Los Angeles Ballet revisited... photographer spells near disaster (gasp!)

Having enjoyed LOS ANGELES BALLET'S first repertory program on Thursday, I went to see the company again over the weekend at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. The Balanchine choreography welcomes revisits, and it doesn't get monotonous: rather, in a work as complex as Agon, you find something more every time.

The dancers didn't disappoint the second time around. The stage in Redondo was larger (or at least wider) than at UCLA, so the movement didn't seem so constricted. The corps, while still tentative, at least looked more comfortable in their roles and responded to the music more freely. Napoli positively jumped off the stage Saturday night - a truly joyous occasion. While I was busy taking it all in on Thursday, I didn't notice how wonderful the footwork was: this time I paid attention and marveled at the precision. I'm amazed they got such a convincing Bournonville technique out of these American dancers in such a small, new company. I'm considering returning one more time at the end of the month to see them at the Alex Theatre in Glendale; and as I said before, the Serenade/Apollo/Rubies mixed bill is eagerly anticipated.

ONE HUGE THING THOUGH: There was a photographer at the back of the house noisily snapping photographs during the show. He seemed to be LA Ballet's own photographer, as he was there on Thursday night, too, doing the same thing during Agon until the company's publicist asked him to move into the sound booth. I was sitting in the back of the house both times (could not afford to pay up to $95 for front seats- and even in the back tickets were $55!), so he was right behind me and the noise directly affected me and patrons sitting around me. (Speaking of pricing, why does this new company have such a steep pricing scale? Those tickets are more than San Franciso Ballet - a fully professional company with a reputation worth paying for - charges on its home repertory season... shouldn't they build audiences with lower prices before they charge a premium for an untested company?)

Not that I don't understand the company's needs for PR and marketing photos, but it's ridiculous to subject the audience to this very annoying sound, especially a paying audience. It kept jarring me out of the ballets; thankfully it was only during Agon on Thursday, but this weekend, it really did destroy my experience of Concerto Barocco. The house manager allowed me to move forward since there were seats availabe that night. But most professional theatres have a policy of putting photographers away from the audience or in a sound booth, to muffle the camera sounds (and to comply with union rules).

If this company wants to become fully professional and be considered as such, it will have to pay as much attention to the needs of its audience as it does to the work on stage. I don't want to go to the theatre and have anxiety about whether I'm going to have to deal with a photographer: I paid for ballet.