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 and design their website. We have already had a working relationships 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 experience several changes in design, functionality, host-provider and platforms over the years, but the relationship between Catherine and I was steadfast.
As one of the most stable ballet companies in the United States, the Los Angeles Ballet always enjoyed looking 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 began to look dire and I was worried I was going to lose one of my most prestigious clients. Thanks to the dedication of the artistic directors, staff and patrons, a terrific virtually-held 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 dated and essentially neglected for nearly an entire year. They were on an old server and we needed to promote the new season as quickly as possible. The site was designed and development using traditional HTML, JS and CSS, hard-coded and without CMS. With needs 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 out of Beta, but 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, tradition holiday performance of The Nutcracker. With over 5-staff members working independently on the site, while integrated with their third-party ticketing service, the site enjoys over 500 visitors a day, and the seats are selling out!
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.
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