Westside Ballet of Santa Monica presents its annual spring performance, to be presented for the first time at The Broad Stage, with two shows this Sunday, May 18.
Westside Ballet artistic director Martine Harley said she was excited to present this program as it really showcased the versatility of its dancers and the wide range of their repertoire.
“The inspiration was to mix ballets from present and recent choreographers with a quintessential classical ballet, Sleeping Beauty,” Harley said. “The excerpts from Sleeping Beauty are such favorites that I wanted to close the program with that. So that’s why we start with ‘Now’ and go to ‘Then’ versus the other way around.”
Harley adds, “All of these ballets have beautiful classical music as their basis. It will be an incredible auditory as well as visual delight for our audiences.”
The first half of program features a brand new addition to Westside’s repertoire, Ben Stevenson’s exquisite pas de deux Prelude, set to music of Rachmaninoff.
First choreographed in 1965, this pas de deux has been performed worldwide and garnered an international gold medal for choreography.
It is performed with permission from Ben Stevenson, O.B.E. (Officer of the British Empire), for whom Harley danced during her 24-year career at Houston Ballet.
Harley shares, “This is a very coveted pas de deux. Ben chose me to dance it and I taught it to subsequent generations at Houston Ballet. Now he’s trusted me to stage it for Westside Ballet, so that is very special to me.”
The Broad Stage is located at 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica. Performances are at 1 pm and 5 pm.
Tickets can be purchased at www.westsideballet.com.
