A Gala on Pointe

It was a scene worthy of Degas as 130 guests arrived at the Santa Barbara home of board member Gary Dorfman for the State Street Ballet gala honoring founder Rodney Gustafson and the Gail Towbes Center for Dance.

Dancers, beautifully dressed in full ballet attire, graced the entrance to the boffo bash, which was co-chaired by Alex Nourse and Nicole Callahan, and was expected to raise more than $180,000 for the popular company, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year.

Gustafson, 72, formerly danced for New York’s American Ballet Theatre, working with the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev, and Jerome Robbins, before founding State Street Ballet in 1994.

He also appeared in The Turning Point and Baryshnikov’s Nutcracker, danced in several Live from Lincoln Center programs on PBS, and created several full-length ballets, including The Jungle Book, Romeo and Juliet, and Cinderella, all of which I have been lucky enough to see.

The 14,000-square-foot center carries on the legacy of Gail Towbes, a generous philanthropist and lifelong dance lover, opening in 2008 and catering to hundreds of State Street Ballet Academy students.

The Merryl Brown-designed sunset fête featured a tribute to Gustafson from Megan Philipp and Cecily MacDougall, and he received a retirement present of an inscribed Movado wristwatch, following dance vignettes from Saori Yamashita and Ryan Lenkey.

Santa Barbara baritone singer-songwriter Mendeleyev, who appeared on the TV show The Voice, was in fine form before further dance vignettes from Arianna Hartanov, Noam Tsivkin, and Marika Kobayashi.

Ubiquitous auctioneer Geoff Green, head of the City College Foundation, sold an Aladdin’s cave of goodies including a walk-on role in The Nutcracker at the Granada, a two-night stay at Chicago’s SOPHY hotel, a private tasting and tour at the Folded Hills Winery, a two-night stay in Maine, and a Santa Barbara staycation at the Rosewood Miramar.

Among the bounteous bevy of balletomanes turning out were Palmer and Susan Jackson, Brooks and Kate Firestone, Carrie Towbes, Scott and Ashley Adelson, Barbara Burger, Margo Cohen-Feinberg, Jamie and Marcia Constance, Bill Soleau, Roger and Justine Thompson, Leila Drake, Tim Mikel, Peter and Kathryn Martin, George and Laurie Leis, Dan and Meg Burnham, and Andre Yew.

It was all tutu much….