Los Angeles Ballet kicks off its 2007-2008 season with a series of Nutcrackers around Southern California, and this feature on Melissa Barak by the LA Times. I didn't know you could make a decent living in LA with choreography.

Well, maybe there is hope for La after all.

Are you going to any performance Andrew?

Yes, I'm hopefully going to see them at the end of this month. I'll try to catch one performance each of Corina Gill's and Melissa's SPF. I'm more looking forward to their programs this spring with the new choreography and Balanchine.

--Andre

I think there's room for the classics in L.A. I'd love to think they're hungry for it!

I am tempted to think that LA has a fairly unsophisticated dance audience. The one sure thing is that when ABT shows up with a full-length ballet, it will sell out. Big names help, too, but rep programs don't really do that well, which is why it's interesting to see LAB pursue that strategy. Even when NYCB visited a few years ago in a rare visit, many of their shows, which were all mixed rep, were undersold.

On the other hand, I get confused when I see programs like Merce Cunningham and Shen Wei be really popular. I wonder if there is different marketing for these events, because I see a lot more young hipster types at those events than the classical ballet ones. Yet the same theaters are presenting both types of programs.

I get the feeling that the really popular ones are perceived more as an event to be at, than just a dance event. It's like if you're really cool, you'd be at the event, instead of if you're interested in dance you'd be at the event. Does anyone sell some pre-packaged cool we can spray on our events?

--Andre

It makes me wonder if Christoper Wheldon(?) new ballet company would do well. isn't it supposed to be classical meets cool?

With so many good ballet schools in the Southland, you would hope that some audience members would be there for the dancing.

Lewis Segal reviews LA Ballet's performance of three works by Balanchine ("Four Temperaments," "Tarantella," and "Who Cares?") plus a new work, "Lost in Transition" by Melissa Barak at UCLA's Freud Playhouse (in competition with the Georgian State Ballet at Royce Hall on the same campus!) in the Los Angeles Times:

LA Times