Celebrating the Classics: New Company Turns Hollywood Musical into Holiday Ballet

toLos Angeles’ newest dance company invites the public to join them at the Orpheum Theater to celebrate the dawn of the new year.

At 7:30pm on Thursday, December 28, the Hollywood Ballet will present an all-new production, “Hollywood Holidays,” set on New Year’s Eve and traveling through a dreamscape to music from Golden Age giants like Frank Sinatra And Frank Sinatra. Ella Fitzgerald.

Co-founded by world-renowned ballerina Petra Conti, the company offers a mix of ballet, modern and contemporary dance to live music. “Hollywood Holidays” is their second full-length production, following “The Nutcracker,” which opened on December 1 and 2 of this year.

Conti said Hollywood Ballet’s vision is to grow into a major company that consistently performs the greatest classics of live music. They also plan to launch what Conti calls a new genre ideal for ballet in Los Angeles: ballets based on Hollywood films.

“We thought, why don’t we unite the most important thing in Los Angeles, the Hollywood film industry, and translate all the great movie titles and turn them into ballets?” Conte said. “That’s why we’re called Hollywood Ballet in the first place. … There’s a lot of people who don’t want to go see a ballet because they think it’s an old style, and it’s all old fairy tale stories, but what if the title of the ballet is a title they know and love Because’ have you seen it on TV or on the big screen?

“Hollywood Vacations” is not based on a movie, but uses classic Hollywood music to explore the emotions and feelings people have during the holidays. Conti points out that as the last day of the year approaches, people tend to experience a myriad of emotions, ranging from nostalgia to frustration that the year did not go as planned.

Ballet performs some of those activities and moments people experience at the end of the year, whether they’re making New Year’s resolutions, spending it alone, or experiencing stress due to dysfunctional family behaviors.

“We’re just trying to address all the different aspects and emotions that people go through during the holiday season, and that’s going to be very interesting,” Conte said. “We have the greatest recordings of the greatest music of all time, and we have live musicians who will accompany certain moments for our dancers.”

Conti said she’s obsessed with the show’s playlist, which includes tunes like “Stand by Me,” “Unchained Melody,” “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Mr. Mambo,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Feeling Good,” performed by artists like Sinatra, Nina Simone, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dean Martin.

They will also be taking many classic pieces and presenting them in new ways. A Hungarian dance will provide the soundtrack to a dysfunctional family dinner. While some of the music will be recorded, others will be performed live by members of the Los Angeles-based Dream Orchestra, including musicians playing piano, violin, cello and viola. There will also be moments when the musicians join the dancers on stage and interact with them.

Conti said that throughout the show they will tap into many individual emotions from deep sadness to great happiness to love.

“It’s a roller coaster of emotions and we hope the audience will fall in love with what we are doing for just one hour of the show and take this ride with us,” Conte said. “We hope it will be something unique and different and that people will like it.”

The show’s choreography is a collaboration between three artists – Andrei Megerdichyan, Jennifer Deckert, and Tigran Sargsyan. They each choreographed individual dances and then collaborated on the transitions and overall narrative of the ballet. For the dysfunctional family dinner dance, the three worked together to create the choreography.

The ballet will be performed by 13 members of the Hollywood Ballet, guest star Fabrice Calmels and some of the company’s trainees. The apprentices are part of the company’s educational branch, and all offer a 100% scholarship as part of the mission to make ballet inclusive and accessible.

“We try to put them on stage as much as possible and be with the company as much as possible to have fun and give them the opportunity to work with great professional dancers and choreographers,” Conti said.

Conte added that the entire company is working hard to create work that will get people excited about their startup.

“I just hope they come and stay with us for an hour and see how crazy and different and how magical this show is,” Conte said. “Come with an open heart and see for yourselves what we are trying to achieve.”

One of the things she said she and her husband, Iris Nezhat, co-founder and deputy artistic director, want to achieve is to provide fair-paying employment and a healthy environment so high-level dancers can live in Los Angeles. And you don’t have to leave to find work.

All of the dancers in “Hollywood Holidays,” even the guest artist, are local artists who call Los Angeles home.

“The potential this city has is unbelievable,” Conte said. “We just need to bring it all out and help these artists grow and become stars.”

Next year, Hollywood Ballet plans to expand on its mission of inclusivity and outreach to communities traditionally excluded from ballet. They will be performing at Skid Row on Sunday, February 25th. They have plans to perform in hospitals where people are treated for cancer and go to prisons.

“We are (reaching out to) different communities of people who need hope, upliftment and inspiration,” Conte said. “We want to really make an impact on a deeper level.”

“Hollywood holidays”

when: 7:30 pm Thursday 28 December

where: Orpheum Theater, 842 S Broadway, Los Angeles

it costs: Tickets start at $45

information: www.ticketmaster.com