Saturday, September 28, 2019

Caring Causes: Gala Bacchanal (Beverly Hills CA 11/16)

Luminario's upcoming fundraiser Gala Bacchanal, honoring Emmy Award-winning choreographer Anita Mann, will take place on Saturday, November 16, 2019 from 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., at the Beverly Hills Women's Club (1700 Chevy Chase Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210). 

Gala Bacchanal celebrates Luminario’s awarding of a prestigious grant from the US State Department and National Endowment of the Arts, enabling Luminario’s upcoming tour to India in February 2020 with a new work-in-progress set to music by Reggae legend Peter Tosh of the Wailers. Tickets to Gala Bacchanal range from $300 - $500 and are available online at luminarioballet.org/fundraisersGala Bachannal sponsors include Anita Mann-Kohl Foundation; and the RIDE Foundation.
 
The program schedule for Gala Bacchanal includes Hor d’ouevres, drinks, a special Luminario Ballet performance including excerpts from Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” a seated dinner and a silent auction.  
 
Gala Bacchanal will support Luminario’s presence at the upcoming NY APAP conference showcasing at Ailey Theatre in New York City, as well as local Southern California performances in 2020. Sponsorships and more information are available online at luminarioballet.org.
 
About Anita Mann
 
Anita Mann (born October 21, 1946) is an American choreographer, dancer and actress. Mann has been honored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as one of America's top five contemporary choreographers. She is also the recipient of five Emmy Awards and accolades from every corner of the industry. Mann began her career as one of the David Winters' dancers on TV shows such as Shindig!The T.A.M.I. Show and Monte Carlo: C'est La Rose, a Grace Kelly documentary special. She has danced with and choreographed for Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Michael Jackson, Davy Jones and countless other stars, while maintaining a four decade relationship with all the major networks.
Her major choreography credits include five seasons on the 1980s pop dance television show, the TV series Solid Gold, for which she was nominated twice for a Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Choreography, and "The Muppets Go Hollywood", for which she was nominated for her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography.
 
Mann is the producer of the long running Las Vegas hit show "Fantasy" at the Luxor Las Vegas. She was the coordinating producer for the TV Series "Dirty Dancing" which Lionsgate produced for the WE tv. She has worked with Comcast on their "Get Up and Dance" and "Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp" series available at Comcast In Demand. Mann is also the producer of the pre-school animated musical webisode series itty bitty HeartBeats, recently re-launched and distributed by TV3 Global, as well as the musical "Imagine This" at the New London Theatre in London's West End.
 
About Judith FLEX Helle
 
Judith grew up in Boston, MA and studied dance at the Walnut Hill School, Boston Center for the Arts, and the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance NYC. She has a BFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she made dance films of the experimental modern punk dance company, the Oblong Rondas. In 1981, she left the US to dance in Berlin, Germany at the Deutsche Opera Berlin, where she formed her first dance company, "FLEX", with dancers from the Deutsche Opera and other fine US and European ballet/modern companies.
 
Alongside her dance and choreography career, Judith became well known for her daring, exciting, tempermental, and emotional performances on the trapeze, allowing her to have a dual career as a dancer and a trapeze artist, prior to Cirque du Soliel's conquering the world. While in Berlin, she also appeared in movies, TV shows, theatricals of all kinds, cabaret, industrials, and experimental theater.
 
She moved to LA in 1988, where she taught dance at Idyllwild School of the Arts, performed in Los Angeles with various companies, and signed with dance agent Julie McDonald. After retiring from dance in 1996, she continued to have a very successful career in performing as a single trapeze artist, surfing the wave of popularity via Cirque du Soleil. At this time she also became highly sought after as a private aerial dance coach, and her students are now stars of the international cirque world. She has unlocked the key to integrating aerial dance into terra dance, and the dancers in Luminario Ballet truly are venturing into new uncharted territories in the air. Her choreography career took off with the founding of Luminario Ballet, and Judith has choreographed many ballet and aerial dance works for the company, as well as commissiones ballets and aerial dances for 5 symphony orchestras, including the LA Philharmonic. Judith is a representative of the global conversation about dance here in LA, and holds up her end with Luminario Ballet!!
 
About Luminario Ballet
 
Luminario is a contemporary ballet company also presenting classic modern dance repertory and aerial dance. Our dancers live in LA, but come from everywhere, representing the region's diversity and excitement.
 
Our choreographers range from classically inspired such as San Francisco Ballet's Michael Smuin and Polish ballet Maestro Stefan Wenta, to edgy contemporary choreographers such as Josie Walsh and Jamal Story. 2013’s guest choreographer was Debra Lynn Brown, choreographer of 13 Cirque du Soleil shows.

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