In a way, Eric Tamm is coming home.
A native of San Francisco, Eric Tamm began his dance training with tap and jazz at 14. With his role in the upcoming premiere of the production, “Of Love and Rage,” he returns to California, as an emergent dance professional on the world stage.
“It’s amazing how Alexi Ratmansky brought this story to the stage,” said Tamm, adding that he felt it was an honor to come back to California to perform in its premier on the Segerstrom stage.
In a must-see world premiere, Of Love and Rage is a new work choreographed by Ratmansky, an ABT Artist-in-Residence and MacArthur Genius who finds his inspiration in the ancient Greek text Callirhoe.
Written by Chariton of Aphrodesias, Callirhoe is widely acknowledged to be the oldest novel still in existence, set around 400 BC in the ancient Greek world, which, at that time, sprawled across the Mediterranean.

Tamm’s ballet training began at 14 at the Irine Fokine School of Ballet, under the direction of Irine Fokine, Eugene Petrov and Jeanette Hoffman.
In the Summer of 2003, he attended Kaatsbaan’s Extreme Ballet program, studying with Martine van Hamel, Bonnie Mathis and Christian Holder. In January 2004, Tamm was selected for the ABT Studio Company Associate Program (now the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School) and attended ABT’s 2004 Summer Intensive Program on a full scholarship.
Tamm joined ABT Studio Company in August 2004, the main Company, as an apprentice, in January 2007 and the corps de ballet in December 2007. He rejoined ABT in 2020. His repertory with the Company includes the principal role in Ballo della Regina, the Second Sailor in Fancy Free, Des Grieux in Lady of the Camellias, principal 1st Movement in Symphony in C, the Nutcracker Prince and the Spanish Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Olga’s Fiancé in On the Dnieper, Lead Highlander in The Bright Stream, the Nocturne in Fall River Legend and many other roles.
Tamm now lives in New York and is a resident ABT dancer. He returns to California this week to perform in “Of Love and Rage.”
A ballet in two acts, Of Love and Rage is influenced by the Greek aesthetic of beauty and harmony, incorporating many elements from ancient Greek drama. Ratmansky employs his expansive knowledge of classical ballet’s history and orchestrations of Aram Khachaturian’s score Gayane to create a powerful narrative of love and forgiveness, utilizing the full company of dancers. According to Ratmansky, “Of Love and Rage” is not a fairytale. Although it was written thousands of years ago, with the complexity of the relationship between Callirhoe and Chaereas at its core, it feels very modern and relevant. Callirhoe is a strong woman in a world where women had very limited options and no power. After early experiences where her fate is determined by men, she learns that she can use her beauty and her brains to shape her fate.” Ratmansky added, “I am fascinated by the topic of forgiveness. This is a story about how anger and jealousy tear two people apart – two people who are madly in love. Forgiveness is the only way they can reunite, and forgiveness requires strength. As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.’”
Tamm and the entire ABT corps de ballet can be seen in “Of Love and Rage,” on stage at Segerstrom March 5-8.
Single tickets for American Ballet Theatre’s Of Love and Rage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts start at $29 and are now available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.

It many ways, the evening was a symphony in the sounds of life.

A large crowd jammed into the makeshift ballroom at Old Ranch Country Club Saturday to hear the first notes of what has become the Seal Beach Symphony, as they accompanied some of the world’s top vocalists and musicians.

And, for the first time, the annual Valentine’s event entitled “Love Songs” was held in Seal Beach. For producer Chad Berlinghieri, after seven years, the music finally came home.

“We’ve done all these events throughout southern California,” said the Cathedral Productions artistic director, “but now that we’ve become the Seal Beach Symphony, we want to focus our efforts on our hometown.”

In between three courses served by Chef Joseph Flores, the appreciative hometown crowd was dazzled by voices, violins and virtuosos. They were accompanied by the Seal Beach Symphony String Ensemble under the direction of Downey composer Lars Clutterham.

Wait a minute, what is the Seal Beach Symphony?

According to Berlinghieri, the idea of a having a symphony in Seal Beach has taken hold and significant support is already in place.  “It’s an entity that we’ve just started, we’ve already got a staff of five administrators and we’re pulling some fantastic players from Los Angeles and Orange County.”

Berlinghieri is a long-time resident of Seal Beach. Although he is perhaps best known as a cantor at St. Anne’s Church, Berlinghieri is himself a tenor of some renown, having toured internationally with major productions.

“As the artistic director of the Seal Beach symphony, we’re now focusing our efforts on the home front and we feel that Seal Beach is the community that can sustain a symphony,” he said.

“It is a very expensive endeavor,” he acknowledged, “but we feel like Seal Beach is a community that can support that.” Berlinghieri said donors have already stepped forward. “We’ve already raised $100,000 in pledges so that we can qualify for grant and foundation funding,” he said.

“The event itself was fantastic,” he said, adding that Old Ranch Country Club was “very accommodating, the staff was fantastic, and I heard from everyone how much they enjoyed it.

Berlinghieri and his staff had to prepare Old Ranch for the event. In the open ballrooms, his team built a stage, installed stage lights across the room and wired the room for sound. And because of special dancers, they had to prepare a dance floor.

“For Love Songs this year, we built a bigger, better mousetrap, adding different layers of production and the Seal Beach Symphony,” he said.

Soprano Sangeeta Teresa Mai, a crowd favorite and “Love Song” veteran, opened the show and elevated the crowd with a rendition of “The Hills are Alive” from the “Sound of Music.” What followed were many classical show tunes sung by Mai, Baritone Ben Lowe from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Katie Dixon, a star straight from Broadway and a USO tour.

Also performing Saturday evening, straight from his European Tour, was solo Violinist Filip Pogády. Playing on an Alessandro Gagliano violin, crafted back in 1704, (gifted to him by an anonymous donor), Pogády made the instrument sing.

The superstar violinist captured the hearts of the crowd with his bow by taking them to the movies, playing “Por Una Cabeza” from “Scent of a Woman.”

Pogády rejoined the Seal Beach Symphony to accompany professional dancers Jordi Caballero and Ekaterina Fedosova, both alums from the hit TV show Dancing with the Stars, as they wowed everyone to the tune of Tanguera.

Pianist Curtis Heard, part of the Seal Beach Symphony, also provided soothing transitions introducing the artists and as the courses were served.

Berlinghieri was the evening’s emcee and also performed two solos, singing Elvis’ “It’s Now or Never,” and the Jerry Vale classic, Pretend You Don’t See Her.

“I was very happy with the string players and honestly, I think the entire evening was a huge artistic success. Given the gamble of moving the event to Old Ranch,” Berlinghieri said. He said the staff and management rolled out the red carpet for the step and repeat (which is a banner with logos that participants pose in front of while entering an event).

He also said they did a very effective job of serving the meals throughout the entertainment blocks. From a logistical standpoint, the Seal Beach location “was a homerun,” he said. “I think that Seal Beach deserves only the very best,” he said, “and that’s what we bring to the table.”

Bringing the Bronx to the Segerstrom Center is as easy as an auspicious roll of the dice with “A Bronx Tale” arriving at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on March 10 – 22, 2020.

It’s the true story of Chazz Palminteri’s growing up in 1960’s Bronx. “A Bronx Tale” started as a one man show starring Palminteri (1989), with a little boost from Robert De Niro it hit the big screen (1993), again with Palminteri in a lead role, this time as the Mob Boss, Sonny. Its latest reincarnation is as the crowd pleasing Mobster Musical “A Bronx Tale” (2016).

How, audiences might wonder, can a gangland, shoot ‘em up film lend itself to the musical stage? Fairly easily because at heart it’s a story, Palminteri’s story, of a boy’s coming of age under the guidance of two very different role models, the father he loves and the Mafia Don he admires. Telling the tale in song sets the mood as much as staging. “A Bronx Tale is dubbed “Jersey Boys” meets Westside Story because Doo Wop tunes bring audiences into the Bronx as seamlessly as Motown lets fans know they’ve left the Italian neighborhood at the corner of Belmont and Webster Avenues to arrive in the Black inner-city.

Palminteri’s play was meant to be a musical he says “The themes are so operatic; each character is such an archetype, the father Lorenzo, the son Calogero, and Sonny, the neighborhood Don. It’s about good and evil, love and fear.”

The Broadway production is on the road with touring Director Stephen Edlund and featuring Palminteri approved performers. Among the talented crew is Jeff Brooks as Sonny.

Obliviously, neither Brooks nor any of the players are big time bad. They’re actors, singers and dancers, darn good ones. Brooks, however, claims a background connection that makes him uniquely qualified to play Sonny, the Kingpin in the piece. He says “I played a character named Cheech in ‘Bullets over Broadway.” In Woody Allen’s 1994 movie Palminteri played the 1920’ gangster Cheech. In the movie version of “Bronx Tale,” Palminteri was Sonny. On Broadway, Nick Cordero was Sonny. I’m humbled and honored to be in the company of these great actors. The fact, that I played Cheech in ‘Bullets’ has definitely put me into a mind set to play Sonny.”

“Fans of the now classic movie will absolutely love the musical,” according to Brooks, “we pay homage to the movie but add a musical theatrical aspect to it. For audiences not familiar with the story,” he continues, “it takes place in the 1960’s in New York. This is a time ripe with racial tension, civil rights movements and segregation. So, here’s the thing, in the 1960’s Bronx there are two cultures; the Italian American culture based around the Capo’s, crime bosses and in the same neighborhood is the African American population. It mixes a coming of age story about fathers, sons and family with a tale of star- crossed lovers brave enough to bridge that Webster Avenue segregation line to give love a shot. More importantly it’s about the choices we make and how they help us to become the person we are meant to be. That’s the moral at the heart of the show.”

Brooks three word description of the musical “love or feat” pretty much sums up the story. The  autobiographical script revolves around Calogero (Alec Nevin), Palmintri’s fictional alter-ego, and the male role models, his father Lorenzo (Nick Fradiani), a hard working family man and Sonny, the Mafia Boss, who’s a paradox, a stone cold killer who’s also not such a bad guy. Interestingly enough, both men share much of the same advice about life and love with the youthful Calogero. Their invaluable wisdom, relating to whether it is better to be loved or feared, shape the man he becomes.

Brooks says “My character, Sonny, best expresses the stories message, preaching that you choose how you want to be remembered. Do you want to be loved by people or do you want to be feared by people. You can’t be both, you have to pick one, love or fear. This is what will shape who you will become and the saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”

Sonny is a contradiction of many of the values taught to Calogero by his father, and yes he’s a mobster but he’s not a monster, at least, in Brooks’ opinion. He says, “Sonny is not the villain, the real villain of the piece is inherent racism. It’s the taught feeling of needing to stick to your own, and not going beyond your borders. The musical doesn’t glorify these thugs, they’re criminals but the wise guys aren’t the villains. Real criminal intent is blind hatred of another group of people. That’s a message that rings true today and it’s one that should be told across the country.

An important element of Calogero’s ‘coming of age’ is his falling in love with the right girl with the wrong skin color. This ‘Romano and Juliet’ scenario is highlighted in what Brooks nicknames “The Sonny Test.” He says “It’s about a girl being the special one. To quote Sonny, the only thing good for you is how you feel about each other…You’re only allowed three great women in your life…Sometimes you get them all at once. Tell you right now…Maybe this girl she put wind in your sails. Maybe she’s the first great one.”

“A Bronx Tale” is a story about a boy trying to feel his way out of childhood in “a world where everything seems black or white.” It is, however, the final number “The Choices We Made” which stresses the dangers of betting your soul by cheating. It’s a lesson that would serve us well today.

Shot‘em up, bang, bang, bars, star-crossed lovers, crooners, be-boppers, wise guys and wiser father figures, “A Bronx Tale” is a mix of creativity that is as pleasing to theatrical folks as pasta is to the palate.

And speaking of pasta, Segerstrom Center for the Arts has teamed up with Maggiano’s Little Italy Restaurant (South Coast Plaza) to offer a Dinner and Show Package. The limited offer is for March 13 and March 20 performances only and includes a family feast, a glass of wine and one ticket to the show. The price is $115 per person.

“A Bronx Tale” runs at the Segerstrom Center March 10 -20, 2020. For tickets and information: Online, SCFTA.org; The Box Office, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa; Phone, 714-556-2787.

Millie the rescued sea otter is expected to officially be welcomed into her new home at the Aquarium of the Pacific as officials are expected to make a major announcement Feb. 27.

According to the Aquarium, “experts will make a major announcement that will impact sea otters of the coast of California.

Biologists are also expected to be on hand to feed Millie, the rescued sea otter, as Millie joins the other sea otters that live in the Sea Otter Habitat in the Northern Pacific Gallery.

Millie is a four-year-old female sea otter who was stranded and rescued off the coast of central California.

The public can visit Millie at the Aquarium staring Feb. 27, during the 10:45 a.m. sea otter presentation.

The nonprofit Aquarium of the Pacific is a community gathering place where diverse cultures and the arts are celebrated and where important challenges facing our planet are explored by scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders in search of sustainable solutions.

The Aquarium is dedicated to conserving and building nature and nature’s services by building the interactions between and among peoples.

Home to more than 12,000 animals, Aquarium exhibits include the new Pacific Visions wing, Ocean Science Center, Molina Animal Care Center, and the Tentacles and Ink and FROGS: Dazzling & Disappearing exhibits. Beyond its animal exhibits, the Aquarium offers educational programs for people of all ages, from hands-on activities to lectures by leading scientists.

Field trips for schoolchildren are offered at a heavily discounted rate, from $7 to $8.50 per student. The Aquarium offers memberships with unlimited FREE admission for 12 months, VIP Entrance, and other special benefits. Convenient parking is available for $8 with Aquarium validation.