State Street Ballet

Come see what we've been up to this summer!

2010-07-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

Come see what we’ve been up to this summer!

State Street Ballet’s Summer Intensive Program is in full swing. Now in our 15th year of offering an intensive dance workshop over the summer -- we have grown into a noteworthy and prominent program that is recognized across the country.

This year we are hosting a very talented group of 67 dancers from California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York and more. Several of them are hoping to gain one of the coveted apprenticeships for our 2010-11 season. At the end of our intensive program, we select a few of the best students to stay on for the year as apprentices to our professional company.

Summer Intensive Program Performance
State Street Ballet's Summer Intensive students will participate in a fully staged performance on Friday, July 16, 2010, at 6 PM at the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, University of California Santa Barbara. Performances include Classical Ballet, Contemporary, Modern, and Jazz.

Tickets can be purchased at the door an hour before the performance:

Adults $20; Children/Students $15 (under 12 yrs old)

State Street Ballet's Summer Intensive Program stands out from among other comparable summer dance programs because its final production takes participants onto a professional stage with full lights and costumes. You won’t be disappointed when you come to see what we’ve been up to this summer.

Not Your Grandmother’s Ballet!

2010-05-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

Things are quieting down at the State Street Ballet studios after an intense weekend of Evenings performances. Evenings is the in-studio performance series performed and choreographed by State Street Ballet dancers.

These programs are a great way to see a different side of our dancers, from their creativity in their own choreography to their versatility as they tackle different styles of dance rarely seen in tradition ballet performances.

One patron said approvingly, “This is not my grandmother’s ballet.” State Street Ballet prides itself on preserving the classics while also creating a series for new and cutting edge work like our Evenings series.

Dancer, Katie McDermott talks to us about her experience performing in Evenings

How do performing pieces choreographed by fellow dancers differ from what you are used to doing in a more traditional performance setting?

Working for your peers is an interesting experience. I am performing pieces that my friends choreographed so I feel a lot of pressure to do a great job for them. Evenings is especially physically difficult because we put everything together in a week or two. Practicing 5 different pieces that use polar opposite techniques can be taxing on the brain to learn and the body to practice.

How do you compare performing at the studio to performing in a theatre like The Granada?

I love inviting people in to our studio to let them see the behind the scenes of where we practice. As a performance venue I am very comfortable in the studio but I also get more nervous for Evenings performances.

Why is that Katie?

The studio is a smaller more intimate experience. Being able to see and hear everything happening in your audience is nerve-racking. At a big theatre like the Granada I feel less connected to the audience, but in the studio it is so up close and personal.

Tell me what you feelings about the Evenings program?

Evenings is an opportunity for all of us to be doing what we love during the off-season, and it feels great to be trying out different styles of dance. It is amazing to me that given the opportunity to choreograph and perform whatever inspires us, the program is so diverse. I suppose that just further highlights how individual we all are.

Our next Evenings performance will be scheduled for November 6, 2010
Want to hear more? Make sure you are on our email list and become our friend on facebook.

New Evenings video and postcards

2009-03-25T01:36:00.000-07:00

The postcards are a bit late for this one, but they're finally done. If you're on our mailing list, expect to see one soon. For a preview, check out our Facebook event page.

We also hope you'll enjoy a new highlight reel of past Evenings:

Evenings: April 9

2009-03-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Join us at the Gail Towbes Center for Dance to see new choreography created and performed by the dancers of State Street Ballet.

Evenings is a casual, elegant evening of new dance served with wine and refreshments.

Stay after the performance to meet the dancers.

$25 at the door
$20 reserved in advance (email, Facebook, or phone)

Review: Cinderella

2009-02-28T15:53:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Independent Reviews Cinderella

Marina Fliagina, Sergei Domrachev (on the ground), and guest artist Ezlimar Dortolina

State Street Ballet’s Cinderella
Granada Theater, February 21-22, 2009
Reviewed by Melissa Lynn Block

State Street Ballet’s Cinderella, staged at the Granada last weekend, was like the theater itself—a faithful retelling of an old story, but with plenty of colorful surprises.

Guest artist Ezlimar Dortolina held the show’s center as the story’s ever-hopeful, ever-faithful heroine. The stepsisters—danced by John Christopher Piel and Sergei Domrachev—were clothed in hilarious drag, complete with complicated hoop skirts, piled-on makeup, long nails, and squeezed-together cleavage. With his subtle but skillfully timed mincing, ill-conceived flirting, and pouting, Piel provided a nice foil to Domrachev’s broad physical antics and facial expressions.

Read more of the review.

Feature: Cinderella preview

2009-02-28T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Independent previews Cinderella:

Marina Fliagina, John Christopher Piel, and Sergei Domrachev as the Stepmother, and two Stepsisters.

Cinderella at the Granada
by Justine Sutton
After its Santa Barbara premiere in 2005, SSB’s Cinderella went on to a highly successful tour of the East Coast, and this fall the show will head to Colorado, Wyoming, and other points east. But first, Cinderella will waltz across the stage at the company’s new home theater, the Granada, this weekend.

Read more of the feature.

Feature: The Nutcracker

2009-02-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

More Nutcrackers than you can shake a stick at. Theater schedules are very tight in December, even for small towns!

Dueling Nutcrackers Vie for Audience
by Cathy Murillo

Because of an unavoidable scheduling conflict, both Santa Barbara Festival Ballet and State Street Ballet will present their respective Nutcrackers on December 13 and 14, at essentially the same curtain times. Heightening the sense of competition, State Street Ballet will forego its Hollywood-themed presentation of art deco sets and 1930s costumes, so both productions will be turned out in traditional fairytale ballet style.

Read more of the feature.

Review: Swan Lake

2009-02-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Independent reviews Swan Lake:

Mio Kondo, guest artist Yevgeni Anfinogenov, Victoria Luchkina
(photo David Bazemore)

Swan Lake
Granada Theater, October 12, 2009
Reviewed by Elizabeth Schwyzer

It’s a big year for State Street Ballet: the company is celebrating its 15th anniversary, moving to new studio space, and stepping into its role as one of the resident companies of the newly restored Granada. Last weekend’s production of Swan Lake was SSB’s way of acknowledging a historic moment in its development—a statement of its ability to do justice to the world’s most popular ballet and to the classical tradition that remains at the foundation of its work, and to attract a large audience.

Read more of the review.

Feature: Swan Lake

2009-02-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Independent's feature on our Swan Lake as well as our new studio:

Victoria Luchkina as Odette/Odile (photo by David Bazemore)

State Street Ballet’s Swan Lake
by Justine Sutton

This fall, State Street Ballet (SSB) is celebrating 15 years in Santa Barbara, stepping onto a larger stage at the Granada, and moving into a new studio space on Las Positas. It’s enough to make even the most seasoned dancer’s head spin.

Read more of the feature.

Review: Carmina Burana

2008-06-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Carmina Burana, photo by David Bazemore

The Santa Barbara Independent reviews Carmina Burana:

An Historic Occasion
Granada Theatre, May 31, 2008
Reviewed by Charles Donelan

Along with a professional orchestra assembled for the occasion and three superb vocal soloists, the Santa Barbara Choral Society and State Street Ballet created a lively, coherent, and wholly satisfying new version of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. With the chorus standing on risers behind the dance stage and the orchestra below in the Granada’s amazing adjustable pit, the stage proper became a dream space in between — the perfect location for the unfolding of William Soleau’s world premiere choreography.

Read more of the review.

Noozhawk.com's review of Carmina Burana:

Carmina Burana Doubles Its Magic
Granada Theatre, May 31, 2008
Reviewed by Margo Kline

Carmina is a kind of beautiful monster. It is an immense musical work, and Soleau created an equally profound dance vocabulary for it.

Read more of the review.

Feature: Carmina Burana

2008-06-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

Victoria Luchkina, photo by Rose Eichenbaum

The Santa Barbara Independent's feature article on Carmina Burana:

State Street Ballet Unveils a New Carmina Burana at the Granada
Feature by Elizabeth Schwyzer
This weekend, in partnership with the Santa Barbara Choral Society (SBCS) and Orchestra, [State Street Ballet] unveils its latest production and its most dramatic project as of yet: an original, full scale, evening-length production of Carmina Burana at the Granada.
This is one of the largest original theater productions ever staged in Santa Barbara, and certainly the largest yet at the newly renovated theater. With 20 dancers, 100 singers, and 53 musicians, it’s unprecedented in scope and ambition, and it’s happening on a scale that would not have been possible in any other theater space in town.

Read more of the feature.

Feature: Carmina Burana in 13 days

2008-05-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

In 13 days:

125 singers
24 poems
8 timpani
3 tambourines
3 bells
3 glockenspiels
2 snare drums

An assorted collection of

bass drum
triangle
antique cymbals
crash cymbals
suspended cymbals
ratchet
castanets
sleigh bells
tam-tam
tubular bells
xylophone

1 very nervous tenor

and
State Street Ballet

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. William Soleau's choreography.

Tickets available now at the Granada Theatre.

News: Two new board members join State Street Ballet

2008-05-18T19:16:00.001-07:00

State Street Ballet welcomes its two newest board members: Arlyn Goldsby and Benjamin Jerry Cohen.

Arlyn Goldsby is the owner of Objects in Montecito, the eclectic boutique on Coast Village Road. She was on the Board of Women’s Economic Ventures and very much involved with the Compeer Program at the Music Academy of the West. She and her husband Marlowe support Cottage Hospital, and the building of the new Granada Theatre.

Her interest in ballet was stimulated by her grandfather who had a box at the Metropolitan Opera. Every year from the age of eight, she traveled from Cleveland, Ohio to New York to watch the opera and to see her aunt who was a ballerina with the Corps de Ballet at the Metropolitan and also the Ballet Russe.

Benjamin J. Cohen is Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has been a member of the Political Science Department since 1991. He was educated at Columbia University, earning a PhD in Economics in 1963. He has worked as a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1962-1964) and has taught at Princeton University (1964-1971) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (1971-1991). A specialist in the political economy of international money and finance, he serves on the editorial boards of several leading academic journals and is the author of twelve books, including most recently The Geography of Money (1998), The Future of Money (2004), and International Political Economy: An Intellectual History (2008). He has won numerous awards and in 2000 was named Distinguished Scholar of the year by the International Political Economy Section of the International Studies Association.

Since 1999 he has served on the Board of Directors of the Music Academy of the West, where he has been Treasurer for the past seven years. He also serves on the Board of the Channel City Club. He and his wife, the historian Jane Sherron De Hart, have been long-time subscribers to the State Street Ballet, which they regard as one of Santa Barbara’s prime cultural assets.

Review: Evenings 2/08

2008-04-23T22:42:00.001-07:00

The Santa Barbara Independent reviews our February 29, 2008 Evenings:

One Enchanted Evening
Studios of Gustafdance Dance
Reviewed by Ellen K. O'Connell

The aptly titled Evenings was an informal affair where everyone seemed to know each other, and the sense of community was centered on a creatively versatile group of young dancers who comprise Santa Barbara’s only full-time professional ballet company. The dancers performed their own work in the company’s normal rehearsal space while guests filled up the lobby until there was standing room only.

Read more of the review.

News: Evenings on February 29

2008-02-21T22:50:00.000-08:00

Our second Evenings program of the 2007-2008 season is just a week away on Friday, 7:30PM, February 29, 2008. Held in the studios of State Street Ballet at 322 State Street, Evenings showcases our dancers in their own choreography. With light food and wine, and audience seating at an intimate distance from the performers, you'll enjoy an elegant, casual evening with your friends and our dancers.

Because it's not part of our regular dance series and is more informal, dancers are encouraged to experiment with their choreography. You'll see a wide variety of dance not seen at our regular performances as well as more contemporary work as they try out new dance ideas on a smaller, friendlier audience first. You could be the first to see the seeds of a new ballet to come.

This Evenings celebrates the art of the port de bras, the carriage of the arms and head that fills all of that incredible dance technique with meaning and expression. So you'll see many different pieces from the dancers that explore the use of the head and arms, culminating in former SSB dancer Gary McKenzie's tribute to French cabaret singer Edith Piaf.

Doors open at 7:00PM. Tickets are $25 at the door, and $20 with advance reservations. RSVP to evenings@statestreetballet.com or call (805) 965-6066. The SSB studios are located at 322 State Street.

Review: Ballroom

2008-02-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

Diana Law's Love's Avalon, photo by David Bazemore

The Santa Barbara Independent reviews Ballroom:

Ballroom, presented by State Street Ballet
Lobero Theatre, Saturday February 9, 2008
Reviewed by Elizabeth Schwyzer

Now celebrating its 15th year, State Street Ballet is known for stretching audience expectations of the art form. Its most recent program, a series of shorter works inspired by the swing dance era collectively titled Ballroom, took as its mission melding two very different dance forms: classical ballet and swing dance.

Read more of the review.

The Ballroom program consisted of Victoria Simon's Come Dance with Me, Nancy Colahan and Christopher Pilafian's Dream Dancing, Diana Law's Love's Avalon, SSB artistic director Rodney Gustafson's Stravinsky's Tango, and Robert Sund's B.A.N.D.

Review: Nutcracker 2007

2008-02-21T22:11:00.000-08:00

Ryan Camou as Drosselmeyer, photo by David Bazemore

The Santa Barbara Independent reviews SSB's Hollywood Nutcracker:

The NutCracker, presented by State Street Ballet

Lobero Theatre, Saturday, December 15
Reviewed by Ellen O'Connell

Playing with tradition is a bold move, and one Rodney Gustafson, artistic director of State Street Ballet, is not afraid to try. Last weekend, the company presented its annual holiday production — a 1930s Hollywood twist on The Nutcracker. There are quite a few versions of the Christmas classic dancing through Santa Barbara this time of year, and it can be hard to keep them all straight, but State Street Ballet’s variation is unmistakable; Gustafson reinterprets the traditional story using gangster rats in zoot suits and Ethel Merman-style synchronized swimmers as snowflakes.

Read more of the review.

Steps: State of the Art

2007-12-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

Where is ballet today? Where did it come from? And where is it going? New York City Ballet principal dancer Damian Woetzel offers some ideas in his Aspen Ideas 2006 talk. Discussing and demonstrating ballet technique and repertory, Woetzel lucidly articulates the state of ballet today.

Go to the Fora.tv website to find a higher resolution video that's also downloadable to your iPod.

Feature: The cat is out of the bag

2007-12-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

In a feature article about the Santa Barbara Chorale Society, the Santa Barbara Independent reveals the exciting, new collaboration between State Street Ballet and the Chorale Society on a new production of Carmina Burana, to be choreographed by William Soleau whose Carmen we presented recently. This production will also be our first regular performance in the new Granada Theatre.

So mark your calendars for May 31 and June 1, 2008 for a world premiere ballet performed to live music, including a 125-person chorus in a brand new performance space designed especially for such productions. We'll keep you up to date on the ins and outs of Carmina Burana as it evolves as well as when you can purchase tickets for what promises to be a spectacular production.

Santa Barbara Choral Society Prepares for a Breakthrough Year
Feature by Charles Donelan

But it is the spring sequence of programs, and its culmination with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Granada with State Street Ballet on May 31 and June 1, that marks this 60th anniversary year as a potential breakthrough one for the organization. Choreographer William Soleau recently scored a distinct hit with his Carmen, which State Street Ballet performed at the Lobero. With 125 SBCS members, many in full costume and playing supporting roles onstage while the dancers do their thing, Soleau’s Carmina Burana is unquestionably the most ambitious multimedia production of the year, and will be a supreme test not only for both organizations, but for the Granada as well.

Read more of the feature.

Feature: Carmen at Ford video

2007-11-11T23:11:00.001-08:00

In case you missed our performance of William Soleau's Carmen at the Ford Amphitheatre, LA36 filmed the performance, and has just released it online.

Review: Carmen at the Lobero Theatre 2

2007-11-11T23:05:00.000-08:00

Enton Hoxha and Leila Drake in Carmen, courtesy Noozhawk

Noozhawk reviews Carmen:

State Street Ballet Dances a Hot 'Carmen'
Lobero Theatre, October 19, 2007
Reviewed by Margo Kline

Carmen, that enduring Gypsy seductress, danced to her doom once again on the stage of the Lobero Theatre, as State Street Ballet presented an updated and thrilling version by choreographer William Soleau.

Read more of the review.

Feature: Carmen at University of New Hampshire

2007-11-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

A feature article on last week's tour to the University of New Hampshire with William Soleau's Carmen:

Celebrity Series brings professional ballet company to UNH
30 October, 2007
Taylor St. John
The lights in the house were dim, but the enthralled expression on almost every audience member's face was illuminated by the colorful array of stage lights, costumes and scenery. The sounds of dozens of pointe shoes tapping upon the stage floor became mixed up in the loud, vibrant music of George Bizet. A crowd of gypsies and soldiers floated among one another in a trance-like dance of seduction. A minute later, a gypsy girl leaped into the air and, held in place by her partner, remained hovering several feet above the stage, capturing the audience's gaze.

Read more of the feature.

Review: Carmen at the Lobero Theatre

2007-10-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

Leila Drake and Ryan Camou in Carmen (photo: David Bazemore)

The Santa Barbara Independent reviews Carmen:

Carmen, presented by State Street Ballet
Lobero Theatre, October 19, 2007
Reviewed by Elizabeth Schwyzer

Met with favorable reviews at its Hollywood premiere last summer, SSB’s Carmen is by far the company’s most ambitious and most dazzling ballet yet, choreographed by New York’s William Soleau and set to the original Georges Bizet score.

Read more of the review.

Company: More ballet company blogs! (And serious thoughts on the ballet business.)

2007-10-21T19:47:00.001-07:00

Official ballet company blogs are starting to appear. Perhaps great minds think alike. Or more likely, this newfangled Internet technology's become so easy to use and pervasive that more people are finding out how useful it can be for their lives and businesses.

Check out the beautiful pictures on the Joffrey Ballet's blog, j-Pointe.

And check out Houston Ballet's newly minted En Pointe.

Why a blog for a ballet company?

Almost all art dance companies, and that includes modern and other forms of dance outside of ballet, depend on funding beyond ticket sales. For many companies, ticket sales don't even make up half their annual budgets, so many companies depend on grants and more importantly corporate and personal donations.

Why Does Anyone Give To The Ballet?

There's a saying in the charity development community: people don't give money to organizations. They give money to people they know. A company that depends on charitable contributions must always be reaching out to the community it serves so that people in the community feel that the company is an essential part of the community. They have to feel that life would be worse off if the company wasn't in town. Only then can a company start to build the kind of support to make it successful in the long term.

10 Ways Blogs Beat Newsletters

There are lots of ways to make this happen, and one essential piece is constant communication with the community. Traditionally, arts organizations have done this by sending newsletters reporting on the latest activities of the company, upcoming performances, and other information, but newsletters are expensive to print and mail, and impose a deadline for submissions that usually leads to a mad scramble before the deadline to throw something together.

Blogs are a better way to handle that communication:

They're free.
They can be updated any time.
They're very easy to write and publish so you can always report the latest news and information.
It's very easy to add video or pictures to blog posts. And if there's one thing the dance world has in excess, it's beautiful pictures of beautiful people doing beautiful things.
Leila Drake and Yuan-Ming Chang in the Arabian dance from Nutcracker
They can be read in many ways which makes it convenient for everyone. You may be reading this on the blog website. Or perhaps you subscribed through email, and this post is in your email reader. Or you may use the RSS feed to automatically fetch new updates.
They're easy to pass around. Just copy the blog address and email it to your friends.
An entire new demographic (the coveted 18 to mid-30s) that is woefully underrepresented in our audiences uses the Internet extensively and often exclusively. The Internet provides new ways for new people to discover our art, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. For a large number of people, the Internet is their only source of information: if a company doesn't have a website, it may as well not exist.
Blogs can easily link to each other, as we did for the Joffrey and Houston Ballets, and this kind of referral, unknown in physical print media, is another avenue of discovery. How often have you stayed up a bit too late following interesting links from various websites?
Many newspapers can be read on the Web as well: you can easily point your readers to reviews and features written by your local papers.
Size doesn't matter. You no longer need a huge budget to put out a lavish newsletter or brochure: every company is now on equal footing as long as they're willing to put the time and effort into their blog.

Why People Don't Read Your Blog

Of course, just like perfect ballet technique (or feet), this technology is but a tool which can be used well or badly. An interested, knowledgeable, enthusiastic human still has to fill the blog with interesting and relevant information, and they have to do it regularly. Think about the websites you visit often: how many haven't posted any new information in a while?

They also have to do it with a sense of earnestness and authenticity that reflects the company and its place in the community. The last thing anyone wants to read is some sanitized, cookie-cutter template that tries to be everything to everyone. You are an integral part of your community. What is your unique identity in your community?

So there it is in an extra-large nutshell: how blog sites can help ballet (and other dance) companies. If you know of any other ballet company blog, feel free to send the link our way, and we'll add it to our list.

Feature: Carmen v4

2007-10-18T22:41:00.001-07:00

You may already know that State Street Ballet is opening its 2007-2008 season this weekend with the Santa Barbara premiere of William Soleau's full-length Carmen with performances on Friday, October 19, 8pm and Sunday, October 21, 2pm at the Lobero Theatre.

You may even have seen our first Carmen with Jennifer Batbouta dancing our Gypsy protagonist in the original one-act version. Or perhaps you've seen us on tour with Silvia Rotaru in the lead role. You may even have been lucky enough to catch a one-time performance in Los Angeles with Corina Gill dancing Carmen.

Carmen v1: Jennifer Batbouta

But you've definitely never seen our newest Carmen. Coming a long way from a part-time corps role in Giselle when she joined us in 2004, Leila Drake is not only dancing Carmen for the first time, but the eponymous Gypsy is Leila's first ever principal role with SSB.

Carmen v2: Silvia Rotaru

Every dancer brings something different to a role, revealing new aspects of the character and taking the story in different directions. Avid ballet fans will watch multiple casts of a production because different dancers illuminate the ballet and show us new things only they can reveal.

Carmen v3: Corina Gill (supported by Yuan-Ming Chang)

What will Leila show us this weekend? Come to the show and find out for yourself! Endowed with long, flowing lines, extensive ballet training alloyed with years of modern dance, and the brains to graduate from UC Santa Barbara with dual majors, this Carmen will be unlike any other, and cannot be missed.

Merde, Leila --- you will be amazing.