A full-length, two-act original ballet that reclaims Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald as the artist she always wanted to be — dancer, writer, painter, dreamer.
History remembers her as a footnote. We are giving her the stage.
Blending the fictional world of The Great Gatsby with the real lives of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, ZELDA centers a woman’s creativity and voice in an era that rarely made room for either — told in the art form she loved most.
It is the next chapter after our original full-length Little Women: the same question of who a woman becomes against the expectations around her, carried into adulthood. Darker, more complicated, and our most ambitious work yet.
“What happens to the artist inside a woman when the world refuses to see her?”
Every gift moves us closer to opening night.
You’re not just supporting a production — you’re investing in a story that has never been told this way before, built from the ground up by our company.
- $100Rehearsal time and dancer stipends
- $500Costumes and design for Zelda’s world
- $1,000Oliver Davis’s original orchestral score
- $2,000Lighting, production design and the stage itself
From page to stage, in four movements.
Choreography, rehearsal & dancer stipends
Months of creation, development and refinement with our dancers, across two full acts.
Original score by Oliver Davis
A first-of-its-kind collaboration: an orchestral score commissioned for this ballet alone.
Costumes & design
Every costume and set piece tells her story, from 1920s Alabama ballrooms to her inner world.
Lighting, production & theater
The visual poetry of ZELDA requires bold, innovative design — and a stage to hold it.
Oliver Davis
Royal Academy of Music graduate. Commissioned to write an orchestral score for ZELDA — a first-of-its-kind collaboration with our company.
“Through a clerical error, I ended up on the Royal Academy’s Jazz Course — suddenly immersed in Dixieland, Swing and Bebop. When you experience ZELDA you will hear that influence: the depth of an orchestral score fused with infectious jazzy rhythms.”
“It almost feels like we’re not only creating a new ballet — we’re creating a new genre of ballet.”
You’re joining at the very beginning.
- 2023A company is born
Little Women Ballet is founded to put women at the center of the stories ballet tells.
- March 2026ZELDA announced
Revealed at our Inaugural Showcase, “Our Story Continues.”
- NowCreation
Choreography in the studio, the score taking shape, design underway. Your gift lands here.
- 2028World premiere
The curtain rises on Zelda’s story.
Be named among the patrons who made the premiere possible.
Leadership donors are recognized in the playbill, in the production’s digital tribute, and in the company’s permanent record of the premiere season.
Little Women Ballet is a women-run, story-driven ballet company in Los Angeles, putting women at the center of the stories ballet tells — and of the people who tell them.
Give to ZELDA
The Green Light Was Never His Alone.
ZELDA: Her Voice in the Age of Gatsby is Little Women Ballet Company’s newest full-length original ballet — a women-led reimagining of the famous 1920s flapper. Blending the fictional world of The Great Gatsby with the real lives of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the production centers Zelda’s creativity and voice, highlighting a female artist striving to be seen.
Original choreography.
Original score by composer Oliver Davis.
Join us in bringing this one of a kind ballet to life.
Your Gift Brings ZELDA to Life
When you give to Little Women Ballet Company, you're not just supporting a production — you're investing in a story that has never been told this way before.
ZELDA is our most ambitious original ballet yet: a full-length, two-act work that reclaims Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald as the artist she always wanted to be — dancer, writer, painter, dreamer. Featuring an original commissioned score by composer Oliver Davis and choreography by Artistic Director Emma Andres, this production is built from the ground up by our company.
Your donation directly funds:
Choreography & Rehearsal & Dancer Stipends — Months of creation, development, and refinement with our dancers, bringing Zelda's world from page to stage across two acts.
Original Score by Oliver Davis — A first-of-its-kind collaboration, commissioning a orchestral score written specifically for this ballet.
Costumes & Design — From the jazz-soaked ballrooms of 1920s Alabama to the fragmented beauty of Zelda's inner world, every costume and set piece tells her story.
Lighting, Production Design, and Theater Rentals — the visual poetry of ZELDA requires bold, innovative design.
ZELDA premieres in 2028.
Every gift — at any level — moves us closer to opening night.
ORIGINAL SCORE BY OLIVER DAVIS
When Emma Andres approached me with the concept of a ballet set in the Jazz Age it immediately connected with me.
Back when I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music I ended up, through a clerical error, on the RAM's Jazz Course. Having had a strictly classical upbringing (both my parents being classical musicians) I was suddenly immersed in Dixieland, Swing and Bebop.
So when you experience Zelda you will hear the influence from all those years ago in the music. It's enabling me to tell her extraordinary story by combining the depth of an orchestral scored fused with infectious jazzy rhythms.
It almost feels like we're not only creating a new ballet, we're creating a new genre of ballet, giving Emma and I the creative dream of a lifetime.