Westside Ballet will hold its annual Spring Showcase at 1 and 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 8 at the Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center. Complimentary champagne sponsored by the Huntley Hotel will be offered to ticketholders.
The program will feature excerpts from three classics: Napoli, Giselle and Swan Lake; Balanchine’s Harlequinade Pas de Deux and the jazz sensation, Sweet Charity.
Performing the Odette (white swan) solo will be Westside Ballet dancer Shelby Tzung, who was just awarded the prestigious 2016 Spotlight Awards Grand Prize in Classical Ballet.
A Palisades High freshman, Tzung trains at the Westside School of Ballet and spends her summers as a scholarship student at both the School of American Ballet and, this year, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School.
In addition to Odette, the Pacific Palisades resident is also featured in Napoli and will dance another of her Spotlight Award-winning solos from Frederic Ashton’s famous ballet, La Fille Mal Gardée (The Wayward Daughter).
The school’s artistic director, Martine Harley, said: “Our Spring Showcase is an opportunity for our gifted young dancers to perform in a wide variety of classical ballets and contemporary works, which is a critical part of their ballet training.”
The program opens with a revival of Napoli, staged by Nilas Martins, A former Principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. His wife, Monique Meunier, is an alumna of Westside Ballet and a former New York City Ballet dancer.
This will be followed by peasant dances from Act I of Giselle, followed by excerpts from Swan Lake, including the iconic four cygnets, the Dance of the Two Swans, the Act III Spanish Dance and the Black Swan solo. The first part of the program will close with Balanchine’s Harlequinade.
Following the intermission, Westside Ballet premieres an original work by resident choreographer and teacher, Sophie Monat, set to music by John Adams.
Westside Ballet’s youngest dancers take the stage in Associate Artistic Director Caprice Walker’s ballet Mozartiana, with music by Mozart. The program will conclude with the Bob Fosse jazz piece, Sweet Charity.
Visit: westsideballet.com<http://westsideballet.com>.
Shelby Tzung partnered by Seth Belliston. Photo: Todd Lechtick
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