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Home / Gala 2025 / Kris Bowers, Academy Award® Winner & Los Angeles Ballet Collaborator, and Jennifer Bellah Maguire, Accomplished Attorney & Los Angeles Ballet Chair were Honored at the 2024 LAB Gala. Gala Raised over $1.246 Million Los Angeles – April 18, 2024 - (LAB) hosted its annual Gala on April 18th at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with dynamic performances by LAB dancers honoring Jennifer Bellah Maguire, accomplished Attorney & LAB Board Chair, and Academy Award® Winner & LAB Collaborator Kris Bowers, with Angel Awards for the extraordinary contributions they have made to the arts, LAB and the city of Los Angeles. Kris Bowers, Jennifer Bellah Maguire, Melissa Barak; Photo by Shutterstock Koni Rich, Sharon Davis, Melissa Barak, Donna Mills, Erica Min; Photo by Shutterstock Over the last decade, LAB’s Gala has grown into a beloved event to celebrate ballet as part of the cultural landscape of Los Angeles while raising critical funds for LAB’s artistic programming and mission-driven community offerings. This year, the Gala raised $1.246 Million supporting artistic initiatives that include pioneering bold new works and staging beloved classical story ballets, as well as bringing free dance classes to individuals of all ages and skill levels and the joy of live, professional ballet to under-resourced communities across Los Angeles County, including foster youth, veterans, seniors in assisted living and cancer survivors. Sharon Davis, Erica Min, and Koni Rich were the Gala co-chairs, and the evening was hosted by Emmy® Award-winning actress Donna Mills, with Andrew Firestone, of The Bachelor fame, overseeing the Live Appeal. Jeri Gaile, actress and the current Fred Roberts Director of The Music Center Spotlight, presented the Angel Award to Kris Bowers, and Jon Sokoloff, managing partner of Leonard Green & Partners, presented the Angel Award to Jennifer Bellah Maguire. Michael Milken gave a touching tribute to longtime LAB supporter Robert A. Day. The evening was sponsored by Gov. Gray (Ret.) & Sharon Davis, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Dr Ray & Ghana Irani, Debbie & James Lustig, Dr. Richard Merkin, Michael & Lori Milken Foundation, Erica & Sung Min, Julie Opperman, and Koni & Geoff Rich. Lori & Michael Milken: Photo by Shutterstock Governor Gray Davis (Ret.), Monica Duggal & Aaron Duggal; Photo by Shutterstock Guests included Stephanie Blackmore, Glorya Kaufman, Jerry & Terri Kohl, Michael & Lori Milken, Bari Milken Bernstein & Fred Bernstein, Dr. Ray & Ghada Irani, Debbie & Jimmy Lustig, Joan Van Ark, Alia Tutor and Anita Mann Kohl, and arts leaders including Robert van Leer (The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts) and Rachel Moore (The Music Center). Past honorees include Paula Abdul, Lawrence Bender, Sofia Carson, Governor Gray Davis & Sharon Davis, Robert Day, Jenna Dewan, Linda Duttenhaver, Derek Hough, Ghada Irani, Bari Milken, Lori Milken, Jeff Polak, Gelila Assefa Puck, Kenny Ortega, Jane Seymour, Adam Shankman, Anastasia Soare, Johnese Spisso, Alia Tutor and Ben Vereen. LAB Dancers Bryce Broedell, Marco Biella, Paige Wilkey, Hannah Keene; Photo by Shutterstock LAB is the largest professional dance company in Los Angeles and is on an exciting trajectory toward national recognition. Melissa Barak’s world premiere of Memoryhouse this past June gained local and national acclaim. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “It is an exciting moment for ballet in Los Angeles” and Forbes wrote, “Memoryhouse signals a dazzling creative accomplishment.” (Left to Right) LAB Dancers Jacob Soltero, Cesar Ramirez, Simon Costello in Reclamations; Photo by Shutterstock About Los Angeles Ballet - Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) is the leading ballet company in Los Angeles known for staging classical, contemporary, romantic, and neoclassical ballets, pioneering new works, and presenting relevant works by many of today’s most innovative dance-makers. LAB’s original production of The Nutcracker is an annual holiday favorite for Los Angeles residents and regional, national, and international visitors. Led by Artistic Director Melissa Barak, LAB performs in multiple theater venues across LA County including The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Royce Hall at UCLA, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Pasadena Civic Auditorium, and Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. As part of its mission to expand people’s knowledge of and nurture a love for ballet, LAB gives access to performances to the widest audiences possible by providing free tickets for thousands of residents in underserved communities in Los Angeles County through its arts education program, Power of Performance (POP!). In 2012, LAB launched a hands-on outreach program called A Chance to Dance (ACTD) that provides free ballet and movement instruction for all ages. For information on LAB’s Gala, please contact Julia Rivera, Interim Executive Director, at jrivera@losangelesballet.org

Don Quixote 2016 Adam Lunders with Abby Callahan & Andrea Fabbri Adam Lunders as Don Quixote Julia Cinquemani, Kenta Shimizu & LAB Ensemble Julia Cinquemani Julia Cinquemani Erik Thordal-Christenssen & LAB Ensemble Allyssa Bross Jeongkon Kim, Andrea Fabbri Julua Cinquemani Zheng Hua Li & LAB Ensemble Adam Lunders, David Renaud & LAB Ensemble David Renaud & LAB Ensemble Elizabeth Claire Walker Elizabeth Claire Walker & Adam Lunders Ashley Millar, Kate Highstrete & Elizabeth Claire Walker Julia Cinquemani & LAB Ensemble Julia Cinquemani & LAB Ensemble Erik Thordal-Christensen Chelsea Paige Johnston & LAB Ensemble Allyssa Bross Allyssa Bross & Kenta Shimizu Bianca Bulle Julia Cinquemani & Kenta Shimizu Julia Cinquemani & Kenta Shimizu Julia Cinquemani Christensen and Neary after Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorky /Minkus Previous Gallery Next Gallery All photos by Reed Hutchinson Click on image for a fullscreen presentation.

Press Access Request - Step 2 of 2 2023/2024 Season > Press > Press Access Request - Step 2 Log In Thank you for requesting press access to Los Angeles Ballet media. Please select to log in below and set-up your access. Once we have processed your request, we will contact you with further details. If you have any questions, concerns, or immediate needs, please contact shari@themesulamgroup.com Shari Mesulam , The Mesulam Group

Jimmy & Debbie Lustig Principal Dancer Petra Conti Hometown Frosinone, Italy Schools National Academy of Dance, Rome Companies La Scala Ballet, Boston Ballet Los Angeles Ballet 6th Season

Leslie Parada Hometown Seasons with LAB 2024/2025 Bio Available Shortly

Los Angeles embraces Los Angeles Ballet's The Nutcracker January 1, 2008 Company News from the Staff at LAB Home / News / New Item

Passing the Balanchine Baton May 15, 2013 KCET by AC Remler An elite group of artists called “repetiteurs “ carry on the works of one of the greatest choreographic masters of all time, George Balanchine. For 30 years since his death on April 30, 1983, these human “style guides” for the Balanchine aesthetic have served as guardians of his expansive repertoire of nearly 400 works, and storytellers of his legacy. Many have danced the roles themselves under his tutelage, such as Colleen Neary, co-artistic director of Los Angeles Ballet. She, along with about 30 other New York City Ballet disciples -- the acclaimed ballet company that he founded in 1948 -- have the stamp of approval from the Balanchine Trust to stage the choreographer’s works. As such, they travel the world ensuring that professional ballet companies who present Balanchine on their playbill, perform it, just so. “There was always a style and way of dancing the role that was very important to him,” Neary says. “He gave you the freedom to do what you wanted but not to the extreme where it took the piece another direction. And we grew up around that style - we saw what he wanted. We all respect each other but we all have differences in the years we danced with Balanchine and for versions we danced in. When I danced “Rubies” and “Symphony in C” in the same roles as my sister, [Patricia Neary for whom many roles were created by Balanchine], she was a decade before me, and he may have changed it for me, or changed his mind on certain timings. He changed as he went along. We always say ‘Before Death.’ Those are the years we look at. And after he died, things kept changing, so we try to keep it as tight as we can,” she says. Noelle “Rubies” Neary danced as a soloist from 1969 to 1979 in The New York City Ballet under the direction of Balanchine. Like her sister, she also had numerous roles created for her by Balanchine, as well as by other acclaimed choreographers such as Peter Martins, Jacques d’Amboise and others, throughout her career. Now Neary is poised to pass the Balanchine baton to a new generation of dancers at her own company, which she founded nine years ago with husband and former Royal Danish Ballet and New York City Ballet dancer Thordal Christensen. To commemorate Mr. B’s death (as he’s called fondly) and to celebrate his work, Los Angeles Ballet recently launched a Balanchine Festival 2013. Having just wrapped “Balanchine Gold” in March and April, Los Angeles Ballet recently launched part two of the series, “Balanchine Red” across Southern California that runs through June 9. Balanchine Red features his works, “Agon,” “La Valse,” and “Rubies.” The next performance takes place Saturday, May 18 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, followed by a night at the Valley Performing Arts Center May 25, an afternoon at the Alex Theatre May 26 and ending at Royce Hall June 9. Each performance is accompanied by lectures prior to curtain by experts in Balanchine’s work, including Kent Stowell, Francia Russell, Lewis Segal, Victoria Loos leaf, and of course, Neary herself. One of Los Angeles Ballet’s principal dancers is Southern California native Allynne Noelle. A tall, lithe figure who crackles on stage, Noelle has been with the company since 2011, coming from Miami City Ballet where she also performed Balanchine under the direction of Eddie Villella, another former principal dancer with New York City Ballet. Kenta, Noelle, “TchaiPas” “I like ‘Rubies’ ‘Tall Girl.’ LOVE Jewels as a whole ballet. Oh, and ‘Tchai Pas’ is fun (that’s ballet slang for 1960’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux),” she says, ticking off her favorite Balanchine ballets similar to how someone of a different milieu might rattle off pop music hits. “I really like “Apollo” too, but I’ve never performed it.” In Los Angeles Ballet’s “Balanchine Festival Red,” Noelle will dance the Pas de Deux in the notoriously challenging Agon (1957) an abstract masterpiece in which nary a note is lost on movement; and she will revisit “Tall Girl” in Rubies (1967). The fact that Neary has coached her in a masterpiece that Neary herself has danced for the master is clearly not lost on her. “I was a little scared at first because I know [Neary] has done the role,” she says. “Colleen gives me the freedom to do what I want with the role as an artist, but if there’s a step that isn’t right she lets me know. Even though it’s crazy hard technically, it’s artistically freeing.” Neary is quick to dispel any notion that she expects a cookie cutter interpretation of how she performed the part. “It’s perfect for Allynne. I give her feedback as to how I did it, but I don’t like to say: ‘This is MY role!’; even though you might feel like it’s your role. I want to train the next generation who are dancing the Balanchine ballets and dancing them well so eventually The Balanchine Trust might approve them to stage the ballets. The Balanchine Trust is very tight with [its] mechanism, and typically, they come from New York City Ballet. But I think it’s important for those of us who are with other companies to train the next generation to be able to rehearse his work,” she says. Mr. B, Pat, Colleen. Meanwhile Neary’s next repetiteur “gig” will be with the Paris Opera Ballet staging the original “Symphony in C” called “Palais de Cristal.” Neary also invites other repetiteurs to Los Angeles to stage Balanchine on Los Angeles Ballet dancers. “It’s good for the dancers to work with someone different. Although sometimes it’s hard for me to keep my mouth shut,” she laughs. Noelle, a self-proclaimed repetiteur in waiting, is one of six dancers with Los Angeles Ballet from Southern California. Noelle grew up in Huntington Beach and began classical ballet training at age 5. She remembers limited exposure to professional productions beyond seeing New York-based companies like New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and “the occasional Russian company” breeze through to perform. “The cultural growth (in Southern California) has been exponential since then,” Noelle says. “I’m so happy to be back here dancing in a company that offers the opportunity to perform such great ballets. Last time I was on stage performing ‘Tchai Pas’ I thought, ‘Wow, this is my job. Should I really be having this much fun?’” DOWNLOAD PDF Home / News / New Item

Historic 10th Anniversary Season Announced July 1, 2015 Company News from the Staff at LAB On July 20, 2015, Los Angeles Ballet announced that the historic 10th Season will feature the Great Romantics. Included are LAB's critically-acclaimed productions of Giselle and The Nutcracker; a world premiere production of Don Quixote, choreographed by Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary; and the Los Angeles premiere of Frederick Ashton's Romeo and Juliet. "As we embark upon our tenth season and to celebrate this milestone, we thought that this was the perfect time to share the Romantics with the city," said Christensen. "Thanks to the support of our patrons, the company has seen thrilling growth over the last nine years. Our dancers have grown artistically and technically, and our audience has grown across the city," said Neary. 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

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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

2021/2022 Photo Gallery The Nutcracker Bloom Photo Gallery / 2021/2022 Photo Gallery /