This Gala Is En Pointe

State Street Ballet’s 30th anniversary gala at the Music Academy of the West was full of eastern promise!

More than 200 balletomanes descended on the picturesque Miraflores oceanside campus for the boffo bash, co-chaired by Alex Nourse and Dr. Nicole Callahan, which featured music from the UCSB Middle East Ensemble and the ballet company’s professional track dancers choreographed by Alexandra King.

The company’s season begins on October 26 with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Stravinsky’s The Firebird, a true Russian dynamic double act with the Santa Barbara Symphony under Nir Kabaretti at the Granada.

After cocktails on the terrace, guests adjourned to Hahn Hall for dance performances, including an excerpt from Le Spectre de la rose performed by Harold Mendez, and the pas de deux from Scheherazade with Saori Yamashita and Ryan Lenkey, both pieces accompanied by pianist Jezreel Real.

After remarks from artistic director Megan Philipp and executive director Cecily MacDougall, the show concluded with an eight-person ensemble piece, “Accelerate,” choreographed by Philipp.

Writer-historian Erin Graffy de Garcia then conducted a paddle raise that helped the glittering gala. Sponsored by Roger and Sarah Chrisman, Margo Cohen-Feinberg and Robert Feinberg, Sara Miller McCune, Tim Mikel, the Ann Jackson Family Foundation, Marc and Pauline Sylvain, Richard Watts and Carrie Towbes for the Michael Towbes Fund – the auction raised more than $150,000.

Silent auction items included a walk-on role in The Nutcracker in December, a stay at the Belmond El Encanto, a two-night stay at Chicago’s Sophy Hotel, and a similar package at the Inn by the Sea in Portland, Maine.

Among the supporters were founder Rodney Gustafson, Caren Rager, Barbara Burger, Peter and Kathryn Martin, Rick Oshay and Teresa Kuskey, Leila Drake, Palmer Jackson, Dana Hansen, Andre Yew, Kostis Protopapas, Chris Lancashire and Catherine Gee, Fred and Nancy Golden, Mark Whitehurst and Kelly Methner, Scott Reed, and Jonathan Bishop.