With a meticulous approach and high standards, Leslie Ann Larson has brought CWB's performances to high quality levels. Ms. Larson has set works such as Songs by renowned choreographer Val Caniparoli and also staged many full lengths such as Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Nutcracker and Coppélia. In 2019, Larson staged Ronn Guidi's The Secret Garden, also dancing the principal role of Lillias in the ballet. For the last 15 years, Larson has been in charge of René Daveluy's works for Central West Ballet, such as Daveluy's full length Dracula. She is currently rehearsing Daveluy's new ballet Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus.
Miss Larson has also staged Legend of Sleepy Hollow, co-choreographed by Jan Clark Fugit and Daveluy. Larson has also set many single act ballets and creations such as Les Sylphides and other works by René Daveluy such as Pictures at an Exhibition, L'Arlésienne, Love Duets, A Parisian in New York, Beneath Existence, Summer Rhapsody, Solitary Workers, The Existence Project, 1001 Nights, House of Folk, Of Faeries and Elves, A Ballet for Marie, Festive Overture, Canvas Emotions and Nature’s Rite and
The Red Shoes.
Ms. Larson received excellence in training from Fleming Halby (Royal Danish Ballet), Charles Bennett (American Ballet Theatre), with the great Flamenco Artist Sara De Luis and with Francesca Corkle and Trinette Singleton (The Joffrey Ballet). In her dancing career, Ms. Larson distinguished herself in Leonide Massine’s La Boutique Fantasque, Antony Tudor’s The Lilac Garden, Agnes De Mille’s Fall River Legend, Kurt Joos’ The Green Table and Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces and Les Biches (Oakland Ballet under Ronn Guidi), as the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Lead in Antony Tudor’s The Leaves are Fading, The First Sylph in Peter Schaufuss’ La Sylphide, Adele in Ronald Hynd’s Rosalinda, in Balanchine’s Who Cares?, The Four Temperaments and Western Symphony, in Hans Van Manen’s Polish Pieces, Val Caniparoli’s Lambarena and Book of Alleged Dances, Christopher Bruce’s Ghost Dances, and as The Roasted Swan in John Butler’s Carmina Burana (Ballet West under directors John Hart CBE and Jonas Kåge). In 2019, Ms. Larson came out of retirement to dance the lead role of Lilias in Ronn Guidi's The Secret Garden with Central West Ballet at the Gallo Center for the Arts.