Tickets available for LABT Spring Gala performance

Staff Reports

The Contraband

Tickets are now available for the Lake Area Ballet Theatre’s annual Spring Gala ballet showcase, which will celebrate the talents of over 100 local dancers and two guest artists. The performance will be held on Friday, March 11, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Rosa Hart Theatre in Lake Charles.

The Lake Area Ballet Theatre (LABT) will present an exciting and colorful repertoire of vignette ballet performances from popular productions, including Les Sylphides, Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Grand Pas de Deux of Confection, Fiddle Tunes, Grand Tarantelle and Hypnagogia.

Shea Johnson and Michele Gifford will perform as guest artists during the Spring Gala. Johnson performs extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, and most recently he performed in the Theatre, Opera and Orchestre in Halle, Germany. From 2009 to 2013 he worked with Ballet Arizona where he performed in numerous lead roles.

Gifford is from Dallas, Texas, and she spent a fruitful career at the New York City Ballet for 12 years before joining the Texas Ballet Theatre in 2000. During her 20-year career, Gifford has performed the lead in productions such as Coppélia, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, among others.

LABT is led by Colleen Cannon Benoit, who spent much of her career studying and teaching at the Clarke Dance Center under the direction of the late Ida Winter Clarke. The mission of LABT is to stage full-scale ballet productions, provide new and innovative works and develop the next generation of local dancers.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at www.lakeareaballettheatre.com. Lake Area Ballet Theatre is supported by grants from the City of Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, Lake Charles/SWLA Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Arts Council of SWLA.

For more information, contact Lake Area Ballet Theatre at 337-478-1654 or email info@lakeareaballettheatre.com.