Menlowe Ballet's leap of faith with Michael Lowe

In the airy main studio at the Menlo Park Academy of Dance, costumes and props are stacked neatly in a corner of the studio, and dancers sprawled around the perimeter stretch quietly as Michael Lowe rehearses his fledgling company Menlowe Ballet for its spring season.

Dancer Ikolo Griffin tosses a wide-brimmed hat in the air, testing out new tricks for his role as the Ringmaster in Lowe's "Cirque," which will be on the program along with the choreographer's popular East-meets-West ballet "Double Happiness" and a special appearance by Berkeley's Savage Jazz Dance Company. Even though Griffin is working on the sidelines, Lowe has an eye on him and comes over to help. With the flick of a wrist, Lowe easily flips the hat up onto his head.

"Freddie Franklin taught me that," he says offhandedly, referencing one of the great stars of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Menlowe Ballet's leap of faith with Michael Lowe 

Oakland Ballet to delay spring program

In a cost-cutting move described by its director as "risk avoidance," the Oakland Ballet Company is postponing its spring performances, which had been planned for May 18-20 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center in Oakland.

Artistic Director Graham Lustig said that after disappointing ticket sales for "The Nutcracker" at the end of 2011, the company - which has an annual budget of $600,000 - faced an $80,000 deficit.

Read more: Oakland Ballet to delay spring program

Graham Lustig selected to guide Oakland Ballet

After a yearlong search, the 45-year-old Oakland Ballet has announced that Graham Lustig is the company's new artistic director. The British-born Lustig previously directed New Jersey's American Repertory Ballet but stepped down last spring when the company restructured.

Graham Lustig selected to guide Oakland Ballet...

Oakland Ballet: Whimsy elevates Guidi's 'Nutcracker'

In a blinding flash onstage, the human versions of the Nutcracker, the Mouse King and the Ballerina were magically replaced by small inanimate dolls. Seated somewhere behind us, a young patron of Oakland Ballet let out a decidedly impressed, "Whoa!"

It's a wonderful thing to watch a piece of theater inspire awe, and the warmly enthusiastic audience was certainly awed at the Oakland Ballet Company's "Nutcracker," which opened its six-performance run at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland on Friday.

Even if this is not the most lavishly budgeted or refined production in the Bay Area, the childlike, antic humor and whimsical storybook settings distinguish and elevate director and choreographer Ronn Guidi's intimate retelling of the oft-told "Nutcracker," which premiered in 1972.

Read more on the SF Chronicle site.
(Photo by Marty Sohl)

KQED Profile: Ronn Guidi

Passion for the art of dance is perhaps the defining quality of Oakland's Ronn Guidi, director of the Oakland Ballet Academy, and founder of the famous Oakland Ballet.

An ever-energetic mainstay of the East Bay's dance scene, Guidi created the Oakland Ballet in 1965, leading the small regional company to international attention in the 1970s with his canny choices of repertoire. Bolstered by a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and ambitious world premieres, like Eugene Loring's The Tender Land --for which composer Aaron Copland himself conducted the opening night -- Guidi's enthusiasm and efforts paved the way for the troupe to become a major force in the dance world as one of the few remaining companies in the world performing the lavish and inventive ballets created for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. It was he who brought living legends such as Leonide Massine, Frederic Franklin and Irina Nijinska to stage authoritative restorations of Boutique Fantasque and Les Biches.


Read more on the KQED Spark website.