Los Angeles Ballet's 13th Season Opens 10/6

Los Angeles Ballet (www.losangelesballet.org), the city's own and only professional classical ballet company, announces its 2018-2019 Season that includes both classical and contemporary programming.

LAB Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary present Modern Moves, a mixed bill Directors' Choice program; the return of the holiday tradition, The Nutcracker, and Serenade and La Sylphide. Programs are performed at LAB's home theaters: UCLA's Royce Hall, Glendale's Alex Theatre, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, and this year also include performances at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

"This season truly embodies our mission to preserve the best choreographic work of the past and become the impetus for the best choreography yet to come," said Christensen and Neary. "Our repertoire celebrates the masters, while showcasing contemporary choreographers that are creating their own legacies."

Modern Moves will open the season (October 2018) and will feature Balanchine's Western Symphony, Les Chambres des Jacques, a LAB premiere from Aszure Barton, and Lickety-Split, a LAB premiere from Alejandro Cerrudo. The production brings three choreographic interpretations from master choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The evening highlights Americana, folk music and the Old West.

LAB's popular The Nutcracker (November and December 2018), set in 1912 Los Angeles, returns for the holidays. After last season's sold-out performances, the holiday engagement kicks off with performances at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, a new venue for LAB, over Thanksgiving weekend. The performances at Dolby Theatre will again feature a live orchestra led by internationally renowned conductor Andrea Quinn. LAB partners with the American Federation of Musicians (Local 47, the Musicians Union of Hollywood) to bring Tchaikovsky's luminous, beloved score to life.

To close the season, Los Angeles Ballet presents Serenade and La Sylphide (March 2019), a passionate program that offers masterpieces choregraphed by George Balanchine and August Bournonville. Balanchine's Serenade is stirring, sweeping and romantic and one his best-loved works, and Bournonville's La Sylphide is a captivating story of love and loss.

Entering its thirteenth season, Los Angeles Ballet continues to present world-class performances and provide diverse outreach opportunities throughout Southern California. At a time when the arts are underfunded and continue to be absent from public school curricula, it is Los Angeles Ballet's mission to share the gift of dance with the broadest possible audience and give back to the community that has so generously supported it. Los Angeles Ballet opens its doors with free classes for all ages with A Chance to Dance and provides thousands of free tickets with Power of Performance (POP!), to special needs children and adults, military families, veterans and seniors through collaboration with 49 community partners. To date, LAB has provided 166,000 free tickets to POP! participants.

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 twelve seasons, presenting 38 productions encompassing 69 works, including 18 commissioned world premieres. Los Angeles Ballet 'tours' throughout LA County, regularly appearing at four venues. 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 Thordal Christensen - Among Thordal Christensen's many credentials are an impressive performing career, successful leadership of one of the world's major ballet companies, critically applauded original choreography, and a proven commitment to dance education. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Christensen received his ballet training at The Royal Danish Ballet School and at the School of American Ballet in New York City before a performance career that included the Royal Danish Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Christensen then returned to Denmark where he was Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet. This blend of Bournonville and Balanchine tradition is one of the defining themes of his career, and has shaped the unique artistic vision that Christensen, along with his wife Colleen Neary, bring to Los Angeles Ballet. In 2002, he was made Knight of the Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

About Colleen Neary - Colleen Neary brings to Los Angeles Ballet the benefits of her vast experience as one of George Balanchine's quintessential ballerinas. In her experience as a dancer, teacher, and ballet mistress, she also worked closely with other luminaries of 20th century dance, including Rudolf Nureyev, Maurice Béjart, and Ji?í Kylián. Born in Miami, Florida and trained at The School of American Ballet, Neary danced in New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, then for Maurice Béjart's Ballet du XXième Siecle, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Neary was personally selected by Balanchine to teach his choreography to major companies all over the world as a répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust.

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