Los Angeles Ballet

The Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) located in Los Angeles, California is founded and co-directed by husband and wife team Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary. The company debuted December 2006 with an original performance of The Nutcracker. The LAB has staged the Balanchine repertory, classical ballets and new works.

A key component of Los Angeles Ballet’s mission is to ‘tour’ Los Angeles. While rehearsals take place at the Los Angeles Ballet Center, LAB regularly performs across the County at five, rotated venues, including Royce Hall UCLA, Alex Theatre in Glendale, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Thordal Christensen was a former principal dancer and artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet, with Neary appointed as the ‘first ballet mistress’ in charge of their productions. Neary is also a repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust.

Los Angeles Ballet debuted in December 2006 with its original production of The Nutcracker. Choreographed by Founding Co-Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, it features costumes from a Royal Danish Ballet production commissioned by Mr. Christensen during his tenure as that company’s artistic director, complemented by a Southern California-themed set designed by Catherine Kanner.

LAB’s repertoire focuses on works and styles intimately known to, and mastered by, the artistic directors: Balanchine masterpieces as staged by Colleen Neary, and the revered Bournonville ballets as imparted by Thordal Christensen. As a répétiteur for The George Balanchine Trust, Ms. Neary is one of the rarified few charged with carrying on the Balanchine legacy and genius. Balanchine’s mentorship of Colleen as a young dancer and as a répétiteur results in LAB’s stellar interpretation of his masterworks. In 2009 LAB presented Bournonville’s La Sylphide, its first full-length classical story ballet after The Nutcracker.

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