Luminario Ballet
Luminario Ballet is a contemporary ballet company also presenting classic modern dance repertory and aerial dance. Our dancers live in LA, but come from everywhere, representing the region's diversity and excitement. Their choreographers range from classically inspired such as San Francisco Ballet's Michael Smuin and Polish ballet Maestro Stefan Wenta, to edgy contemporary choreographers such as Josie Walsh and Jamal Story. 2013 guest choreographer was Debra Lynn Brown.
Debra Lynn Brown's piece, "Brace...Yourself" was seen in our Season 4 Rep Shows at the El Portal. at the Ford Amphitheatre, at the LA/SoCal Dance Invitational, and at the World Dance Awards, October 13, 2013. Luminario Ballet is honored to have performed two Bella Lewitzky modern dance pieces. "Recuerdo" in 2009 and "Turf" in 2010 set by Lewitzky Dance members, John Pennington and Diana MacNeil.
Luminario Ballet is also at the forefront of the synergy happening between aerial and dance with Judith FLEX Helle's "Lift Ticket", and Alexandre Magno's "Cheers darling" ("So You Think You Can Dance", Madonna) his first combined aerial/ballet piece in 2010.
Luminario Ballet accolades
From 2013-2018, Luminario Ballet artistic director Judith FLEX Helle has been a judge at the World Choreography Awards, and in 2017 and 2018, a judge, lecturer and workshop instructor at the Reno Aerial Dance Fest (RADFest). Dance Magazine's Wendy Perron names the Ballet director Judith FLEX Helle to her Top 5 List of Women in Dance Leadership in Southern California*, in 2014. World Dance Award nominates this Ballet artistic director and choreographer, Judith FLEX Helle for Outstanding Choreographer Concert/Live Performance in 2011
Luminario Ballet director
Judith, the director of the Luminario Ballet grew up in Boston, MA and studied dance at the Walnut Hill School, Boston Center for the Arts, and the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance NYC. She has a BFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she made dance films of the experimental modern punk dance company, the Oblong Rondas. In 1981, she left the US to dance in Berlin, Germany at the Deutsche Opera Berlin, where she formed her first dance company, "FLEX", with dancers from the Deutsche Opera and other fine US and European ballet/modern companies.
Alongside her dance and choreography career, the director of the Luminario Ballet became well known for her daring, exciting, temperamental, and emotional performances on the trapeze, allowing her to have a dual career as a dancer and a trapeze artist, prior to Cirque du Soleil's conquering the world. While in Berlin, she also appeared in movies, TV shows, theatricals of all kinds, cabaret, industrial, and experimental theater.
She moved to LA in 1988, where she taught dance at Idyllwild School of the Arts, performed in Los Angeles with various companies, and signed with dance agent Julie McDonald. After retiring from dance in 1996, she continued to have a very successful career in performing as a single trapeze artist, surfing the wave of popularity via Cirque du Soleil. At this time she also became highly sought after as a private aerial dance coach, and her students are now stars of the international cirque world. She has unlocked the key to integrating aerial dance into terra dance, and the dancers in Luminario Ballet truly are venturing into new uncharted territories in the air. Her choreography career took off with the founding of this Ballet, and Judith has choreographed many ballet and aerial dance works for the company, as well as commissioned ballets and aerial dances for 5 symphony orchestras, including the LA Philharmonic. Judith is a representative of the global conversation about dance here in LA, and holds up her end with Luminario Ballet!!
