#sweetsorrowazombieballet

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Zombie Ballet - The Gong Show

Watch this act, Zombie Ballet, from The Gong Show. Celebrity Judges: Elizabeth Banks Will Forte Fred Arminsen Watch more acts on The Gong Show Thursdays at 1...

Fred Armisen wants us to always be in his life. You should probably watch the clip...

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Watch the zombie ballerinas on The Gong Show Thursday 6/29/17 at 10PM on ABC!!

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My Role of a Lifetime – The Apothecary

It always begins with a little flutter in my throat and a rise in my stomach.  It’s the moment when I know a connection is happening to something I’m passionate about.  As artists and creators, we’re often drawn to things which cast deeper meaning and perspective on our own visions and we flock to those who speak to our creativity.  For me, not only being a company member of Leigh Purtill Ballet, but also being cast in the role of Apothecary in our upcoming Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet is fulfilling this passion in me.

Leigh had me at “Zombie Ballet” when in 2010 she asked me to join a group of dancers who were to perform it for Art Night Pasadena.  I seriously never looked back and over the years, as the group of dancers transformed and came and went I fell more in love with the project and embraced my role as the undead.  Every time we performed it that little flutter in my throat came back.  But the project was meant for so much more and as time went on and Leigh crafted her brilliance over the story that was a vision of what would happen if Romeo and Juliet rose from the dead.  Um, what? Yes!  Oh, and what if there was a character called Apothecary who conjures up this rising and all things mystical?  Yes, again!

Being cast in the role of Apothecary is like locking me in a candy store.  She is both cunning and wicked while maybe having a little of bit of allure mixed in.  She’s after Rosaline, the young lady whose heart was broken when Romeo chose Juliet over her even to his death.  The Apothecary lures Rosaline with her sympathetic yet commanding vibrations to drink a potion which will free her from despairing heart and bring her into the Underworld.  It’s a cat and mouse game with a little bit of mean-girls thrown in.

I’m honored to play the Apothecary role and embrace her with reverence and grace.  I’m wildly excited to bring her to the stage on October 8th and hope I can deliver all of what was imagined of her through the artistry of Leigh Purtill.

Click here to learn more about the show times and tickets.

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Always something beautifully spooky going on...

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And It Begins…

By Corey McCullough

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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Sweet Sorrow - Trailer #2

Behind the headstone...

Gee, I wonder what’s going on over at the Sweet Sorrow cemetery - er, studio...

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Giggling from the Grave

By Corey McCullough

I know what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to be dead, laying very still until the Zombie Queen resurrected me and my Romeo, Bill. Problem is, Bill makes me laugh so much that instead of being dead, I couldn’t stop laughing.

It was our first rehearsal for Sweet Sorrow, and we were starting with the part where Rosaline (Holly) encounters the Mysterious Stranger/Zombie Queen (Jen) at Romeo (Bill) and Juliet’s (me) funeral. For most of this rehearsal, Bill and I were dead, laying on the floor while Jen and Holly proved we were dead by lifting our arms and letting them drop. While I love dancing, it was almost more fun to watch Holly and Jen work out the first parts of the dance. The music Leigh picked for this is Danse Macabre, which I’m sure you’ll recognize if you heard it (I know it was in a Jameson’s Irish Whisky commercial years ago). I’ve danced with Jen for years, and she is a pro at this. Not only has she played the zombie queen in most iterations of Sweet Sorrow, but she also was a zombie on an episode of MythBusters.  Even in the first rehearsal, she was bringing the zombie creepiness. I haven’t danced with Holly as much, but I know she’s going to be a wonderful Rosaline. She performed as the Queen in Sleeping Beauty last year and was lovely and delicate, which I think she’ll bring to this role.

Since we were “dead” and didn’t have much to do, Bill and I relaxed on the floor, cracking jokes more appropriate for middle to high schoolers than for two people in their…let’s just say VERY LATE 20s. We’d just come off of our partner debut as Snow Queen and Snow Prince in The Nutcracker last December. Even though I’ve been dancing for over 25 years, I’ve rarely done any partnering work. Bill came to dance late in life and has worked incredibly hard over the past few years to master the ballet basics in addition to learning how to be a strong partner. I’ve always admired his perseverance, diligence and attitude. He definitely brought this to our Nutcracker rehearsals, working on a lift over and over until it started to click for us. This isn’t easy. Imagine trying to lift a bag of sand over your head and gracefully place it down on the floor next to you. Now, imagine doing it over and over again, each time thinking of something else you could do to be more graceful or more comfortable. After maybe two times, you start to feel tired. After five, you’re feeling a lot weaker. More than that, you may just drop the bag and walk away. Working with Bill on these lifts, he just kept going, saying “I’m fine, let’s try again”, and I always knew he wouldn’t let me fall.

Towards the end of the rehearsal, it was finally our time to rise. We left our tombs, shuffling downstage in the zombie shuffle (sliding your feet along the floor with locked knees…picture walking the day after you do a really intense leg workout). Then, Jen and Holly were tasked with trying to help us dance. I rose onto my pointe shoes, with my feet parallel in forced arch, clomping around with Jen in a slipshod waltz. We ended our first rehearsal with me and Bill stumbling into each others arms to begin our initial dance together. Even though we only had an hour today, we still got through over three minutes of choreography. I already can’t wait for next week when Bill and I will get to dance even more. However, we did learn that while Jen and Holly tried to prove we were dead, we had to leave our arms up just a tad longer to show we were dead. I said, “Oh, so we don’t just let them flop like dead weight?” and Bill said, “No, that’s where the acting comes in.”

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More hard work behind the scenes of Sweet Sorrow!