Los Angeles Ballet To Honor Jeff Polak and Alia Tutor at Gala This Month

Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) will celebrate its Season 17 Gala on Thursday, May 18 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. This year's honorees are philanthropists Jeff Polak and Alia Tutor. The honorees are receiving Angel Awards for the extraordinary contributions they have made to LAB and the city of Los Angeles. The evening will be hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Donna Mills. Andrew Firestone, of The Bachelor fame, will oversee the Live Appeal.

ABOUT THE EVENT

The 2023 Gala co-chairs are Sharon Davis and Kirsten Sarkisian. The Gala will include excerpts from Val Caniparoli's Lady of the Camellias, in addition to highlights of the documentary The Making of Memoryhouse. Choreographed by Los Angeles Ballet Artistic Director, Melissa Barak, Memoryhouse, marks Barak's first full-evening ballet for LAB as artistic director. An abstract work composed of vignettes commemorating World War II and in particular, the Holocaust and set to Max Richter's powerful album of the same name, Memoryhouse will reflect on both the somber as well as more heroic moments that illuminate this period in human history. The production is presented by Los Angeles Ballet and BroadStage and is made possible by the generous support of The David and Janet Polak Foundation. It will have its world premiere at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica on June 15 with additional performances on June 16 and 17.

The Gala supports Los Angeles Ballet's mission to provide world-class performances and provide arts education outreach opportunities in Los Angeles County. As the arts continue to be underfunded and often absent from public school curricula, Los Angeles Ballet strives to share the gift of dance with the broadest possible audience and to give back to the community that has so generously supported it. LAB's A Chance to Dance offers free classes for all ages and Power of Performance! (POP!) provides thousands of free tickets through collaboration with over 50 social service community partners to residents of LA County including children, adults, military families, veterans, seniors, and more.

The Gala will begin with red carpet arrivals at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, sponsored by the Michael & Lori Milken Foundation, WM Keck Foundation, and Dr Ray & Ghana Irani. Guests will then enjoy a cocktail hour sponsored by Tamar & Wache Manoukian and a silent auction. Dinner will be followed by the performances and the awards presentation.

Past honorees include Paula Abdul, Lawrence Bender, Sofia Carson, Governor Gray Davis & Sharon Davis, Robert Day, Jenna Dewan, Linda Duttenhaver, Derek Hough, Ghada Irani, Nigel Lythgoe, Bari Milken, Lori Milken, Gelila Assefa Puck, Kenny Ortega, Jane Seymour, Adam Shankman, Anastasia Soare, Johnese Spisso and Ben Vereen.

Jeff Polak

Jeff is President and Executive Director of the David & Janet Polak Foundation, formed in 2012 to support Israel, the American Jewish community, and other causes. The Foundation makes grants to support over 50 organizations. The Foundation has endowed the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine and seeded major gifts to the Technion and Ben Gurion University. Under Jeff's leadership, the Foundation has been at the forefront of making Program-Related Investments, a cutting-edge tool to direct charitable resources into for-profit companies. The David and Janet Polak Foundation is the principal sponsor of Memoryhouse.

Jeff, a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA), is also the Managing Director of Polak Investors which actively manages fixed-income securities, public equities, and alternative assets. He earned his BA in economics and international relations from the University of Southern California and CIMA designation from The Wharton School of Business. He serves on the boards of the American Technion Society and Ben-Gurion University, Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, Jewish Journal, as well as on the investment committees for the Jewish Home, Jewish Federation, the Buckley School, the American Technion Society, and the Americans for Ben-Gurion University.

Jeff has two children, Ethan and Alexa. He is also an avid runner and has completed thirty marathons.

Alia Tutor

Alia Tutor is committed to building on her family's distinguished legacy of impactful philanthropy, serving as President of the Alia Tutor Family Foundation.

A former member of the Los Angeles Ballet Board of Directors, Tutor serves as an advisor to President Folt on the President's Council at USC and is an inaugural member board of the Keck Medicine of USC Board of Councilors, oversight of which includes the USC healthcare systems as well as the medical and dental schools at USC.

Tutor established the Alia Tutor Chair in Reproductive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC to foster groundbreaking research and treatment critical to this field of medicine and previously served on the Keck Board of Overseers.

Tutor proudly serves on the Board of Directors for Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and the CHLA Foundation Board of Trustees. She endowed CHLA's Global Online Pediatric Subspecialty Training Program, a comprehensive tele-health and tele-education platform that facilitates advanced subspecialty pediatric training to bolster the skills of doctors and nurses on the frontlines of providing care in other countries. She also served as co-chair of the hospital's Government Relations Committee.

Tutor received her JD from Columbia Law School, achieving academic recognition as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She was asked by Columbia University to serve on the Columbia Law School Dean's Council, where she works closely with the dean in an advisory capacity for strategic planning and discussion of important issues in legal education.

In 2022, she endowed Columbia University with the transformational gift of the Alia Tutor Law Library. And in 2020, she endowed the Sidney Feltenstein '26 Scholarship Fund in support of students most in need and will meet with these students annually in a mentoring capacity.

Tutor also serves on the Board of Directors for the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Tutor served as a long-term board member and supporter of Indego Africa, an innovative nonprofit social enterprise and lifestyle brand that supports women in Rwanda through economic empowerment and education. In addition, she spent time on the ground working with various women's cooperatives in Rwanda.

She is married to Ronald N. Tutor, chairman and CEO of the Tutor Perini Corporation. The Tutors reside in Los Angeles with their twin sons, Ronald and Richard.

Los Angeles Ballet Outreach Programs

A Chance to Dance (ACTD) LAB opens its doors to all ages in the community each month, and connects live on Instagram, for a day of free ballet classes, alternative dance/fitness classes, and lectures and demonstrations.

Power of Performance! (POP!) provides free access to LAB performances each season to community organizations throughout Los Angeles County such as Hope Street Family Center (Dignity Health), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, WISE and Healthy Aging, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and more. To date, POP! has provided over 50 community partners with nearly 200,000 free performance tickets.

About Los Angeles Ballet

Los Angeles Ballet is known for its superb stagings of the Balanchine repertory, stylistically meticulous classical ballets, dramatic contemporary works and innovative new choreography. LAB has become recognized as a world-class ballet company and tours throughout LA County, regularly appearing at multiple venues. Melissa Barak, LAB's new Artistic Director, joins Executive Director Brandon Lussier, who has been with LAB since 2019. The company was founded in 2004 and led for 16 seasons by Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, who were responsible for programming the Wheeldon and Val Caniparoli performances.

For additional information about Los Angeles Ballet and the 2023 Gala please visit Gala 2023 | Los Angeles Ballet.

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