Invitation to the Dance

The presence of ballet legend Edward Villella highlights the ninth annual Los Angeles Dance Invitational. A former New York City Ballet star and founding director of Miami City Ballet, Villella will be honored with the LADI award for distinguished lifetime achievement. The evening’s other honoree, L.A. jazz teacher Terri Best, will receive the Stanley Holden Distinguished Teaching Award. But LADI is primarily about celebrating the spectrum of dance, as presented this year by Genevieve Carson, Marie de la Palme and Motion Tribe, Kim Eung Hwa and the Kim Eung Hwa Korean Dance Group, Malathi Iyengar and Rangoli Dance Company, Linda Lack, Christopher Lieu and RhetOracle Dance Company, Kim Maselli and Pacific Festival Ballet, and Jose Reynoso with JiaWu. By not selecting the same participants as the year before, LADI ensures fresh representations from the local dance scene. After almost 10 years, LADI remains partly a fundraiser, partly an awards ceremony and always brimming with dance. Pictured: Motion Tribe, photo by Jack Hartin.
Sat., Sept. 13, 8 p.m., 2008