Leigh Purtill Ballet Company Presents Steampunk Ballet at Lanterman Auditorium

The Leigh Purtill Ballet Company will present “Circus of Worldly Wonders, A Steampunk Ballet” on July 12 and 13 at Lanterman Auditorium in La Cañada Flintridge. The production combines in-person dancers with video performances from the company’s remote dancers across the country, telling the story of a young orphaned ballerina’s rebirth in a Victorian-era setting.

“It’s my goal to make ballet as inclusive as possible, and that means putting dancers on stage who don’t fit the outdated mold of the perfect ballerina, dancers who don’t all look alike, sound alike or move alike,” said Leigh Purtill, artistic director of the company.
Set in 1885, the ballet features mechanical swans, mermaids, tightrope walkers, magicians, and illustrated women. The story follows the transformation of an orphaned ballerina through “a delicate web of gears, cogs, and intricate engines,” capturing the essence of steampunk’s Victorian-mechanical aesthetic.

Performances are scheduled for Saturday, July 12 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 13 at 4 p.m. Tickets for the Sunday performance cost $27.45. The event will take place at Lanterman Auditorium, an 812-seat venue located at 4491 Cornishon Avenue in La Cañada Flintridge.

The Leigh Purtill Ballet Company is a nonprofit amateur ballet company formed in 2017 for adult dancers of all abilities. The company has staged over two dozen productions including “The Nutcracker,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Sleeping Beauty.” Purtill has been teaching all levels of ballet to adults in Los Angeles since 2007 after performing and teaching for ten years in Boston, Connecticut, and New York.

The company is best known for its signature production “Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet,” which has been presented annually since 2017 and won on ABC’s “The Gong Show” that same year.

For ticket inquiries, call 818-790-1421 or visit the event page on Eventbrite by clicking here.