Pasadena Dance Theatre Celeberates Its 10th Season

Company takes to the stage poised with William Shakespears "A Midsummer Night's Dream," plus two original performances.

Pasadena Dance Theatre, one of Southern California's premiere ballet companies, will celebrate its 10th performance season April 8 to April 10 as it returns to the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, 320 S. Mission Drive in San Gabriel, for its spring series.

The program includes four performances of the illustrious masterpiece "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as well as "Threads," a new ballet choreographed by the renowned Leslie Carothers, formerly of the Joffrey Ballet, and "Mobile," choreographed and staged by Pasadena natives Tomm Rund and Christopher Ruud, respectively. The late father and his son are each highly-regarded as leading artists in the dance world.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" will be staged with all new costumes and set design, but will remain true to this whimsical Shakespearean traditional, which highlights the foibles of love and the power of dreams. The timeless classic will be choreographed by PDT's Artistic Director Laurence Blake and principal roles will be performed by Iris Andersen and Richard Bradley. Anderson, who has trained at the Eglevsky Ballet, Washington Ballet, and at the Ailey School in New York, has been a student under legends such as Irina Kolpakolva and Sylvester Campbell and has performed premier works by John Clifford, Lisa de Ribere, Hinton Battle, Ron Cunningham and Gus Solomons, Jr. Her repertoire ranges from Marius Petipa and Jules Perrot to Martha Graham, David Parsons, and Mark Morris. A graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, Anderson holds a BFA in dance from the California Institute of the Arts where she was selected to study abroad at the London Contemporary Dance School. In December 2003, she performed as a guest artist with the CalArts Dance Ensemble for the school's premiere performance at the new Redcat Theater at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.