They're trying again - a ballet company for Los Angeles?

LA has not had a particularly good history with supporting its own ballet company. People have tried again and again - an ensemble based at the Music Center tried and failed a long time ago, the Joffrey Ballet tried to stay in residence part time here in LA - even that didn't work. And most recently, Ethan Stiefel attempted to make something big out of Ballet Pacifica in Irvine, but that failed for lack of adequate fundraising.

But here's another attempt, this one called The Los Angeles Ballet (a name that was previously used by another attempt). The story in the LA Times:

A ballet's next steps
*Los Angeles Ballet announces its first season, to be presented in three areas of the sprawling city.

Aiming to become what artistic directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary call "a major company that belongs to L.A. — that has a local flavor at an international level," the newly formed Los Angeles Ballet has announced its first season of performances and placed subscription tickets on sale. More...

They'll be giving three programs through the year, each program performed over three weekends in three different venues - the Wilshire Theatre at La Cienega and Wilshire in midcity Los Angeles, the Alex Theatre in Glendale, and the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center in Redondo Beach.

The rep looks interesting enough - a Nutcracker for the holdays, and the other two programs are some really meaty Balanchine works. (Including some of my favorites, Concerto Barroco, Duo Concertant and Rubies among them). The company is directed by Thordal Christensen and Collean Neary, both of whom have strong history with Balanchine, and Neary particularly is known for staging Balanchine ballets with major companies around the United States.

So this looks promising, and I'll be going at least to the rep programs just out of curiosity and because I like Balanchine - even by a budding pick-up ballet troupe its hard to go wrong with those steps.

Check out the company's web site for more info. Hope this works out for them - it'd be nice to get a few regular doses of Balanchine out here.