Westside Ballet Spring Performances to Feature Palisades Dancers

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor

Westside Ballet of Santa Monica is gearing up to present “Masters of Movement: Ballet through the Centuries,” with performances on Friday, May 26, and Saturday, May 27, featuring Pacific Palisades dancers.

The event will offer a “richly varied” program of classical, neoclassical and contemporary selections, paired with a newly commissioned work by Vanessa Van Wormer at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

On Friday, May 26, Westside Ballet will host its annual Soirée special event, featuring cocktails, appetizers, awards and guest artist performances. Andrea Laššáková and Palisadian alumnus Adrian Blake Mitchell are slated to premiere Westside’s “After the Rain” by acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon; while Maté Szentes and Palisadian alumna Lyrica Woodruff will perform George Balanchine’s “Stars & Stripes.”

Laššáková and Mitchell’s Friday performance will be accompanied by live music by professional pianist Nathan Ben-Yehuda and violinist Misha Vayman.

According to Westside Ballet, Mitchell and Laššáková performed at the 2022 Spring Soirée after “fleeing from their lives and careers in St. Petersburg as soloists with Mikhailovsky Theatre Ballet Company at the onset of the Ukrainian invasion.” Their performance this year not only reunites the duo, but acts as a reprisal of their performance with their fellow Russian exiles at the Segerstrom Center’s November “Reunited in Dance” Gala.

The event also marks the second spring season featuring former Palisadian and Westside alumna Woodruff and guest Maté Szentes, who will partner in a Balanchine classic at Westside’s Soirée. The pair will perform “Stars & Stripes pas de deux,” staged by New York City Ballet’s Patricia Neary, in honor of Memorial Day weekend.

Woodruff was born in the Palisades to parents Largo Woodruff-Blankfein and Fredric Blankfein. Her mother recalled that Westside Ballet was the first place she took Woodruff to after she was born.

“She [has] been here all her life,” Woodruff-Blankfein said to the Palisadian-Post in 2022. “It’s wonderful to see how far she [has] come.”

A protégé of the prestigious Yvonne Mounsey and Francine Kessler Lavac, Woodruff has trained at Westside Ballet since the early age of 5. She later went on to train at the School of American Ballet, and dance in a number of productions, including “Anastasia” on Broadway, television series “Bunheads” and “Private Practice,” and Dolly Parton’s 2022 Christmas movie and NBC special, “Mountain Magic”

Szentes—who will be accompanying Woodruff on stage—has danced with the Hungarian National Ballet, Richmond Ballet, American Contemporary Ballet and Barak Ballet.

Westside’s Spring Soirée event will also honor Ralph and Eileen Horowitz with the Bravo! Award and Morley Builders with the Huntley Santa Monica Beach Community Arts Award.

On Saturday, May 27, the festivities will continue with the Westside premiere of Balanchine’s “Emeralds Pas de Trois” and excerpts from “Sleeping Beauty; Handel Dances” by resident choreographer Sophie Monat, concluding with “A Chorus Line.”

The showcase is set to include divertissements from Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda” and Wormer’s “Color of Spring” with live music.

Both the Friday Soirée and Saturday Showcase performances open by introducing all dancers, from the youngest and newest, to its most advanced.

A number of young Palisadians will take the stage, including Elise DuFour, Addison Russell, Layla Zakaria, Clara Ditter, Izzy Heidt, Laurel O’Donnell, Kaia Sappington, Valentina Finci, Mila and Ava Bakhshandehpour.

“I am really excited to perform this year because all of the pieces that I am in are different yet special in their own ways,” Bakhshandehpour said. “‘Raymonda’ is a classical ballet, and it’s very graceful. ‘Handel Dances’ is fun to dance and is artistic and joyful. I love letting go in ‘Color of Spring’ to really expand and move my body in new ways … I love ‘Chorus Line’ because you get to include character and personality.”

Tickets for the Friday Soirée reception and special performance range from $100 to $300, and tickets for the Saturday showcase are $45.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit westsideballet.com/spring-performance or call 800-595-4849.