February 22 – 25, 2024 Laguna Dance Festival presents Black Grace, Los Angeles Ballet,and Syncopated Ladies Performed at the Laguna Playhouse
FREE Event
Learn about our featured guest company from New Zealand. Click below to Reserve your spot and attend this audience favorite. An informal on-stage rehearsal with the dancers and Artistic Director and Choreographer, Neil Ieremia of Black Grace.
Click below to Reserve Your Spot. *You will be redirected the the Laguna Dance Festival website
“The distinguishing spirit of this dance troupe, directed by Neil Ieremia, is an exhilarating, seemingly inexhaustible energy.” The New York Times
Black Grace is a powerful ensemble, comprised of some of New Zealand's finest dancers. Filling the stage withgreat physicality and emotion, Neil leremia's choreography fuses contemporary dance with traditional Samoan movement that is eloquent, spiritual, athletic, and lyrical. The evening is in two acts and includes Handgame, a 1995 dance which is a rhythmic dance utilizing fa'ataupati (Samoan slap dance), Kiona and the Little Bird Suite, a 2019 dance using body percussion influenced by traditional Samoan Sasa incorporating live singing, drumming and chanting. The evening’s 2nd act is a thought-provoking and visually stunning work, the most recent repertory dance, Paradise Rumour.
Performance is in two acts with one 15-minute intermission, running time 1 hour 30 minutes. A pre-show curtaintalk begins at 6:30pm
Click below to Buy Tickets. *You will be redirected to the Laguna Dance Festival Website.
Special combined performance with two extraordinary companies, from New Zealand to Los Angeles to LagunaBeach.
“Los Angeles Ballet most certainly can be a force to be reckoned with. . .” - LA Dance Chronicle
Los Angeles Ballet is the leading ballet company in Los Angeles known for staging classical, contemporary, romantic and neoclassical ballets, for pioneering new works and for presenting relevant works by many of today’s most innovative dance-makers. Los Angeles Ballet performs Nicolas Blanc's contemporary ballet Tableaux Vivants and Los Angeles Ballet's Artistic Director Melissa Barak's compelling work adapted from film to stage, Reclamation. Black Grace is a powerful ensemble, comprised of some of New Zealand's finest dancers, which fills the stage with great physicality and emotion. Neil leremia's choreography fuses contemporary dance with traditional Samoan movement - Handgame, a 1995 dance which is a rhythmic dance utilizing fa'ataupati (Samoan slap dance), Kiona and the Little Bird Suite, a 2019 dance using body percussion influenced by traditional Samoan Sasa incorporating live singing, drumming and chanting. A special addition to the evening is a world premiere dance choreographed by Laguna Dance Festival's Artistic Director, Jodie Gates, in collaboration with the Laguna Beach Music Festival.
Performance is in two acts with one 15-minute intermission, running time 1 hour 45 minutes
Special combined performance including tap dancers, contemporary and ballet dancers. Watch the performers cometogether for this unique and exciting event.
“The Syncopated Ladies represent the next generation of genre bending tappers who are revitalizing historic dance formodern times.” - Los Angeles Times
Syncopated Ladies, the All-Female Tap production propels beautiful, classy, and diverse women onto a re-invigorated stage, weaving their inspiring stories with intricate footwork, feminine prowess, and life -renewing energy. Dancing to today’s cutting edge music, from Pop to Hip-hop to Salsa, and even a couple tear-jerking Ballads, Syncopated Ladies: Live is electrifying, stirring, and energizing, a nonstop action-filled second act in our matinee. Los Angeles Ballet opens the show, and is the leading ballet company in Los Angeles known for staging classical, contemporary, romantic and neoclassical ballets, for pioneering new works and for presenting relevant works by many of today’s most innovative dance-makers. Los Angeles Ballet performs Nicolas Blanc's ballet Tableaux Vivants and Los Angeles Ballet’s Artistic Director Melissa Barak's compelling work adapted from film to stage, Reclamation. Included in the performance are special solos performed by our 2024 Young Artist Scholarship Recipients!
Performance is in two acts with one 15-minute intermission, running time 1 hour 45 minutes. A post-show Meet & Greet with the dancers in the lobby of theater.
