First published in the Sept. 29 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
Leigh Purtill Ballet Company, which is celebrating its five-year anniversary as the only nonprofit amateur ballet company for adults in the greater Los Angeles area, will present its signature ballet, “Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet,” on Oct. 8 and 9 at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Cañada Flintridge.
“Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet” is an LPBC original ballet that aims to do for Halloween what Nutcracker has done for Christmas. This spooky ballet — LA’s only ballet celebrating the Halloween season — returns audiences to a forest in Verona where the story of Romeo and Juliet isn’t quite over. Guests can expect to take a journey with the star-crossed lovers as a powerful apothecary awakens and lures them into her underworld of vampires, zombies, ravens and more, as they shed their living bodies.
This ballet has been performed annually with growing success since 2017. Now, it will be presented one last time before returning to the crypt for a few years to make way for the company’s roster of other unique ballets.
The success of LPBC is rooted in the company mission of “Ballet for Everyone,” which dispels the traditional “one size fits all” approach to ballet. LPBC embraces out-of the-box thinking with non-traditional storytelling through original ballets and fosters a community of dancers reflective of its broad audience.
“It’s my goal to make ballet as inclusive as possible, and that means putting dancers on stage who don’t fit the outdated mold of the perfect ballerina, dancers who don’t all look alike, sound alike or move alike,” Artistic Director Leigh Purtill says. “I want our audience members to see themselves reflected in our company.”
The company has further shared its mission and the benefits of ballet/movement through involvement in community programs with youth and organizations that empower people with disabilities to achieve excellence. LPBC was also awarded a grant to teach community classes for an arts program sponsored by the city of Los Angeles.
Thanks to technology, LPBC extends it reach to include dancers from all over the U.S. and Canada and has reimagined creative ways for all dancers to participate in company operations and live performances. Always an innovator, LPBC has pivoted to survive and grow during the pandemic by adapting to an evolving digital environment to support its dancers and audience. The global pandemic encouraged the company to go global too. The addition of a streaming component for viewing has expanded the company’s overall reach.
A true grassroots effort, all of the company’s operations — from its costume/set design to its social media presence to its fundraising efforts — are handled in-house by company dancers.
Using their unique talents outside of dance, each company member works to make LPBC the best that it can be.
The company has been profiled in The Advocate and featured on “America’s Got Talent.” Company dancers also won first prize in ABC’s “The Gong Show” in 2017, in which they performed a segment of “Sweet Sorrow.”
“Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet” will be performed live on stage on Saturday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 9, at 4 p.m. at the Lanterman Auditorium, 4491 Cornishon Ave. For those who can’t attend, a special cinematic recording of the ballet will be livestreamed on Halloween weekend — Oct. 28-31.
Tickets are now available at leighpurtillballetcompany.org.
