-quality and culturally enriching ballet to Los Angeles County is driven by our passion for the art form and our belief that ballet should be shared with, and enjoyed by, as many people as possible.
Major gifts help LAB achieve transformational growth, provide financial support for long-term planning, and elevate the art form.
Learn more about our Special Project Funds and Season 19 Priorities below:
Special Project Funds
Pioneering new works keeps ballet evolving and propels the art form forward. To date, LAB has created and produced 17 illuminating world-premiere ballets. The Artistic Innovation Fund supports commissioning new works and collaborations such as LAB’s Artistic Director Melissa Barak’s world-premiere Cylindrical Forces with an original score by award-winning film composer Kris Bowers.
$25,000
Provides seed funding for the new work development process. The choreographer develops a unique concept or narrative, often inspired by a story, theme, or musical score, forming the foundational vision of the new ballet.
$50,000
Supports a week of rehearsal workshops with the full company as the new work takes shape. Dancers begin exploring and interpreting the choreography. This phase involves iterative refinement, where feedback from rehearsals informs adjustments in the choreography and production design.
$100,000
Funds transferring the work from the studio to the stage. Final adjustments are made to integrate the choreography with the various production designers - sound, scenic, costume and lighting.
Ensures our dancers have all the support they need to achieve high-performance goals as athletes and artists! LAB employs a company of 26 professional dancers on a 26-week contract.
$25,000
Supports physical therapy for the company. By providing personalized care, physical therapists help ensure that dancers can perform at their best while minimizing the risk of short-term injury and promoting a sustainable, long-lasting career for our dancers.
$50,000
Funds dancer supplies including new pointe shoes and facilities updates to keep our dancers safe. LAB purchases approximately 350 pointe shoes a year!
$100,000Underwrites one month of training to prepare our company for the rigorous demands of the art form. Unlike other performing artists, professional ballet dancers must take daily technique classes with ballet masters, weight training, and conditioning to maintain physical fitness and foster artistic growth before rehearsing.
LAB’s Community Engagement activities are currently centered on two long-standing programs. Power of Performance (POP!) provides at least 10% of tickets seasonally, free of charge, to under-resourced community members. LAB does this by partnering with nonprofit, social service, and community-based organizations focused on supporting and enriching the lives of vulnerable groups, including foster children, senior citizens, U.S. military veterans, formerly incarcerated adults, and more.
“I was at The Nutcracker, the very first ballet with our ladies. It was so magical to see some who had been homeless or being abused or just abusing themselves with drugs so free and happy. The situation that got me was that about half of the ladies had tears streaming down their faces and they all said at once when they saw me looking at them that they had never experienced something so beautiful before." – Program Participant
LAB’s other primary Dance Engagement program is A Chance To Dance (ACTD), an arts learning program that provides monthly free dance classes to the public for all ages. ACTD features age- and skill-appropriate dance instruction, with all classes taught by LAB company dancers. In addition to expanding our ACTD classes year-round, LAB has reactivated ACTD in public schools as part of a partnership with Turn Around Arts. LAB has begun a residency at McKinley Elementary School (a K-8, Title 1 school in the Compton Unified School District) to offer free dance classes to their students.
$25,000
Gives the gift of live ballet to 250 participants of POP!
$50,000
Provides free dance classes to 1,200 arts learners of all ages and levels.
$100,000
Underwrites 10% of Nutcracker performance tickets to serve 1,000 POP! participants.
Invest in the crucial technical and creative elements that go into transforming the stage into the stunning world exhibited by classical ballet. From the detailed staging by repetiteurs to executing the dramatic lighting, costumes, and set design, these aspects are all integrated to create ballet magic.
$25,000
Supports authorized repetiteurs to teach and rehearse beloved choreography, like Balanchine’s Serenade.
$50,000
Funds the creation of new costumes and provides much-needed funding to refurbish existing pieces in our inventory. Costume design plays a crucial role in preserving the artistic integrity and vibrancy of the ballet for future generations.
$100,000Underwrites lighting, scenic design, and production materials, which are vital for translating a choreographer's vision into a tangible experience. They set the mood, highlight key moments, and help tell the story visually, making the narrative more accessible to the audience.
Season 19 Priorities
January 30 – February 1, 2025 | Co-Presented with The Wallis
Los Angeles Ballet seeks funding to restage Artistic Director Melissa Barak’s vitally important work Memoryhouse commemorating the 6 million Jewish lives lost during the Holocaust to mark the 80th anniversary since the camps were liberated. Barak partnered with Hagy Belzberg, Founding Partner of BA Collective and the architect of The Holocaust Museum LA for set design, and Sebastian Peschiera of Narduli Studio for media design. Sponsorship supports the artistic, production, and design transfer to The Wallis.
Pioneering New Work
The original full-length ballet by LAB Artistic Director Melissa Barak was created to move audiences on a visceral level to seek out information about a history that can never be forgotten. The piece premiered in June 2023 at the BroadStage thanks to Principal Sponsor support from The David and Janet Polak Foundation and received local and national critical acclaim.
“Memoryhouse signals a dazzling creative accomplishment.” – Forbes
“Striking and complex neoclassical ballet.” – LA Times
According to the Dance Data Project, the year Memoryhouse premiered there were only twelve full-length world premieres. Only two of those premieres were choreographed by women. Melissa Barak and Los Angeles Ballet were one of those two premieres.
Levels of Support
Sponsor - $25,000
Supports the rehearsal process.
Major Sponsor - $50,000
Funds the production transfer to The Wallis.
Lead Sponsor - $75,000
Underwrites one performance.
The Nutcracker December 19 – 28, 2024 (10 performances)
Cinderella June 12 – 15, 2025 (5 performances)Los Angeles Ballet seeks funding to support a live orchestra of 56 musicians and a conductor for LAB’s The Nutcracker and Cinderella performances at Dolby Theatre.
Where Music Meets Motion
Audiences and dancers can feel when a score is performed live. A live orchestra brings an added layer of energy to every performance. This synergy is why Los Angeles Ballet is passionate about honoring the original intentions of choreographers and composers.
The enduring tradition of a full orchestra pit breathing life into the masterpieces of legendary composers, such as Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker or Prokofiev’s Cinderella, is becoming a rarity. In recent years, ballet companies have been forced to substitute live orchestras with recorded music as they struggle with escalating production costs and inflation. LAB is one of the few companies in Southern California that still performs classical ballets with live orchestration. Not only are we enhancing the artistic experience, but we are also contributing to the creative economy in Los Angeles County by supporting working musicians.
Levels of Support
Sponsor - $25,000
Underwrites 25 musicians for one performance.
Major Sponsor - $50,000
Underwrites 50 musicians for one performance.
Lead Sponsor - $75,000
Underwrites a full orchestra and conductor for two performances.
March 22 – 23, 2025 | Destination Crenshaw’s Sankofa Park
This season LAB introduces an exciting new dance series, Off Balance. In collaboration with multifaceted artist Shantell Martin, this avant-garde exploration of levels and space will be performed at Destination Crenshaw’s Sankofa Park. Off Balance is the inaugural piece of an experimental new dance program for LAB that includes collaborations with diverse artists, choreographers, and musicians pushing the boundaries of ballet and dance, set in environments off the proscenium stage.
Innovative Collaborations
Choreographer/Visual Designer
British-born visual artist Shantell Martin, known for her work across various disciplines, has achieved notable success in the realms of fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology. Her journey includes collaborations with prestigious institutions such as MIT Media Lab, NYU Tisch ITP, and Columbia University’s Brown Institute, as well as choreographing for Boston Ballet. Martin's art explores themes like intersectionality, identity, and play and, she has showcased her work in solo exhibitions at renowned galleries, including the 92Y Gallery in New York, Albright Knox Gallery, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Levels of Support
Sponsor - $25,000
Supports the new work development phase to devise and conceptualize the work from the ground up.
Major Sponsor - $50,000
Funds the rehearsal and collaboration process with the dancers and creative team.
Lead Sponsor - $75,000
Underwrites one performance.
Be part of the movement!
When you give to LAB, you join a community of philanthropists who believe that both pioneering new works and beloved classics are the future of the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. We seek to build a community through a shared love of ballet and to provide a deeper appreciation of the art form through unique experiences and exclusive content. In addition to performance tickets, we offer in-studio visits, access to donor lounges, and sponsorship recognition in appreciation of major gifts.
Thank you for your consideration!
Danielle Bearden-Mead
Director of Development
(310) 477-7411 ext 1006
Non-profit 501 c3 Tax ID #20-1819852
Top Photo: Cylindrical Forces by Cheryl Mann Photography; Photos in boxes: Kris Bowers & Melissa Barack by Mary Katherine Leslie; LAB dance class by Rachel Weber Photography; Power of Performance (POP!) by Mary Katherine Leslie; Firebird by Cheryl Mann Photography; Memoryhouse by Cheryl Mann Photography; Orchestra by Catherine Kanner; Off Balance by Cheryl Mann Photography; Photos in accordions: Memoryhouse by Cheryl Mann Photography; Preserving Live Classical Music In Ballet - The Nutcracker by Cheryl Mann Photography, Orchestra by Catherine Kanner; Off Balance - Portrait by Michelle Mosqueda; Installation by Connie Tsang