Ballet Company Prepares For Summer Dance Production And Celebrates Local Artists
LOS ANGELES, CA: California Contemporary Ballet, (http://www.calballet.com) a professional dance theatre group in Los Angeles, recently held an event announcing the company’s upcoming production of Thumbelina, as well as celebrating local art featuring several prominent artists. The event helped raise funds for the company’s summer production of Thumbelina, an original ballet adaptation of the classic tale. The evening was hosted by Aerin Holt, California Contemporary Ballet’s Artistic Director and Choreographer.
The celebration featured several local artists, including Anne Tryba, Dwight Mikkelsen and Samson Chan. Ceramic artist, Anne Tryba, a Disney Imagineer of 20 years and manager of Imagineering Graphic Design for 7 years, attended the event and donated a flower sculpture as a door prize. Ms. Tryba also created one-of-a-kind Thumbelina statuettes specifically for the fundraiser. Dwight Mikkelsen, a classical composer whose music has been performed by groups such as the LA Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Pops and the Vienna Opera Orchestra, wrote the original score for Thumbelina. Mr. Mikkelsen was present to sign copies of the CD and spoke about the creation of the music for the ballet. Samson Chan, 8-time Emmy award-winning cinemaphotographer and California Contemporary Ballet’s official photographer for last year’s production of Thumbelina, contributed signed photographs of the production as donation awards. The CCB costume designers, Mrs. Christine Morrison and Mrs. Nancy Scott, gave a presentation of the costumes for the upcoming production, describing the creative process involved in hand-making the outfits for each character. Finally, the California Contemporary Ballet gave a performance of several dances from their repertoire.
Aerin Holt, Artistic Director of California Contemporary Ballet, stated: “It was a very good event, we enjoyed celebrating so many types of artistic talent during the evening. Putting together a ballet really involves so many individual pieces that most of the time you don’t see all of them during the production. This was in anticipation for our upcoming production of Thumbelina this June. We strive to bring art and culture to the community, so this event was an excellent opportunity to do so.”
California Contemporary Ballet, a professional dance company, together with its youth division, California Contemporary Youth Ballet, perform throughout Southern California. Twice a year, for their summer production and their annual winter production of “The Snow Queen”, they put together an artfully integrated cast of professional dancers in principal roles, and chorus roles filled by youth dancers, actors and gymnasts from around Los Angeles, including the local foothill communities of Sunland/Tujunga and La Crescenta, La Cañada, Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank.
“Thumbelina” by California Contemporary Ballet (Los Angeles) will be performed at Glendale Community College (1500 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA) on June 27th at 7:30 PM, and on June 28th and 29th at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $20–$30 at http://www.CalBallet.com/upcoming-performances. Group tickets are also available.
