The Segerstrom Center for the Arts, located in Costa Mesa, California has announced its 2023/2024 Dance Series which opens with Complexions Contemporary Ballet on September 16, 2023 and closes with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) on April 11-14, 2024. The dance events that will grace The Segerstrom stages between those dates include Turn It Out with Tiler Peck (November 4 & 5, 2023); American Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker (December 8-17, 2023); Alonzo King LINES Ballet (January 20, 2024); and Les Ballets des Monte Carlo (March 7-10, 2024).
The Segerstrom Center is also the home of the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School and in a three-year partnership with ABT as its official dance company of the Segerstrom Center.
Information one each event provided by The Segerstrom Center for the Arts
“StarDust” by Dwight Rhoden – Complexions Contemporary Ballet – Photo courtesy of Hagos Rush
Complexions Contemporary Ballet | September 16, 2023
Complexions was founded in 1994 by Master Choreographer Dwight Rhoden (Chapman artistic professor of dance) and the legendary Desmond Richardson – “two of the greatest virtuosos ever to emerge from Ailey” (New York Times) – with a singular approach to reinventing dance through a groundbreaking mix of methods, styles and cultures. With stunningly gifted dancers and a breathtaking mix of dance styles and athletic intensity, Complexions represents one of the most recognized, diverse, inclusive, and respected performing arts brands in the World.
The company’s foremost innovation is that dance should be about removing boundaries, not reinforcing them. Whether it be the limiting traditions of a single style, period, venue, or culture, Complexions transcends them all, creating an open, continually evolving form of dance that reflects the movement of our world—and all its constituent cultures—as an interrelated whole.
Having presented an entirely new and exciting vision of human movement on 5-continents, over 20-countries, to over 20-million television viewers and to well over 300,000 people in live audiences, Complexions is poised to continue its mission to bring unity to the world one dance at a time.
Tiler Peck in “The Barre Project” – Photo courtesy of Comm Oddities, Inc.
Turn It Out with Tiler Peck | November 4 & 5, 2023
Award-winning New York City Ballet principal dancer, choreographer, actress, author, curator and designer, Tiler Peck tackles the new role of director for Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends. After its sold-out world premiere in New York, Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends makes its West Coast premiere at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. With her personal touches on every aspect of this unique evening, Peck has assembled some of today’s most exciting dance artists for a virtuosic and innovative program.
Originally conceived for New York City Center’s Artists at the Center series, the program includes four works, each with their own unique style: Thousandth Orange, Swift Arrow, Time Spell, and The Barre Project. This incredible evening of dance begins with Peck’s own Thousandth Orange, set to live music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw. Peck sought out West Coast legend Alonzo King to create the electric pas de deux, Swift Arrow, and joins forces with her long-time collaborator and world class tap dance star Michelle Dorrance alongside Jillian Meyers on Time Spell. The programme closes with The Barre Project, Blake Works II, a piece originally created for film with music by James Blake that marked the first creative partnership between Peck and choreographer William Forsythe.
Expect an exquisitely curated evening of collaborative dance. While different in so many ways, all four pieces share a captivating joyfulness – joy for dance, for music, and for the inspiration that comes from surrounding oneself with creative and inspirational friends.
Segerstrom Center for the Arts – American Ballet Theatre The Nutcracker – Misty Copeland and Daniil Simkin – Photo by Doug Gifford
American Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker | December 8-17, 2023
SoCal’s favorite holiday tradition returns with American Ballet Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of The Nutcracker. Created by one of today’s most celebrated choreographers, Alexei Ratmansky, this dazzling holiday treat features ABT’s roster of superstar dancers along with gorgeous sets and costumes by Tony winner Richard Hudson, and Pacific Symphony playing Tchaikovsky’s timeless score.
The Nutcracker is the tale of a young girl, Clara, who receives the gift of a nutcracker doll at her family’s Christmas party. In her dreams that night, the nutcracker doll comes to life as a handsome prince who joins her on a magical journey. Together, they travel to lands filled with dancing snowflakes, waltzing flowers, a mouse army and other exotic characters, all brought to vivid life on stage by a cast of over 100 performers!
American Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker is one of the great joys of the holiday season. Make a memory with your loved ones!
Adji Cissoko and Robb Beresford in LIGHTENED – Alonzo King LINES Ballet – Photo by RJ Muna
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | January 20, 2024
Over the last two seasons, Center audiences have come under the spell of this contemporary dance company from San Francisco. We’ve been mesmerized as their remarkable and exquisite dancers seem to drip across the stage, creating lush, transcendent, and captivating movements that are only possible with LINES.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by its uniquely global artistic vision. Collaborating with noted composers, musicians, and visual artists, Alonzo King creates works that draw on a diverse set of deeply rooted cultural traditions and imbue classical ballet with new expressive potential. Alonzo King’s visionary choreography is renowned for its ability to connect audiences to a profound sense of shared humanity—of vulnerability and tenderness, but also of furious abandon and exhilarating freedom.
Lauded for creating “the most sophisticated modernism in classical dance” by the Los Angeles Times, we anxiously await details on what specific works will be unveiled for this engagement! But we know already, LINES is always beautiful and glorious on stage, always a must-see performance.
Les Ballets des Monte Carlo – Coppél-i.A by Jean-Christophe Maillot – Photo courtesy of the artist
Les Ballets des Monte Carlo’s Coppél-i.A | March 7-10, 2024
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo is a classical ballet company established in 1985 by the Princess of Hanover in accordance wit the wishes of her mother, Princess Grace, who wished to perpetuate the long tradition of dance in Monaco and its famous Ballets Russes. It is the official national company of the Principality of Monaco. The appointment of Jean-Christophe Maillot in 1993 brought the company renewal and international renown thanks to his choreographies, acclaimed the world over.
For their triumphant return to Southern California, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo will be performing Coppél-i.A., Jean-Christophe Maillot’s new creation, marking his return to life-size storytelling. The Company’s Choreographer-Director revisits this famous Romantic piece, with an original musical score, exploring the ways in which the development of artificial intelligence is shaping our society today and examining what it means to search for the ideal partner in a technologically advanced society.
Coppél-i.A. projects the audience into a near future in which two young lovers, Frantz and Swanhilda, have their lives upended by an artificial being – shaking their foundations and challenging what they thought they knew of love. Is the ideal partner the flesh-and-blood creature we have always known or the abstract being which questions our position in the human species? By transposing Coppélia into the era of artificial intelligence, Jean-Christophe delivers a stunning new vision of this classic ballet!
Act II of ABT’s “Of Love and Rage” – Photo @Gene Schiavone
ABT Mixed Repertory | April 11-14, 2024
ABT returns to the Center in a richly varied repertory program showcasing the company’s talent to its fullest through the passion, innovation, and athleticism that the Company is renowned for.
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United Ukrainian Ballet – Elizaveta Gogidze as Giselle and Oleksii Kniazkov as Albrecht – Act 2 of Giselle – Photo © Altin Kaftira
The 2/22/2023 Dance Series is still underway with United Ukrainian Ballet – Ratmansky’s Giselle – June 29, 2023; TINA – The Tina Turner Musical July 11 – 23, 2023; and Festival Ballet Theatre Gala of the Stars – August 9, 2023
For more information about these and other music, theater and movie events at The Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and to purchase tickets, please visit their website.
Written and compiled by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle with information provided by Segerstrom Center for the Arts press release.
Featured image: American Ballet Theatre – Single Eye choreography by Alonzo King – Photo by Marty Sohl
