Tag archives: State Street Ballet

“That’s really the mark of a successful event – that everybody here believes in what we’re trying to do, believes in the vision,” said Dr. Nicole Callahan, board president of State Street Ballet and co-chair, with Alex Nourse, of its Victorian Vogue gala at the Music Academy of the West. The evening was deliciously Dracula-forward, […]

Victorian women were expected to be demure, decorous, and to generally avoid spending their evenings in the company of bloodthirsty Transylvanian counts. Thankfully, times have changed. On September 19, some of Santa Barbara’s most formidable women will descend upon the Music Academy of the West for State Street Ballet’s annual gala, Victorian Vogue. There will […]

Charlie Chaplin has been inextricably linked to Montecito ever since he founded and developed the Montecito Inn almost a century ago to serve as a more accessible yet upscale getaway for Hollywood stars, of which he was one of the biggest. Considered perhaps the greatest comic artist of the silver screen and one of the […]

Evenings offered an inside look at State Street Ballet’s creative process, staged inside the company’s studio at the Gail Towbes Center for Dance. The in-studio setting created an intimate tone with audience members sitting right next to dancers, and wine and hors d’oeuvres getting the evening off to a pirouetting start. The program featured nine […]

The Granada Theatre was filled with 2,650 eager fans this weekend as the Santa Barbara Symphony and State Street Ballet launched their 2025/26 seasons with a dazzling joint production. Santa Barbara Symphony President & CEO, Kathryn R. Martin, and State Street Ballet Executive Director, Cecily MacDougall, welcomed guests and outlined each of their exciting upcoming […]

For the first time in their long histories, State Street Ballet and Santa Barbara Symphony are opening their season with a collaborative production, one that includes – and closes with – a full-length production of Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet. The concert opens with Maestro Nir Kabaretti and the orchestra performing two short works – Shostakovich’s […]

Elevated by a weekend of generosity, the 31st Anniversary Gala for State Street Ballet threw a spotlight on the longstanding mission: raising funds to nurture and launch the next generation of terpsichoreans. The evening’s opening pas de deux, “Flames of Paris,” showcased the rarely seen classic white tutu, its tule delicately adrift through the serial […]

State Street Ballet gave a sneak peek at its next season with a sunset soirée at the Montecito estate of board member Karl Weis and his wife Kristen featuring Romeo and Juliet, Chaplin, and work from the ever-popular Nutcracker. Balletomanes quaffing the champagne and noshing on the canapés included Joan Rutkowski, Andre Yew, Jon Bishop, […]

State Street Ballet marked the end of its landmark 30th season at the Lobero with Brilliance: Balanchine, Arpino, and Beyond with the Opera Santa Barbara Orchestra under conductor Kostis Protopapas. The triple bill was a true culmination of a wonderful year with George Balanchine’s Who Cares? being the first performance of a Balanchine work in […]

State Street Ballet closes out its 30th season with The Brilliance Program: Balanchine, Arpino, and Beyond, a title meant to characterize the works featured on the May 9-10 performances at the Lobero Theatre – but also apropos for the company’s spectacular season, the first full one under the leadership of Artistic Director Megan Phillips and […]

When State Street Ballet founding artistic/executive director Rodney Gustafson fully retired at the end of 2023, the destiny of the company – founded by the former American Ballet Theatre dancer some three decades earlier – was something of an unknown. Things seemed to be in good hands with the twin appointments of Megan Philipp as […]

State Street Ballet, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, made quite a splash with the world premiere of its latest highly entertaining production The Little Mermaid – based on the classic 1837 fairytale of Hans Christian Andersen – at the Lobero. Choreographed by Artistic Director Megan Philips and Executive Director Cecily MacDougall the nautical adventure […]

Ariel arises anew in State Street Ballet’s world premiere original adaptation of The Little Mermaid, the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen story that became a beloved animated Disney movie 150 years later. The production – bursting with colorful characters and sets, including a number of puppets and a cast of 45 – comes from co-choreographers Cecily […]

It was certainly a Nutcracker with a difference when State Street Ballet – alongside the Opera San Luis Obispo Grand Orchestra conducted by Brian Asher Alhadeff, and a chorus of youngsters from the Music Academy of the West’s Sing! Project and the State Street Ballet Academy – joined in the spectacular production at the Granada. […]

Does Santa Barbara really need another performance of The Nutcracker? What with the long-running productions from Festival Ballet (December 14-15 at the Arlington) and State Street Ballet (December 21-22 at the Granada) – both of which feature large casts, special guest stars and a live orchestra – plus myriad one-offs from several smaller dance schools […]

State Street Ballet kicked off its 30th anniversary season in grand style with an impressive colorful double bill, Scheherazade and The Firebird performed with the Santa Barbara Symphony under maestro Nir Kabaretti at the venerable Granada. Scheherazade, with choreography by Autumn Eckman and music by Rimsky-Korsakov, was first envisioned by State Street’s managing director Tim […]

Cecily MacDougall, Executive Director of the State Street Ballet, has formally announced its 30th Anniversary Year, commencing with the season opening performance on October 26 and 27, at the Granada Theatre.  This year proves to be its finest and the one for which you should purchase your season pas de deux tix early. The SSB […]

The twist is decidedly not part of the ballet repertoire, but State Street Ballet has done some shakin’ for its 30th season, the first one to be entirely programmed without the supervising hand of founding director Rodney Gustafson. New artistic director Megan Philipp and executive director Cecily MacDougall – who worked with Gustafson for more […]

State Street Ballet’s 30th anniversary gala at the Music Academy of the West was full of eastern promise! More than 200 balletomanes descended on the picturesque Miraflores oceanside campus for the boffo bash, co-chaired by Alex Nourse and Dr. Nicole Callahan, which featured music from the UCSB Middle East Ensemble and the ballet company’s professional […]

Santa Barbara’s popular State Street Ballet kicked off its 30th anniversary year with a reception at the Riviera Bar downtown for 40 guests, including Brooks and Kate Firestone, Dan and Meg Burnham, Barbara Burger, Deborah Bertling, Tigran Sargsyan, Leila Drake, Jennifer Whalen, Cecily MacDougall, Scott Reed, and Jonathan Bishop. “It has been an extraordinary history,” […]