PDT HISTORY
Pasadena Dance Theatre opened its current facility in central Pasadena in 1997, under the artistic leadership of Cynthia Young and Laurence Blake. The facility houses Pasadena Dance Theatre’s Conservatory training program and provides rehearsal space for its professional company. Students trained in its conservatory continue to dance, choreograph and teach professionally around the world.
PDT’s own professional company thrills audiences with its annual production of The Nutcracker, as well as full-scale productions of classical ballets such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Graduation Ball, and La Fille Mal Gardee, and new works like Cynthia Young’s Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. Along with its classical repertoire, PDT presents exciting contemporary choreography from established and emerging choreographers.
In its Conversation With the Choreographer series, works by Laurence Blake, Colin Connor, Bill Evans, Jessamyn Lawrence, Douglas Nielsen, Antonio Lopez and John Todd have challenged audiences with bold new concepts and innovative aesthetics of movement. This contemporary dance series focuses on collaborations between choreographers, dancers, musicians, videographers and a range of other artists.