A New Website for the Los Angeles Ballet

In 2005, I was approached by fellow Otis College of Art and Design instructor Catherine Kanner, who joined the Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) staff as Artistic Director, to work with her on designing their website. We have already had a working relationship designing and developing websites for some of her colleagues and family members, notably her husband, architect Winston Brock Chappell, and we felt that we made a good team to accept the offer.

Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my relationship with the company that would span two decades.

The site underwent several changes in design, functionality, hosting provider, and platforms over the years, but our relationship remained steadfast.

As one of the most stable ballet companies in the United States, the Los Angeles Ballet always looked forward to the next season. However, the pandemic created a critical moment for them. After having to cancel the remainder of the 2019-2020 Season and all of the 2020-2021 Season, things looked dire, and I was worried I would lose one of my most prestigious clients. Thanks to the dedication of the artistic directors, staff, and patrons, a terrific virtual fundraiser pulled the company through the hardest of times.

The Los Angeles Ballet will return to the stage for the 2021-2022 season with three repertoires: The Nutcracker, Bloom, and The Sleeping Beauty.

There was one problem, though. Their website was outdated and essentially neglected for nearly a year. They were on an old server, and we needed to promote the new season as quickly as possible. The site was designed and developed using traditional HTML, JS, and CSS, with hard-coded values and no CMS. With the need for the LAB to manage their own content, Catherine and I decided against a Wordpress site and moved them onto Wix's new CMS platform called EditorX. EditorX was just released from Beta and is very promising. We took a risk and believed that the platform was the way to go. Within 30 days, Catherine and I redesigned, reformatted, and published a highly responsive

LAB website, launching it just in time to sell subscription and single tickets for the upcoming traditional holiday performance of The Nutcracker. With over 5 staff members working independently on the site, integrated with their third-party ticketing service, the site enjoys over 500 visitors a day, and the seats are selling out!

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The Los Angeles Ballet was founded in 2004 by Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary, and Executive Director Emerita Julie Whittaker. Los Angeles Ballet is known for its superb stagings of the Balanchine repertory, stylistically meticulous classical ballets, and its commitment to new works. LAB is recognized as a world-class ballet company.