Events: Summer Ballet

Is June gloom getting you down? Or maybe you just need a dose of ballet before State Street Ballet's season begins again in the fall. One of the many great dance performances coming up in Southern California, and some very worthwhile ones further away, will easily cure you of either ailment. Imagine a vacation capped off with a world-class ballet performance, and you'll understand why some balletomanes love summer.

In Southern California, both the Music Center of Los Angeles and the Orange County Performing Arts Center are closing out their seasons with a pair of sensational companies. First up, performing June 22 through 24, is Shen Wei Dance Arts at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The New York City-based company describes itself as "founded on a fusion of the art forms: dance, theater, Chinese opera, painting, sculpture, and a unique hybridism of Western and Eastern cultures." We will just say that they'll show you images and worlds you've never seen before. They're a bit off the ballet path, but are well worth seeing.

Shen Wei brings his Connect Transfer to Walt Disney Concert Hall

American Ballet Theatre returns to SoCal for two weeks starting on July 12 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with two programs (a mixed repertory program of excerpts from many ballets, and Lar Lubovitch's Othello). They continue on to OCPAC, July 17, which will host the west coast premiere of their new Sleeping Beauty which recently premiered in New York City. Sleeping Beauty, despite its truncated third act in ABT's staging, is our pick if you can only see one show. Sleeping Beauty is the apotheosis of classical dance, and its many dances, like the Bluebird pas de deux pictured below, really show off ABT's impressive roster of dancers.

Sarah Lamb and Yohei Sasaki as Princess Florine and Bluebird in the Royal Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty

Further away and much sooner are the closing programs of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington, on stage last week and this week. Belonging to the top tier of important American ballet companies, PNB is always worth seeing, but this week is even more special because PNB is saying good-bye to Patricia Barker, a ballerina of very special qualities, as she retires after 26 years of dancing with the company. One of a tiny handful of ballerinas still dancing today who credibly deserves the title "prima ballerina", Patricia Barker's last performance cannot be missed.

Patricia Barker in Kent Stowell's Firebird (photo by Ben Kerns)

England's Royal Ballet, one of the world's top ballet companies, and who unfortunately has not come to the west coast in many years, continues to visit cities in America east of here. This summer, they'll be bringing their recent production of Sleeping Beauty to San Antonio, Texas from July 5 through July 7. For the enthusiastic fan, it would be fascinating to compare and contrast their Sleeping Beauty to ABT's. ABT personnel were seen at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC last summer when the Royal Ballet first brought their new Beauty to America.

The Royal Ballet continues on to Philadelphia from July 10 through 13 with Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, which continues to be a great inspiration for many dancers, and a Swan Lake considered closer to the original than other versions recently seen in America. Ballet fans will celebrate its lack of a jester, and its true-to-the-original sad ending.

Finally, if you want to indulge yourself, why not fly to Paris, and enjoy the Paris Opera Ballet's first ever production of Frederick Ashton's comic ballet La Fille mal gardée starting on June 22 and running through July 15? If seeing the best ballet company in the world perform the classic comedy ballet, replete with Ashton's characteristic intricate steps and quintessentially English deportment, isn't enough to convince you to go, we're sure you can find some other reason to visit Paris.

Marianela Núñez and Carlos Acosta in the Royal Ballet's production of La Fille mal gardée