Rather than put out a whole bunch of emails that clog up your inbox or blog posts that you lose track of, I figured I'd just put all my cool info here and you can peruse at your leisure.
Leigh & Company In the News!
First up, we were at ScareLA being all zombie-ish and ballerina-y and generally having an awesome time like we always do. And lots of people captured it on video! A couple are below because they featured us really nicely.
Here are Vic Mendoza's highlight reels (a short one and a longer one, both very cool, thank you!):
Teaser reel by Vicscover Art
Full reel by Vicscover Art
Here is IdeateTV's interview with me, which I am so very grateful for:
IdeateTV interview with Katrina Lee
Next, I was profiled at the Dance Network blog by Bridget Conrad and although there was a lot of focus on me, the talk turned to my company and its vision, which Bridget absolutely got spot-on. I could not have presented our company's mission any better. Thank you SO much for this:
Third, this is something I wrote for Dance Advantage's website, a review of Terez Mertes Rose's forthcoming novel, A DANCER'S GUIDE TO AFRICA, as well as an interview with Terez herself. I'm a big fan of her and her books so it was great to get to read a new one ahead of its release. Be sure to pre-order it!
And finally...our production! Discounted tickets for "Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet" available until the end of September. Get your tickets to either show and the Sunday Afterlife party!
Hello beautiful dancers and friends of dancers and zombie lovers and friends of zombie lovers!
Did you know...
--"Zombie Ballet" won the second episode of the Gong Show this summer?
--We were invited to perform for the second year in a row at the ScareLA horror convention in Los Angeles?
--An hour long production is coming in 6 weeks?
On October 8,
at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada Flintridge, the Leigh Purtill
Ballet Company - the nonprofit company I formed in January - will
present the premiere of "Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet." Shows are at
4PM and 7PM. Tickets are on sale now through Eventbrite; $25 in advance and $30 at the door.
Wow, it CAN'T be August already, can it? That means the "Sweet Sorrow" world premier is just 2 months away! Oh my goodness! But first there is ScareLA.
Last year, the horror convention was held in Pasadena. It was our first time there and we had a blast! And the audience loved us too, so the con asked us back for more. This time the convention will be in downtown LA. We'll be doing the dance again (always a bit different, of course!) and we'll also host a table and sell merchandise and show tickets. Want to see us? Get tickets at our website, zombieballet.com and go to "Events." If you buy ScareLA tickets through that link, we'll get a small percentage too. Thank you!
And to tease you, this is what it looked like last year:
And if you want to get your tickets to the show in October, we've got those on-sale now at Eventbrite:
And finally, tips from the workshop on Sunday, which was loads of fun, even if most attendees did have sore legs the next day!
Pirouette Tip #1: wrap your arms in first position like you're holding something that doesn't want to be held. Pirouette Tip #2: practice getting over your leg by springing to releve degage derriere from a 4th position demi-plie. The longer you can hold this position, the better and more stable your turn will be.
The Gong Show is back! And my zombie ballet is on it!
Get out the popcorn (or set your DVR) on Thursday, June 29, 10PM, on ABC,
and check out my zombies. I can't tell you if we got gonged by the
celebrity judges or not - you'll just have to watch and find out.
Many of you following me on Facebook know the Leigh Purtill Ballet Company's first production of SWEET SORROW, A ZOMBIE BALLET is October 8, at 4PM and 7PM at the Lanterman Auditorium in La Canada. If you're in town, I hope you'll come see us! And if you're not in town, then why not get a cool t-shirt instead?
But you don't have to live around here to enjoy the trailers that Rachel Swetnam (our Juliet!) put together. Check them out! The first one is a bit of a teaser:
While the second one is a behind-the-scenes peek! (Hey, that's me!)
Enjoy! And please share! We want everyone to know about our new company and our first big show.
This past weekend was the ScareLA Horror Convention in Pasadena, CA at the convention center. Two awesome days of fun and thrills and a few scares. I am so proud of my dancers who performed my zombie ballet not once but 8 times! They performed six times in what was sort of like a flash mob arena and the other 2 times on a stage.
Here are a few photos of them getting made up by the pros at EI Makeup (a school for makeup artists):
And they were minor celebrities too! I would say "major" except we have to reserve that for Elvira who was the convention's star. Wherever we walked, they were stared at, oohed and ahhed over, and sooo many people begged to have their pictures taken with them (including me!). Here are a few:
These are just a handful - there were so many! Old and young, they all wanted their pictures taken with the zombie ballerinas.
Besides the makeup, the costumes were just phenomenal. And that is due in large part to the work of Jen Marchain, who was instrumental in getting us into this convention. She's a big-time zombie addict/Walking Dead fan who even flew to San Francisco once to participate as a zombie in an episode of Mythbusters! She either instructed the dancers on how to make the costumes or she zombiefied them herself. Here are a few close-ups:
Of course, I had to have one myself! Here I am with classical zombies and scary zombies:
Planning to come to the ScareLA Horror Convention? Then make sure you "carve" out some time to check out my Zombie Ballet! And don't forget to use the discount code, scareshow, to get 10% off your ticket to the convention.
Saturday, August 6
1:45pm Slider Stage 2:45pm Main Stage (Before Trend Setters of Horror)
