When we think back to how it all started, most of us will remember cramming into a little practice studio after pointe class, grateful for the Starbucks bought by one of our classmates. It’s likely we were exhausted from our morning classes and we couldn’t wait to get our feet into a nice Epsom soak, but that couldn’t dampen our excitement. This was the kick-off meeting of the Leigh Purtill Ballet Company and we were ready to discuss our first big project, Sweet Sorrow.
Leigh Purtill, our artistic director and choreographer, came in and sat cross-legged on the floor telling us the story of Sweet Sorrow. The story is based on a novel written by Leigh by the same name which is a sequel to Romeo and Juliet. The story begins at Romeo and Juliet’s funeral, where a mysterious guest tempts Rosaline with a magical potion that will bring her friends back from the dead. Later on in the cemetery, Rosaline encounters the mystery guest again who reveals herself to be a zombie queen. She gives Rosaline a potion which transports her to the underworld where she encounters Romeo and Juliet again. In the underworld, Romeo, Juliet and Rosaline encounter all kinds of supernatural characters. In the end, the Zombie Queen tries to infect Rosaline and make her a zombie, but she escapes and is found by her living friends, leaving Romeo and Juliet together forever in the underworld. As Leigh told us about her ideas, we could hear each other gasp or whisper “That is going to be so cool!” When Leigh was finished, several people jumped in, volunteering to do costumes, sets and help set up marketing and administrative plans. Before she knew it, Leigh not only had the dance talent for the company but also an army of administrators and technical artistic staff to pull this off.
A few of us have performed parts of what would become Sweet Sorrow at various venues in Los Angeles over the years, but this is different. This time, we are going to create the full-length world premiere ballet as Leigh Purtill Ballet Company, an adult amateur ballet company. If you look at the original company members who attended the meeting that day, you won’t see anyone who is currently making a living as a professional dancer. In fact, most of us never even considered becoming professional dancers, coming to dance late in life or just never training professionally enough through our early dance education to “go all the way”. We are working professionals, with diverse career paths ranging from entertainment to law to healthcare with titles like “consultant”, “lawyer”, and “manager”. However, after whatever we do during our 9 to 5’s or beginning at 9am on Saturday morning, you can find us at the barre, pulling on our slippers and getting ready to take ballet class. To some people this is crazy. Why would you spend hours a week in one of the most exacting dance styles out there, pursuing elusive “perfection”? It’s simple. Because we love it. Because when we start those plies, our stress and problems somehow become a lot less important for that hour or 90 minutes. Because if you have a great class because you reached a personal goal (maybe it’s a triple pirouette, maybe it’s making it through petit allegro without stumbling, maybe your developpe got a tad bit higher), it affects you positively for the rest of the day.
Over the next ten months, we will all be continuing our classes but more importantly, working towards the common goal of launching this company successfully. We hope you continue to check out this blog to hear about our progress, including the good, the bad and the ugly (have you seen dancers’ toes after they’ve been in pointe shoes – it’s not pretty)? We’re excited to start this journey and even more excited to share it with you!
Watch our trailer here...
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