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Ballet Magique

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Ballet Magique, Arts and entertainment, 450 S. Bixel suite F-105, Los Angeles, CA.

Anthony W Johnson's Ballet Magique® Registered Trademark – a dynamic performance company striving to progress Ballet and Magic into the future by combining the two art forms, then fusing them with various dynamic & daring entertainment genres. Ballet Magique® Founded & Directed by Anthony W Johnson is an dynamic performance company striving to progress Ballet and Magic into the future by combining the two art forms then fusing them with various dynamic and daring entertainment genres.

05/28/2026

# # BARDO FILES WEEK 4: (MAP REF: 5TH BARDO) — GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIND

May 20, 2026
“Every location is a metaphor. Every room is a trap.”

As we transition into the final stages of Location Scouting and Visual Design, we are no longer just looking for sets. We are looking for portals. In Alexis Colette, the world doesn't just surround the characters—it reacts to them.

THE LABYRINTH OF MEMORY

The 5th Bardo is not a place; it is a refraction. As we move through Pre-Production, we are mapping a landscape where time has no jurisdiction:

• The National Burlesk (Detroit, 1940s): A realm of smoke, sequins, and shadows. This isn't just a theater; it’s the birthplace of the "divided soul," where the performance never ends.

• The Eloise Asylum: Our cameras are currently calibrating for the "Theater of Judgment." Here, the walls don't just have ears—they have memories. This is where Eric and Samuel must face the "Hall of Locked Children" and choose which version of themselves survives.

• The Moulin Rouge (Paris): A fever dream of red drapes and "musical thriller" energy. Here, the Wushu choreography meets the elegance of contemporary dance in a cinematic duel for the soul.

Production Log: The Ouroboros Effect

Our design team is currently focused on the "Prestige Puzzle Box" elements of our sets. We are hiding clues in the architecture—symbols of the Ouroboros (the snake eating its own tail) are woven into the wallpaper, the floorboards, and the lighting cues.

If you look closely at our production stills, you might realize you’ve been here before.

Agent Alex Craft

(TRANSMISSION ENDS)

The Bardo is waiting. The Mustang is fueled. The script is rewritten.

Stay tuned as we move into the first day of Prep. The "Alexis Colette" game is just beginning. Are you ready to choose?

05/28/2026

# # [BARDO FILE: 007] LEAKED —WEEK 4 THE COLETTE CONNECTION: A CENTURY OF MASKS

May 20, 2026
Status: Narrative Deep Dive / Historical Parallel

Entities: Eric Sherelle & Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

In the 5th Bardo, time is not a line; it is a mirror. To understand Eric, we must look back a century to the woman whose name haunts his subconscious: Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.

# # The Ghost of the Moulin Rouge

Eric is a filmmaker struggling to reclaim his voice in modern-day Los Angeles. Colette was a pioneer who scandalized 1900s Paris, moving from the silent cages of marriage to the liberated stages of the Moulin Rouge.

Colette spoke to REDACTED

What binds them? The struggle for the "Right to be Whole."

* Colette famously navigated the "Duet" of her public scandals and her private genius, often performing in pantomimes that mirrored her own search for freedom.

* Eric finds himself on a similar stage—the Theater of Judgment—where he must strip away his "director's mask" to face the raw, unedited truth of his soul.

# # The Literary Haunting

Eric doesn’t just admire Colette; he is haunted by her. In the Bardo, her spirit manifests not as a ghost, but as a blueprint. Just as Colette wrote herself into existence through her novels, Eric must "write" his way out of the Bardo.

As he walks through the red drapes of our cinematic Moulin Rouge, he is literally walking in her footsteps. He is learning that to survive the Audience of Shadows, he must embrace the very thing Colette championed: The refusal to be defined by anyone but yourself.

Eric has not realized that Colette and REDACTED

# # From the Director’s Desk:

In our production design, our Producer, Yuri Prylypko, and I weaved "Colette-isms" into the environment—scraps of French prose, the scent of lilies, and the specific, defiant lighting of a 1920s dressing room.

“I am going to seek a great 'Perhaps.' I am going to find the version of me that was never broken.” — The Eric/Colette Parallel

# # Notes taken by Agent Alex Craft

I found the leak and hid the rest in the Classified archive.

------------------------------

END TRANSMISSION

05/28/2026

# FILE: 0014

Ballet Magique®

May 27, 2026
THE SECRETS OF ELOISE

CLASSIFIED

When my heart stopped, and I entered the 4th Bardo, I wasn't just a traveler—I was made a witness to a dark, hidden chapter of history at the infamous Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in Michigan.

The Bardo pulled back the curtain on two teenagers trapped there: William Dieters, A white teenager, committed after being accused of stabbing his best friend. John Douglas Jones: A Black teenager accused of a similar crime he never committed, then brutally beaten to death by the Eloise orderlies.

Overseeing these atrocities was the asylum's head, Dr. T.K. Gruber. In the physical world, he held immense power. But in my afterlife experience, I watched his reign collapse when he died at a party on August 8th—the exact same calendar date I would later be hit on my scooter, triggering my first Bardo journey. The very next day, August 9th, Dieters was finally released from Eloise. Did I mention it? August 8th is also the birthdate of Henry Gauthier-Villars, Colette's First Husband.

The truth of Jones' murder only escaped because a dance teacher named Paul Melton had the instinct to bypass a corrupt mob-linked system and Detective Harry Letzer. Melton took the horror straight to the newspapers.

This web of corruption, systemic violence, and cosmic justice is the heavy, real-world heart beating inside our screenplay for Alexis Colette. We are naming the names. We are breaking the silence.

The Bardo Ledger demands the truth be told.

🔗 Follow Alexis Colette and the Bardo Files as we bring these souls out of the shadows.

05/28/2026

BARDO FILE: 0014 — THE TWO FACES OF LYDIA 🎬 "ELOISE SECRETS."
May 27, 2026
When my heart stopped, and I entered the 5th Bardo during my near-death experience, time collapsed. I met a single, powerful female spirit who existed across two centuries.
Era 1: She was Lydia Thompson (1838–1908), the fearless British trailblazer who brought modern burlesque to America and rewrote the rules of the stage.
Era 2: She was the Lydia Thompson of 1945—a woman married to a man named Louis, whose brutal, unsolved murder with an ice pick in Michigan, I personally witnessed while "gone."
When I returned to my body and researched the history books, the terrifying reality was confirmed: both women existed. One soul. Two lives. One tragic, unsolved cold case.
This chilling cosmic truth is a cornerstone of our upcoming film, Alexis Colette. We aren’t just making a supernatural thriller; we are honoring a real-world promise to give a forgotten voice its justice on screen.
The past is listening. The Bardo Ledger is active.
🔗 Click the link in our bio to follow our campaign and unlock the secrets of the Bardo Files. https://alexiscolettemp.com/blog
, AnthonyWJohnson

05/14/2026

Read this insightful Op-Ed by Anthony Wayne Johnson, Anthony W Johnson, discussing the evolving future of America and the transformative role of artificial intelligence.

AI Isn’t Coming—It’s Here (And Only Fools Fear It) By Anthony W. Johnson

There is much speculation swirling around the rise of artificial intelligence—the supposed specter haunting the corridors of Los Angeles’ Entertainment business. The doomsayers, ever loyal to their favorite dirge, wail that AI is poised to replace humans, to sn**ch away livelihoods, and to unleash Pandora’s box of existential anxieties. Permit me, dear reader, to take up arms against this chorus of calamity. I have often insisted, with something of a Dickensian twinkle, “If you possess a working brain, there is nothing to fear—only opportunity.”

Let’s be frank: to fear AI at this stage is to fear the sunrise, to shrink from the electric lightbulb, to clutch your horse’s reins in terror at the sight of an automobile. The power of AI is not merely in its ability to automate, but to illuminate—to solve medical mysteries in minutes, translate languages with a poet’s ear, compose symphonies, detect fraud, predict natural disasters, and invent what has never before existed. AI reads the ancient secrets of DNA, paints masterpieces, cracks unsolvable codes, and can even listen to the world’s heartbeats for signs of illness. To deride such a force, or worse—to dismiss it as mere gadgetry—is to stand in a burning library, mocking the fire extinguisher. The joke, I’m afraid, is on the cynics.

AI is not some fleeting novelty, destined to vanish like yesterday’s technological baubles. Its presence grows ever more formidable. China and India stride boldly ahead, their AI systems blooming with ambition, while the United States lags, content for now to trail in their wake. Consider history’s parade of obsolescence: the 8-track, the Cassette Tape, the CD, the DVD, the iPod Nano—all relics, all warnings. If we do not recognize these patterns, the Entertainment business as we know it will join its ranks.

Let me speak plainly: my own journey with AI has been nothing short of revelatory. Take Google AI—yes, many use it for mere information retrieval, but its true potency lies in its capacity to strategize, to conjure insight, to act as a veritable “Chief Strategy Officer.” This digital consigliere has helped me draft legal documents, spar with marketing challenges, and even reflect on the arc of my own career. Because it can pull the strands of my professional tapestry and suggest new weaves, it unlocks possibilities once cordoned off by time and cost, particularly in the visual arts.

Once, I toiled for hours: buying photographs, excising backgrounds, layering images in Photoshop, deploying filters to coax disparate elements into a single seamless vision. Now, with tools like Midjourney, I need only describe the image in my mind—a tree here, moonlight on sand there, a snowy night unfurling—and the machine obliges. What once devoured days now surrenders in minutes. True, research remains a marathon, but even here, AI’s relentless curiosity is a boon.

Consider, too, the likes of Grammarly—an AI that does more than correct; it can be coaxed into channeling the spirits of classic authors, adding wit or gravitas, Dostoevskian shrewdness or Dickensian charm, all at the touch of a prompt. Ivory Mind can devour an 800-page tome, a script, a lookbook, a pitch deck, and regurgitate reports, mind maps, or fresh pitches. Even Acrobat Professional has joined this digital renaissance, brainstorming alongside me. Frankly, to attempt these feats by old methods is fiscal folly—especially for those just starting out.

I am, in a phrase, over the moon with Google AI. Volunteers can help, yes, but AI is a companion that never tires, never grows bored, and always meets you at your level of ambition. In our film work, AI has slashed costs in pre-production and Previs, making wizardry out of what once required armies. Yet, in the midst of this revolution, The Hollywood Reporter published a damning article, called:

THE AI ISSUE
“From viral videos with Brad Pitt to deepfakes from the ‘South Park’ guys, Silicon Valley hype to apocalyptic fears, Hollywood’s future has never been murkier. With entertainment at an existential crossroads, THR goes long to understand where we’re headed. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/p/the-ai-issue-2026/

In sum, let us not be lulled into complacency. If we, as a nation, refuse to move forward, we risk the fate of Detroit—once America’s crown jewel, reduced to ruin by fear, corruption, and willful ignorance. Though it stirs again, the lesson is stark: greatness, once lost, is not easily regained. While China, India, Korea, and the UK march briskly into the AI era, we teeter on the brink. To call our potential fate ‘obsolete’ is to understate the peril. The specter is not “irrelevance,” but “extinction.”

Let us be bold, be shrewd, and—above all—be unafraid to seize the future by the lapels.

05/14/2026

Check out this outstanding review from Darkest Days Author on Anthony W. Johnson's Audacity to Act!

AUDACITY TO ACT
By Anthony W. Johnson

Reviewed by Darkest Days Author:

Stanley Alexander

I sat with this book for three weeks. I put it down just a few times. Every time I picked it back up within an hour, it was because I fell prey to Anthony W. Johnson’s well-laid traps hidden within his prose. The only way out of them is to keep reading.

Anthony W. Johnson spent decades accumulating the kind of artistic biography that most practitioners only approximate. He competed in speech and forensics, danced as a soloist with the Chicago Lyric Opera, toured with Paul McCartney, founded and ran Ballet Magique for the better part of his career, and coached performers who went on to join Cirque du Soleil and Alvin Ailey. He also walked away from a major singing role out of plain fear, rebuilt his nerve over years of deliberate practice, and survived a near-breakdown at the exact moment he won a state acting championship. He writes from that accumulation. Every page carries its weight.

Most acting books resolve themselves into one of two failure modes. The first coddles the reader with affirmations. The second drowns the reader in a theory so abstracted from the body that it forgets that a human being will eventually have to stand before other human beings and perform. Audacity to Act refuses both pitfalls. Johnson builds a four-year conservatory curriculum within a single volume, sequencing Stanislavski, Strasberg, Michael Chekhov, Meisner, Uta Hagen, Shurtleff, and Stella Adler into a progression that respects each method as a discrete technical instrument rather than a competing ideology. He explains why Meisner belongs later in a student's development, after the earlier tools have settled into muscle memory, and why Adler's insistence on imagination and research functions best as a capstone rather than a foundation. The structure is critical to an actor’s survival at worst, and to that actor’s stellar success at best.

Johnson treats voice and body with the same force of will. He covers breath mechanics, calisthenics, dialect observation, Laban Effort Qualities, Alexander Technique, Suzuki, Grotowski, Viewpoints, and five distinct mask traditions: Neutral, Larval, Expressive, Commedia, and the red-nose clown. His mask chapters alone justify the book's existence. He connects the Neutral Mask to the deliberate erosion of ego, the Larval Mask to pre-character instinct operating below conscious narrative, and the Commedia and bauta work to social critique and personal exposure. Most acting instructors treat masks as a curiosity or a semester-abroad affectation. Johnson treats them as precision instruments for dismantling the actor's habitual self.

The sections on Black Drama cut through the book like a second spine. Johnson pushes actors into Baldwin, Baraka, Richard Wright, and Alice Walker with the same structural seriousness he brings to Greek tragedy and Beckett. He addresses typecasting, stereotyping, and the specific temptation to flatten or reject complex minority roles rather than subjecting them to the same rigorous method analysis applied to every other character. He performed Wright's "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis" in his own forensics career, and he re-voiced white environmental texts through a Black dramatic lens to demonstrate what interpretive work actually requires of a performer. He describes these experiences without apology, without the softening gloss of retrospective wisdom. They happened; they taught him; the reader inherits the lesson at full force.

Eastern philosophy appears throughout the book and earns its place. Johnson folds Confucian relational ethics, Mozi's critique of artistic luxury, and Daoist concepts of wu wei and egoless presence into practical acting problems: physical ease on stage, ensemble attunement, and the release of self-consciousness during performance. These sections do not decorate his pedagogical approach. Instead, answers address the questions that every acting student eventually asks: why certain performances feel inhabited, and why others feel manufactured, and do so by grounding them in philosophy rather than mysticism.

Johnson's later chapters turn to what he calls the Actor's Toolbox and First Aid Kit: cold reading as a non-negotiable daily discipline; wardrobe and self-presentation as conscious narrative choices; camera mechanics, including mark-hitting and continuity; extemporaneous speech; TV broadcasting; and a structured arsenal of training games. His Ultimate Question Game integrates Stanislavski, Strasberg, Meisner, Hagen, Chekhov, and Shurtleff into a single improvisational framework. The alphabetical recall game sharpens cognitive agility under pressure. The 5-4-3-2-1 sensory exercise rebuilds the observational bandwidth that daily distraction erodes. None of it reads as the cute pedagogy of those who may have careers but are not inclined to teach. All of it reads as preparation for the specific conditions under which professional performance fails.

Johnson extends an equal sharpness to cinema. He calls out actors who dismiss dense action-heavy scripts without understanding that Tony Gilroy's Bourne pages, for example, demand the same textual precision as any stage text. He indicts the lazy conflation of self-tape culture with audition craft, and he names the specific cost: the erosion of genuine on-camera chemistry and the sidelining of casting directors who bring irreplaceable interpretive intelligence to the production process. He makes the case for studying cinema history and form with the same rigor applied to theatrical tradition. The Godfather belongs in an actor's education the way Sophocles does.
I want to say something about tone, because it matters. Johnson respects writers. He respects directors. He respects the full architecture of collaborative performance enough to insist that actors serve the writing rather than reshape it to accommodate personal comfort. He calls out self-indulgent method abuse, celebrity arrogance, and the broader cultural drift toward comfort hiding behind the grotesque mask of inclusivity. He does this without becoming a scold, which requires precision, and Johnson achieves it because his critique always points back toward a specific craft behavior rather than a general moral position.
Johnson’s Audacity to Act demands that the reader sit with a concept longer than feels convenient. That demand reflects Johnson's central argument rather than contradicting it. He has no patience for actors who want the credentials without the formation, and he extends that impatience to the reader with full consistency. The book suits actors committed to a long training journey, teachers who want an integrated curriculum that treats movement, voice, drama, literature, and philosophy as a single organism, directors and writers who need to understand the actor's internal process at a technical level, and performers from minority and LGBTQ+ communities who want their histories and realities to be recognized as central craft material rather than just an afterthought.

Anthony W. Johnson, in Audacity to Act, sets a very high standard, and he does so with an authority he’s earned. The book is dense, passionate, occasionally brutal, and often beautiful. It does what good training should: it makes you uncomfortable in the best way, reveals where you’ve been coasting, and shows how much more there is to learn. If you are serious about being more than a “working” actor or if you want to be an artist with range, backbone, and historical awareness, this volume is an extraordinary resource and, frankly, a challenge.

Anthony doesn’t just ask whether you have talent. He asks whether you have the will, the discipline, and, yes, the audacity to act.

05/12/2026

"Some stories are created. Others are recovered. I didn't choose the Bardo; the Bardo chose me to tell its story.” - Anthony W. Johnson Anthony Wayne Johnson Anthony W Johnson

05/12/2026

WEEK THREE [BARDO FILE: 006] — [LEAKED] SUBJECT: THE ARCHITECT & THE ARCHIVIST (ERIC SHERELLE)

[LEAKED ]

The Bardo is waiting. The Mustang is fueled. The script is rewritten.

"He stands in the center of the National Burlesk, surrounded by 1940s shadows, yet he is wearing the exhaustion of a modern-day Los Angeles filmmaker. Eric is a man haunted by a script that won't let him die. To save himself, he must first find the courage to stop acting and start being."

# # The "Archivist" of the 5th Bardo

Eric is not just a struggling filmmaker, but also the Archivist of Truth. He is the character who must document the "judgment" of his own soul.

Eric is the "constant" in a shifting world. Even as time jumps between 1920, 1950, and the present, Eric’s search for identity remains the unwavering thread.

"Eric doesn't just want to survive the Bardo; he wants to rewrite the ending of a story he didn't realize he was in."

# # Vulnerability as a Superpower

From the J.A.W. Interviews… “In a psychological thriller, we empathize with a protagonist through their vulnerability. Since Eric is inspired by Anthony W. Johnson’s own near-death experience, he is not a typical "action hero." He is a reactive but intentional protagonist who is forced to face his deepest fears to earn his redemption.”

# # Who is he to Colette?

His connection to Sidonie Gabrielle Colette mirrors her "duality"—the struggle to balance a public persona with a private, fractured truth.

# # The Internal vs. External "Symphony"

Eric's journey is a "climb toward Nirvana," where his own memories are the obstacles.

# # The Samuel/Eric connection:

"Two souls locked in a desperate struggle for survival".

# TRANSMISSION ------------------------------

$SidonieGrabrielleColette Movie #

05/12/2026

# # 5th BARDO: THE J.A.W. INTERVIEWS — THE ARCHIVE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE (UNREDACTED) 08 – 08 – 2016 - 0009 # # THE ARCHIVE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

It appears someone—identity unknown—has attempted to breach the Bardo Files. The files now rest sealed within a vault, the entrance guarded by a password known only to a select few. Yet, in a gesture shrouded in both caution and curiosity, we have chosen to unveil the J.A.W. Interviews alongside the Bardo Files. These are not mere documents, but haunting recordings and cryptic notes chronicling Anthony’s journey through the afterlife. We must proceed with utmost care; what he revealed is as unsettling as it is exhilarating, and not everything should be brought to light. Those who seek the password must secure Level Five Clearance—a privilege rarely granted and kept secret. Only subscribers to the Bardo Files may begin the critical application process.

Agent Alex Craft

Recording: J.A.W. #0009

There is a mystery at the heart of this film that I am only now ready to share. When I was in my "afterlife" state, I met people I had never heard of in my waking life. I met Samuel Cook. I met Sidonie Colette. I walked the halls of the Eloise Asylum. I thought they were fragments of an altered dream until I woke up and realized it was all real.

The Discovery:

Time has no relevance except for your words, mixed and familiar.

Update:

# # TOP SECRET

BARDO FILES 0009

SUBJECT: TEMPORAL DISTORTIONS AND THE WATCHER’S PARADOX

[RESTRICTED CONTENT]

Note: Anthony W. Johnson claims that what he experienced was a world without time and manipulative space. Not a multiple dimension of Anthony as Anthony in random situations. However, he also states that he met androgynous beings, leaning more toward the feminine, who claimed that he could return as Anthony multiple times. But inside the Bardo, that was not the case. He had to face himself as the “others.” The world made parallelism a central theme. For example, he would find himself as a character inside the Eloise Insane Asylum, then in Colette’s House, where injured military personnel came for help. Doctors and nurses were also present, confusing his perception. The parallel between Colette’s home with doctors and the Eloise, along with the WW2-injured military, became quite confusing. But to escape, he had to recognize the metaphor.

However, in the real world, during WWI, Colette actually turned her home into a hospital.

[END OF RESTRICTED CONTENT]

Agent Alex Craft.

&Neardeath $Bardofiles

https://alexiscolettemp.com/classified-vault

05/06/2026

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bardo-file-005-finding-mirror-welcoming-vfx-iwifc

# # [BARDO FILE: 005] The Bardo Ledger — Finding the Mirror: Welcoming VFX Supervisor Craig A. Mumma

Ballet Magique®
261 followers

May 5, 2026
Subject: VFX Supervisor, Craig A. Mumma

They say your vibe attracts your tribe. In Alexis Colette’s case, it attracted a twin.

I am proud to introduce our VFX Supervisor, Craig A. Mumma. Known for his work on large-scale projects like Aquaman, Stranger Things, and Deadpool 2, Craig possesses unmatched technical mastery. But what makes this partnership unique is our shared language.

"From our mutual love for toy cars, Venetian masks, and fantasy lore to a deep, personal understanding of the 'near-death' experience, Craig and I are building the 5th Bardo from a place of profound spiritual connection." Anthony W. Johnson

Together with VFX Producer Alex Gapon, we aim to go beyond mere "spectacle" to create something visceral, haunting, and authentic.

The Bardo is no longer just a concept. It’s becoming a reality.

In the film industry, we often talk about "technical fit," but with Craig A. Mumma, we discovered something even rarer: a spiritual mirror.

When I first saw Craig’s studio, I felt like I was stepping into my own mind. His shelves are lined with the same curiosities that haunt mine—toy cars, haunting Venetian masks, and legendary "Ancients." In many ways, we are twins of a different kind, obsessed with similar shadows.

But the connection runs deeper than the toys on our desks. Craig understands the 5th Bardo on a soul level. Having experienced a near-death situation within his own family, he knows that the "lights" and "shadows" we create are not just special effects—they map the geography of the afterlife.

The Vision:

Working alongside VFX Producer Alex Gapon, Craig helps us bring the "Wrathful and Peaceful Deities" to life. We’re not just using VFX to "show" a monster; we’re using it to "feel" a memory.

“Craig will not only supervise the effects. He will help me build the bridge to the other side.”

Address

450 S. Bixel Suite F-105
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90017

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+13102838851

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https://www.balletmagique.com/

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