COMPOSITIONS: An Evening of Katie Jenkins at the Balboa Theatre
Three original ballets, a live string quartet, and a world premiere — all set to music by one composer. Pointeworks brings COMPOSITIONS to the Balboa Theatre for one night on October 18.
Overview
Most ballet you'll see this year was choreographed to music that already existed. COMPOSITIONS works the other way around. Pointeworks, a San Diego nonprofit ballet company, is dedicating an entire evening to its Resident Composer, Katie Jenkins — three original ballets, each one built from the ground up with Jenkins and a choreographer starting from a blank page together, and all of it performed with live musicians rather than a recording.
It happens once, on Sunday, October 18, at the Balboa Theatre downtown, and it's over by 9:30. The program is curated by Artistic Director Sophie Williams and devoted entirely to women's voices in both choreography and composition — three women choreographers, one woman composer. Pointeworks notes that women composers account for roughly 5% of the music ballet is performed to, which is the context the evening is built around.
What You Need to Know
Event: COMPOSITIONS: An Evening of Katie Jenkins, presented by Pointeworks
When: Sunday, October 18, 2026, 7:30–9:30 p.m. One performance only.
Where: Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101
Cost: Buy 3, get 1 free applies automatically on all online purchases. Groups of 10 or more are $15 per person. Student, industry and artist discounts available; veterans and their families receive complimentary tickets.
Official site: pointeworks.org/events/compositions
Group bookings: Email Ticketing@sandiegotheatres.org
Ages: Children 4 and older are welcome.
The Program: Three Ballets, One Composer
Chasing Shadows — Laine Habony. A returning work and a striking solo piece set to piano. Habony dances with New York City Ballet.
Moving Forces — Jacquelyn Long. Six dancers, piano and violin, from the Houston-based choreographer.
Where No Storm Comes — Hélène Simoneau. The world premiere, and the piece the evening builds to. The Quebec choreographer's new work comes with a new Jenkins score written for live string quartet.
All of it is played live. Jenkins is joined by Joshua Mhoon on piano; Julia Choi, Francesca Fetten and Veronika Manchur on violin; Jeremy Klein on viola; and Robbie Bui on cello. For a one-night ballet program at this scale, a live quartet is not a given — most companies would run a recording and nobody would complain.
About the composer. Katie Jenkins is originally from Wales and holds both a bachelor's and a master's in composition from Juilliard. Her work appears in dance and in film.
Who's Dancing
Pointeworks has pulled an international cast for this, and the roster is the sort of thing you'd normally need to visit four different cities to see on one stage:
Rieko Hatato, originally from Japan, a principal with Texas Ballet Theater
Nicole Von Enck, a principal with Texas Ballet Theater and an original Chasing Shadows dancer
Angel Ramirez, a Cuban dancer named to 2026's Top 25 Dancers to Watch and a lead with Atlanta Ballet
Marcos Ramirez, a Cuban dancer and lead with LA Ballet
Kate Inoue, a lead with LA Ballet, from Osaka
Kyle-Torres Hiyoshi, a New York–born soloist with Texas Ballet Theater
Louise Hautefueille, a French dancer and former second soloist with Boston Ballet
Maine Chernjavsky, originally from Japan and named to 2018's Top 25 Dancers to Watch
Rayleigh Vendt, a Texas-born original Pointeworks company member
Sophie Williams, New Zealand–raised, dancing in the program she curated
Insider Tips
Park at Horton Plaza and get the sticker. Pointeworks recommends the Horton Plaza Parking Garage, a three- to four-minute walk from the theatre. Ask a theatre attendant for a parking validation sticker and it drops to $10 for up to six hours — the single most useful thing on their whole page. The 225 Broadway Garage is the backup.
Don't gamble on a meter. Downtown meters in this area are enforced until 8 p.m., so a 7:30 curtain is exactly the wrong time to go hunting for street parking.
Buy online, not at the door. The Balboa Theatre ticket office only opens on event days — three hours before an evening performance — and it's cashless. The buy-3-get-1 offer also applies to online purchases, so there's no upside to waiting.
Arrive 20 to 30 minutes early. That's the company's own recommendation, and at a 1924 theatre it's good advice regardless. The building is worth showing up for on its own.
You don't need to know ballet. Pointeworks says it plainly in their FAQ, and they're right: this is a two-hour program with live music and no plot to keep track of.
Accessibility: The Balboa Theatre has mobility-accessible seating and restrooms and audio assistance systems. Requests go to ticketing@sandiegotheatres.org.
Bringing a group? Ten or more drops the price to $15 a head — genuinely one of the better group rates for a downtown performance — and it's booked through San Diego Theatres rather than Pointeworks.
Why It's Worth the Night
The Balboa Theatre opened in 1924 and is one of the few venues downtown where the room is part of the event. Pair it with dinner beforehand and you have a complete evening in a walkable stretch of the city: Callie in East Village and Ironside Fish & Oyster in Little Italy are both short rides away, and the Gaslamp Artisan Market runs in the same neighborhood.
If downtown is somewhere you're considering living rather than just visiting, our downtown San Diego neighborhood guide covers the area.
Looking for more to do this month? Browse our full event calendar, our guide to San Diego Halloween events, and, for more live music in a great room, The Ring in Concert at Jacobs Music Center.
