Walking into the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton on December 15, it was immediately clear this was not a typical ballet setting. American Ballet Theatre’s annual Holiday Benefit placed the audience unusually close to the dancers, creating a beautiful and intimate environment. Dancers, artists, longtime supporters, and guests including Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathé filled the room alongside ABT leadership and principal dancers, blurring the line between performance and gathering.
After everyone was seated, the program moved fluidly through excerpts from Les Sylphides, The Winter’s Tale, Grand Pas Classique, Midnight Pas de Deux, and a beloved selection from The Nutcracker. The closeness of the space shifted the experience entirely. Artistic Director Susan Jaffe acknowledged the difference, noting, “This is a very intimate setting, and we have a lot of principal dancers doing small dances for a smaller stage,” adding that she hoped “everyone has a wonderful experience for the holidays.”
Throughout the evening, the reason for the gathering remained front and center. Executive Director Barry Hughson spoke about the urgency of sustaining the arts, referencing remarks from honoree Stewart R. Smith. “The arts are not a construct,” Hughson said. “They are part of our collective humanity. In this moment, our humanity cannot be taken for granted. It must be continued.” He emphasized that the arts “must exist” and “must be protected.”
Smith, who received the Melville Straus Leadership Achievement Award, expanded on that idea in a speech that resonated across the room. Describing the physical response art can provoke, he said, “Maybe your heart races a little bit. Or maybe you feel a tear form in the corner of your eye. I know this happens to me.” He continued, “I think this emotional response emerges because the beauty and the creativity has tapped into something deep within us. It’s a unique spark that is essential. It is the essence of the human spirit.” Acknowledging financial pressures and the pace of an increasingly high-tech world, Smith was resolute. “The arts must survive and they must thrive,” he said. “I cannot imagine a world without such beauty and creativity, and I don’t think you can either.”
The idea that dance belongs to everyone extended beyond the stage. Among the guests was Kailey, a professional dancer on wheels, whose zest for life was apparent. “I danced on my feet all of my life until I became disabled,” she shared, explaining that she was diagnosed with a progressive connective tissue disorder in 2020. In the earliest days of that transition, she recalled dancing alone on the floor of her house, “just trying to hold onto what I had.”
What followed, however, was expansion. “Once I was on wheels, the movement became completely infinite,” she said. While the adjustment was more difficult mentally than physically, she described the physical experience as joyful. “Physically it’s been so much fun. You’re constantly exploring movement and technique in a new way.” She emphasized the importance of community, adding, “We have to tune in and adapt together. I dance more now than I did before I became disabled.”
Kailey explained to The Knockturnal that through social media, she connected with Chelsea Hill, founder of The Rollettes Foundation,and one of the most visible wheelchair dancers working today, who became both a mentor and sister figure. Together, they represented the United States in the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Paris and continue to perform in Los Angeles and beyond, most recently dancing for Lady Gaga. “We danced for Gaga and it was unreal,” Kailey said. “We’re still riding the wave of it.”
The Knockturnal also got the chance to speak more in depth with Jaffe, who reflected on beginning dance at age seven and having what she described as a prophetic dream around age eight that she would become a star. She moved to New York at eighteen, became a principal dancer in 1980 before retiring in 2000. “Nobody in my family was a dancer,” she said. “I was very strong-minded.” She laughed as she recalled the certainty she felt even as a child, later realizing that the children’s book Angelina Ballerina mirrored her own story. “I was reading it to kids and thought, wait a minute, this sounds familiar” she said. Jaffe also remembered announcing to her mother at age ten that she was going to start drinking coffee and become a dancer with Baryshnikov. “She let me drink coffee,and I danced with Baryshnikov” she added, smiling.
Between the closeness of the performances and the personal stories woven throughout the room, American Ballet Theatre’s return to Los Angeles felt like a reminder of how deeply art lives inside people, and why it continues to matter.