Pacific Ballet Theatre is throwing a gala on August 23 to mark the 100th birthday of its founder, Andrei “Bill” Tremaine, a former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo soloist whose company has trained dancers across Los Angeles for more than seven decades. The celebration, called A Ballet Russe Gala Centennial, will take place at the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage and will feature current company dancers performing selections from ballets Tremaine once danced as a principal or later directed as artistic leader.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press, the evening starts at 5:30 p.m. and will include performance excerpts from the Firebird Pas de Deux by Stravinsky, the Nutcracker Snow Pas de Deux, selections from Raymonda and Gaité Parisienne, and the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. Dancers Eduard Sargsyan, Damara Titmus, Carmen Quiñones Callahan, and Brandon Brinkley are set to perform, and the program will include an award recognizing Tremaine's contributions to the arts in Los Angeles since 1954. A short film chronicling Tremaine's life, including footage of his Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performances, will also screen during the event.
A Soloist's Path From the Navy to the Ballet Russe
Tremaine served in the Navy during World War II before Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo recruited him, and he went on to study with Bronislava Nijinsky, the former dancer and choreographer with the original Ballet Russes who was also the sister of famed dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Tremaine also studied under ballerina Elena Wortova, according to the article's underlying facts. During his three seasons with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Tremaine achieved a career-defining breakthrough when he understudied and stepped in five times for injured star Frederic Franklin in Michel Fokine's Scheherazade, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Tremaine has described touring with Ballet Russe as a grueling schedule of back-to-back performances and frequent travel.
Tremaine returned to Santa Monica in 1954 and founded what became Pacific Ballet Theatre that same year, and Santa Monica held personal significance for him beyond the stage: his parents had lived and married there. His early company, then known as Santa Monica Ballet, performed often at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and received official city sponsorship to stage The Nutcracker there annually for many years, per the Santa Monica Daily Press. The company helped pioneer a generation of dancers who later opened their own schools and companies across Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley.
Training Ground for Future Ballet Stars
During his tenure directing Pacific Ballet Theatre, Tremaine trained and featured several future ballet stars, including Prima Ballerina Assoluta Cynthia Gregory, who studied under him between the ages of 13 and 16 before becoming a celebrated principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Evelyn Cisneros, Charles Maple, and Anne Marie De Angelo also came up through his direction, according to the same Los Angeles Times account. In 2007, Pacific Ballet Theatre honored Tremaine with a program called Men of the Ballet Russe, which also recognized five other former male stars of the company, and that same year he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 16th annual Lester Horton Dance Awards at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, presented by the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles.
Tremaine married Natalie, a former child television tap performer who won the San Francisco Opera auditions at age 18 and sang professionally before helping establish the family's dance studio ecosystem, according to background compiled by Media City Dance. Their daughter, Natasha Middleton, is Tremaine's daughter and now Pacific Ballet Theatre's executive director. Middleton began performing with Pacific Ballet Theatre at age 15, but a near-fatal car accident halted her performing career and redirected her focus toward choreographing and directing, a shift she began at that same age.
A Third Generation Carries the Company Forward
Middleton took over Pacific Ballet Theatre in 2000, the year before Tremaine retired completely in 2003. She originally relaunched the company in Burbank in September 2001 under the name Media City Ballet before renaming it Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre in May 2012 to honor her father's original company and reflect broader regional ambitions, according to myBurbank. The company, now based in Burbank, describes itself as the longest continuously running ballet school and professional company in Los Angeles.
The family's connection to classical dance spans three generations, beginning with Tremaine's mother dancing in Diaghilev's original Ballets Russes in Europe, continuing through Tremaine's own career with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and culminating in Middleton's revival and expansion of the company, according to the L.A. Dance Chronicle. Middleton said her dancers are thrilled to perform authentic ballets for Tremaine, and she said celebrating her father as a centenarian honors both his work and his legacy.
Gala Details and Where the Story Comes Full Circle
The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage, a 499-seat proscenium theater at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center that opened on 11th Street in 2008, sits on land Middleton knew as a child, tying the venue directly back to her family's roots in the city. Official ticketing listings show doors open at 4:30 p.m. for the two-hour, 5:30 p.m. performance, with free venue parking available, and a VIP reception will follow the show. Tickets remain on sale through Pacific Ballet Theatre's website.
