Noah's Ark 2017 - If You Build It...

Marking the second collaboration between Pacific Festival Ballet Artistic Director Kim Maselli and Composer Eric Allaman, Noah's Ark is a multimedia, contemporary ballet that made its world premiere on Saturday, May 22, 2010 at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

An epic undertaking, this contemporary ballet's début was heralded by the Ventura County Star, Ventura County's leading source of printed news, the Malibu Times, the Malibu Surfside News, KCLU FM 88.5 FM, an NPR affiliate station that serves listeners from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, CA, and many other media outlets.

Encore Performances of Noah's Ark were performed in May of 2012, and once again in May of 2017.

PFB MOVES TO A NEW LOCATION

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Happy 2017!  We are excited to start off the New Year moving to our brand NEW location. PFB and our training school, California Dance Theatre, have moved just down the road to our beautiful NEW location at 2282 Townsgate Road, Suites 4/5/6, Westlake Village, CA, 91361. Take a look at our new facility and come visit us for a class! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wide lobby space and parent viewing windows for all classes.

Beautiful high ceiling studio space complete with Harlequin Marley floor.

Large lobby space for parents and visitors.

A "Snack Barre" complete with healthy snacks, drinks, and refrigerator to bring your own lunch and dinner for long rehearsal days.

Beautiful welcome desk and greeting area as you enter our studios. 

Stanley Holden is always with us in spirit. Our corner in studio B is dedicated to his legacy.

Welcome to your NEW home at California Dance Theatre and Pacific Festival Ballet. It's a new era and we are excited to serve our community the finest quality in dance education.

Local Ballet Company - Pacific Festival Ballet - Begins Partnership With Make-A-Wish® Tri-Counties To Help Kids’ Wishes Take Flight!

(May 8, 2016 – Agoura, CA)  Pacific Festival Ballet (PFB) and Make-A-Wish® have joined forces to help children in our community. PFB’s goal is to begin a lasting relationship with Make-A-Wish® by participating in the Kids for Wish Kids® fund-raising program.  

The partnership began with Pacific Festival Ballet’s Spring 2016 ballet, Peter Pan on May 21st.  Not only did the audience get to see Peter Pan teach the Darling children to fly high above the Kavli stage, but their attendance helped kids, with life threatening medical conditions, receive wishes! PFB offered a cash donation from it’s ticket sales, of at least $1000, to Make-A-Wish® Tri Counties along with complimentary tickets to special wish kid families. This hopes to be the first of many donation partnerships to come!

The goal of Make-A-Wish is to “grant wishes of children with life threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.” This is something Kim Maselli, creator and artistic director of PFB, is also passionate about. “I am thrilled to begin a partnership with Make-A-Wish®. This is an exciting time for our ballet company and the young dancers we work with. We have a deep love for what we do and the children we serve. We hope this partnership will further cultivate a spirit of hope and service in our organization and in our community.  Audience members will not only get to experience the wonder and excitement of Peter Pan, but will also get to help provide much needed wishes to children in need.”

In attendance was CEO, John MacFadyen and Wish Kid Kaitlin…. Kaitlin was a dancer before her bout with cancer. She, like many others before her, received her Wish because of generous donations from our local community. Kaitlin is a courageous young woman and a powerful example of the hope, strength and joy Make-A-Wish strives to cultivate and celebrate.

Peter Pan played at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Saturday, May 21st at 2pm and 7pm to full audiences.

With your help, we can work together with Make-A-Wish® Tri-Counties to help kids’ wishes take flight! 

About Make-A-Wish:

Make-A-Wish® grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy. A wish-come- true can have positive impacts on the health of children.  Physicians and nurses see the vital role that a positive state of mind plays in a patient’s ability to fight illness, and they see the wish experience as a powerful force to improve the mental and emotional health of wish kids and their families alike. 

With a staff of only six and the help of more than 100 volunteers, Make-A- Wish Tri-Counties has granted over 1400 special wishes to children in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. If you want to refer a child to the Make-A- Wish Foundation, call 805-676- 9474. Donations may be sent to Make-A- Wish at 4001 Mission Oaks Blvd. Suite F Camarillo, CA 93012. 

Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra's "Footloose" featuring Pacific Festival Ballet!

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The Conejo Valley Youth Orchestras present “FOOTLOOSE!” on Sunday, January 31, 2016, 3pm, in the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Why “FOOTLOOSE”? It’s because dance is often the inspiration behind compositions for the symphony orchestra. Our program includes great works such as Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre and the Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, Brahms’ Hungarian Dances No. 5 & 6, Ponchielle’s Dance of the Hours, music from Tchaikovsky’s ballets Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake and much more. Enjoy a cameo performance by Pacific Festival Ballet!

Please join us! Our musicians are having a fantastic time putting together this program and we know you will enjoy it too!


Tickets available at the theatre box office or through ticketmaster.com

PFB In The News - The Sea Princess (2014)

 
 

Pacific Festival Ballet's performance of The Sea Princess, which made its world début in 2007, was a resounding success, and we were fortunate to bring members of the community of all ages together to share in the "complete-with-a-real-live-mermaid" magic.

Here's what the press had to say about the performance and all that went into making it extraordinary:
 

Ventura County Star 
 Ballet beneath the sea
            'Sea Princess' ready to make a new splash at Civic Arts Plaza

The Acorn
      Come and 'sea' a real-life mermaid

Newsvine.com
            Mermaid Linden Wolbert, passionate marine life educator, partners with Pacific Festival Ballet

PFB Alumni In The News - Emiko Flanagan (2012)

Pacific Festival Ballet's very own Emiko Flanagan is now a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, and The New York Times has something to say about the company's return to the stage after a 10-year hiatus. Read about it right here

Pointe Magazine also offered its perspective on Dance Theatre Harlem's recent comeback, with Pacific Festival Ballet alum Emiko Flanagan once again featured. Read it here.

Congratulations to Emiko!

PFB In The News - The Nutcracker (2013)

 

Pacific Festival Ballet's 20th season of The Nutcracker was one of our most successful ever, and we received unprecedented media exposure from across Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. In fact, our performance was mentioned in LA Parent, Los Angeles Theater, Red Tricycle, BeachCalifornia, and Mommy Poppins, just to name a few. 

What's more, newspapers in Los Angeles, Malibu, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Oak Park and Camarillo all turned up to share the heart-warming, behind-the-scenes stories that made our performances special. 

Did you miss an article? Read it here: 

Malibu Surfside News

Malibu residents dance holiday classic in Thousand Oaks
As the article states, "Malibu resident Sofia Rochin has ballet in her blood. Sofia's mother, Deborah Collodel, and father, Eric Rochin, were both professional dancers before moving onto other careers in real estate and architecture. But it was Sofia who insisted, at seven years old, that she follow in her parents' footsteps." 

Malibu Times 

Malibu Seen: 'Tis the Season
Sofia Rochin and her father, Eric, feature again in this write up that also includes all of the Malibu residents that make Pacific Festival Ballet's Nutcracker what it is.  

Ventura County Star 

Second chances: Abandoned at birth in China, 13-year-old now set to star as Clara in Pacific Festival Ballet's The Nutcracker.The Star'sCommunity section featured the touching story of Leili Rackow, who performed as Clara on December 21, 2013.

Your guide to local holiday events: More than one way to crack a nut.
Ventura County has a lot to offer families throughout the holiday season. The Star's write up of Pacific Festival Ballet's 20th season of The Nutcracker (which included a photo of Leili Rackow, Clara for the Saturday, December 21 performances) helped us share what makes spending a day at the theatre with Pacific Festival Ballet so unique.

'Nutcracker' Star Leili Rackow.
Ballet is an art that must be seen to be appreciated. The Star's photo gallery, which featured images of Leili as Clara, her Nutcracker Prince, Chasen Greenwood, and her adoptive Agoura Hills family, offers just a glimpse of the magic that is Pacific Festival Ballet's annual performance.

From the orphanage to the stage, 'Nutcracker' star is living her dream.
Not every production gets featured in a major newspaper three times in one season. But then again, not every production bears the signature style that Pacific Festival Ballet is known for. In any event, we were excited and honored that the Star chose to feature us once again in its Time Out section on Friday, December 20, 2013.


Los Angeles Daily News 

This article on Leili Rackow and Chasen Greenwood (Clara and the Nutcracker Prince on December 21, 2013), plus New York City Ballet principal dancers Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild (The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, all performances) took our media coverage to an entirely new readership that covered all of Los Angeles County. 

The Acorn 

Child's long road leads to success
Leili's story captured the hearts of local editors, too, as evidenced in this write up from The Acorn, a paper that serves residents of Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Oak Park and Westlake Village.

PFB In The News - Past Performances of The Nutcracker

 

2012 

Backstage at the Nutcracker with Tiler Peck of the NYC Ballet
Pacific Festival Ballet attracts stars from across the country to its annual family favorite, The Nutcracker. Here's a inspiring story from LA Observed that follows on New York City Ballet principal dancer and Nutcracker regular guest artist, Tiler Peck, backstage at the Fred Kavli Theatre as she prepares to perform her role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Pacific Festival Ballet's 19th season of The Nutcracker


2011 

Camarillo teen to dance in 'Nutcracker'
Pacific Festival Ballet alum Quinby Kasch (who is now with San Francisco Ballet) took her turn as Clara in The Nutcracker on Saturday, December 17, 2011. For it, she was featured in the Camarillo Acorn.

2010 

The Ventura County Star featured two articles on Pacific Festival Ballet's 2010 performance of The Nutcracker: 
 

Smaller Nutcracker Characters are Pretty Sweet, Too.

East Meets West: New York City Ballet Stars to Join Pacific Festival Ballet Dancers in The Nutcracker.


Westlake Magazine ran a full-page spread announcing New York City Ballet Principal Dancers Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia onstage with Pacific Festival Ballet. 

2009

Camarillo resident Quinby Kasch was featured in the Camarillo Acorn for her role as Lieutenant Belle in this article.


2007 

The Malibu Times featured the entire Rochin family when they all performed in Pacific Festival Ballet's The Nutcracker. Read it here.

 

PFB In The News - Noah's Ark (2010)

 
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Ventura County Star

Noah's Ark landed on the front cover of Ventura County Star's "Time Out" for its maiden voyage.

The Star's bonus online gallery offered a photo editorial on the production.

The "Communities" section featured a piece on the making of the elaborate headpieces created by parent volunteers.

KCLU

KCLU's Lance Orozco presented a five-minute piece on Noah's ArkListen to his story on the making of this epic ballet.