California Contemporary Ballet (CCB)
California Contemporary Ballet (CCBallet), established by Erin Holt, the company’s visionary choreographer and Artistic Director, is one of Southern California’s burgeoning dance companies. Today the company is established as a professional company featuring the talent of 5-7 career dancers and a unique brand of classical and contemporary dance works. CCBallet is a non-profit company that provides its members with the opportunity to perform an exciting repertory of innovative and original dance projects performed in concerts, theatre and festivals throughout Southern California. Most recently the company traveled to perform at the Janacek Conservatory in Ostrava, Czech Republic where they were honored to receive an invitation to perform “Blind Journey”, an original ballet by Ms. Holt, under the auspices of the Prague International Ballet.
CCBallet is resident of the California DanceArts Academy located in the foothills of Los Angeles. The school and company share one goal, "to nurture and encourage students professionally and to develop artists and audiences in the creativity, imagination and joy of dance." With the establishment of CCBallet and as a testament to the innovation that the company provides, dancers from the Academy and the community have found a home for their artistic expression and careers.
As with any other property company, CCBallet members are selected through an audition process or handpicked by the Artistic Director per project. CCB performances feature career dancers, innovative choreography and music, embellished by beautiful costumes, sets and lighting design. The company often features renowned guest choreographers and distinguished visiting artists. Whether performing on a grand stage or in their own intimate studio theatre, the entire company delivers a passionate, moving experience to their audiences.
The company’s annual signature ballet titled, “The Snow Queen”, is a delightful winter production starring the career members of California Contemporary Ballet (CCBallet), accompanied by the California Contemporary Youth Ballet (CCYBallet) and select dancers from the community, resulting in a cast of 60-70 dancers. Adapted for ballet from the classic children’s story written by Hans Christian Andersen. Directed and choreographed by the company’s Artistic Director, Erin Holt and performed to the beautiful original musical score composed by Randall Michael Tobin. “The Snow Queen” is a beautiful story demonstrating that friendship, hope, integrity, persistence toward one’s goals and determination can enable anyone to overcome life’s obstacles.
The company has been fortunate to establish Glendale Community college as its current home for the ballet which celebrated its 10th season in 2007. “The Snow Queen” has become a community favorite for the holidays by offering the public a pleasant alternative to the numerous Nutcracker productions at reasonable ticket rates.
CCB also offers a self produced spring concert featuring original works by Ms. Holt, guest choreographers, distinguished visiting artists, and original music by local composers. The spring production is a vehicle to present new works of classical and contemporary dance theatre to the community. Several such original works have included a rock and roll ballet of "Romeo and Juliet", "Lifetimes" -which explored the concept of experiencing life beyond death, "Blind Journey"- about a young girl trapped between reality and the spiritual world, "Angelitos"- a ballet adapted from the famous Puerto Rican story of "Angelitos Negros".
Additionally, CCBallet has been invited to perform by a number of Southern California organizations including Los Angeles Council District 14 for the 1998 Fourth of July Celebration and Festival, the Woman’s Auxiliary of Southern California, the Long Beach Day Nursery, the premiere of Katie Cassidy’s first record single in Studio City, the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica, All Nations Church in Lakeview Terrace, the Celebrity Center International, El Portal Theater in North Hollywood, the Glendale Center Theater and the Harvest Festival at Descanso Gardens.
CCBallet recently performed in the Celebrate Dance Festival during the 2009 season at the Alex Theater in Glendale, as part of a special dance series produced by Los Angeles presenter and choreographer Jamie Nichols. The festival premiered a recent choreography by Ms. Holt entitled, “Quintessence”. CCBallet was also recently selected to perform at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium as part of the Pasadena Dance Festival. The company presented excerpts from Ms. Holts works entitled, “Blind Journey”.
CCBallet operates entirely upon the generous funding from rare grant awards, community business, private patrons and ticket sales. By infusing our community with high quality performances, CCBallet artists are doing their part to inspire and enhance our community with the joy of dance. However, it literally takes hundreds of creative hours to invent new choreographic works or to keep our current repertory well rehearsed. Our artists require monetary remuneration to maintain the quality of our offerings. Please consider encouraging and supporting the accomplished artists of California Contemporary Ballet today by becoming a sponsor.
Grant Awards
In November 2002, California Contemporary Ballet was awarded a grant by the Hezlep Family Foundation of San Marino, California, providing for the purchase and restoration of costumes for the 2002 production of The Snow Queen. In addition, California Contemporary Ballet has received eight unrestricted grants, each from the Time Warner Foundation during the 2000 through 2009 calendar years. An unrestricted Grant was awarded to California Contemporary Ballet by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Comission supporting the company's 2009 and 2010 seasons. California Contemporary Ballet also continues to draw support from its generous Patrons of the Arts.
