Los Angeles Ballet

It takes commitment, nerve, and ridiculous sums of money to build a successful ballet company. And that's just the kindling. To get a real blaze going, it helps to have the high-powered dance connections of Los Angeles Ballet's co-directors, Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary. For their fledgling company's third repertory season, launched Saturday at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Christensen and Neary brought out their big-gun friends and family, and there was noticeably more heat onstage.

Los Angeles Ballet What: "Giselle" When and where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach; 7:30 p.m. May 21, Alex Theatre, 216 North Brand Blvd., Glendale and 7:30 p.m. May 27, 6 p.m. May 28 and 2 p.m. May 29, the Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica Tickets: $25-$95 Information: http://www.losangelesballet.org or (310) 998-7782 Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Los Angeles Ballet will introduce its first full-length Romantic ballet, August Bournonville's "La Sylphide," during the company's 2008-09 season. Co-artistic director Thordal Christensen, who will stage the Danish choreographer's 1836 work, said "Sylphide" has been a standard in the repertoire of the Royal Danish Ballet, where he formerly served as artistic director. "It's a piece that has gone directly from generation to generation" with the company, he said. Under the direction of Christensen and his wife, Colleen Neary, the company in its third season will continue its emphasis on performing the works of neoclassical choreographer George Balanchine with the company premieres of "The Prodigal Son" (1929)

In March, when the Los Angeles Ballet last took the stage, it was in the gothic throes of adolescence. Dancing to a work called "My Greatest Fear" by pop-punk choreographer Sonya Tayeh, a sepulchral tableau of pained contortions and lugubrious pliés, the young company, bristling in black, made its most powerful statement to date that it was forging its own bold personality. On the verge of maturity, and culminating its fifth anniversary, the company is now taking on "Giselle," the great Romantic ballet about doomed love in the Middle Ages.

Los Angeles Ballet What: "Giselle" When and where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach; 7:30 p.m. May 21, Alex Theatre, 216 North Brand Blvd., Glendale and 7:30 p.m. May 27, 6 p.m. May 28 and 2 p.m. May 29, the Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica Tickets: $25-$95 Information: http://www.losangelesballet.org or (310) 998-7782 Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Three couples are negotiating a series of head-to-head moves, rapid-fire turns and daring leaps to cranked-up tango music of Astor Piazzolla. At first glance they could be contestants in a postmodern dance marathon. In reality, they are rehearsing a new piece for Los Angeles Ballet's final program of its fourth season. The beneficent task mistress calling the shots is choreographer Sonya Tayeh, the heavily tattooed 33-year-old known for her work on Fox's hit television show "So You Think You Can Dance."

Congratulations are in order ? and maybe a sigh of relief. With its "Nutcracker" performances this weekend at the Alex Theatre in Glendale (plus repeats through the month in two other Southland venues), Los Angeles Ballet entered its fifth season as a resident professional company. Season 5 and counting: not exactly a golden anniversary but definitely a hard-won benchmark. It's been a turbulent demi-decade for all arts organizations, one in which long-established companies such as Orange County's Ballet Pacifica vanished from the landscape.

In March, when the Los Angeles Ballet last took the stage, it was in the gothic throes of adolescence. Dancing to a work called "My Greatest Fear" by pop-punk choreographer Sonya Tayeh, a sepulchral tableau of pained contortions and lugubrious pliés, the young company, bristling in black, made its most powerful statement to date that it was forging its own bold personality. On the verge of maturity, and culminating its fifth anniversary, the company is now taking on "Giselle," the great Romantic ballet about doomed love in the Middle Ages.

'I'm glad it (Los Angeles Ballet) went under, that the board officially decided to dissolve," said John Clifford, founder and artistic director of the company. "Otherwise we'd just keep limping along. . . ." On the day word surfaced that his 10-year-old company had disbanded and that a prominent downtown bankruptcy law firm had been hired to settle things, Clifford sought to put on a happy face.

THE lush sounds of Tchaikovsky, replete with soaring harp arpeggios and plaintive strings, fill the airy rehearsal studio with requisite romance, a tutu-clad ballerina and her noble prince moving to the music with style and grace. Surging forward, she leaps onto his shoulder, nailing the move like an Olympian, the beaming pair a tableau of sublime confidence.

EVENTS L.A. County Holiday Celebration For six hours on Christmas Eve, more than 40 musical groups representing the diversity of Los Angeles will host a free (even parking!) performance downtown. That should warm the cold, tuneless hearts of any Grinch. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 3 to 6 p.m. Free. lacountyarts.org. FAMILY Strand Ice Rink The Strand shopping center turns into an unlikely winter wonderland for two weeks. Next to the Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean, it will still host an ice rink that will rival Rockefeller Center for its views.

Congratulations are in order ? and maybe a sigh of relief. With its "Nutcracker" performances this weekend at the Alex Theatre in Glendale (plus repeats through the month in two other Southland venues), Los Angeles Ballet entered its fifth season as a resident professional company. Season 5 and counting: not exactly a golden anniversary but definitely a hard-won benchmark. It's been a turbulent demi-decade for all arts organizations, one in which long-established companies such as Orange County's Ballet Pacifica vanished from the landscape.

Kings Road Cafe was bustling on a recent mid-afternoon, and Melissa Barak was gratefully digging into a late lunch. Barak, a choreographer and leading dancer with Los Angeles Ballet, suggested Kings Road as a meeting spot because it's one of her favorite restaurants. It also happens to be a central locus among the nearby landmarks in Barak's young life. It's five blocks east from the cafe to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was born 30 years ago, and a seven-minute walk to her childhood home near Melrose Avenue.

Los Angeles Ballet's 'New Wave LA' Where: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Also: Alex Theatre, 216 Brand Blvd., Glendale, 7:30 p.m. May 22 and the Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica, 7:30 p.m. May 29 and 2 p.m. May 30 Price: $30 to $95 Contact: (310) 998-7782 or http://www.losangelesballet.org

Three couples are negotiating a series of head-to-head moves, rapid-fire turns and daring leaps to cranked-up tango music of Astor Piazzolla. At first glance they could be contestants in a postmodern dance marathon. In reality, they are rehearsing a new piece for Los Angeles Ballet's final program of its fourth season. The beneficent task mistress calling the shots is choreographer Sonya Tayeh, the heavily tattooed 33-year-old known for her work on Fox's hit television show "So You Think You Can Dance."

The After-School All-Stars — a tax-exempt group founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 1990s to provide tutoring, recreation and other programs for poor children — has now grown to provide after-school programs for 81,000 middle and high school students at 450 campuses around the country. And Schwarzenegger continues to support the organization. Speaking at the Feb. 18 "Reaching for the Stars" gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, he said, "I will always be part of raising the money … organizing and helping the committee and promoting it nationwide."

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. The company's debut will take place Dec.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Or at least a homegrown ballet company Los Angeles can call its own. Continuing to buck the odds, the husband-and-wife team of Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, who launched Los Angeles Ballet in 2006, ushered in their third season Friday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. And the house was full.

Will China dominate the cultural world in the 21st century? That's the prediction of Dean Corey, executive director of the Orange County Philharmonic Society, which is presenting Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. "The Olympics in China really woke us all up," Corey said. "The Chinese are a long way from being imitators; they are creators. This festival will make people aware of what will be happening in the future.

Try summing up the themes of August Bournonville's romantic 1836 ballet, "La Sylphide." You might get a list something like this: dreams, illusions, ideals versus reality and worse -- irrational, implacable evil. No wonder the ballet survives, not only to entertain but also to trouble, even deeply disturb. Los Angeles Ballet, founded in 2006, marked its latest stage of artistic growth by mounting a handsome production of "La Sylphide" on Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, with period sets and costumes borrowed from the Houston Ballet.