About

About Cinballera

Cinballera Entertainment is an independent fine arts production company based in Southern California. The name stands for its three areas of focus, Cinema, Ballet, and Opera; it's pronounced "cheen-ball-era" to reflect opera's Italian background. Cinballera performances blend opera and ballet with inspiration from classic movies. All our productions are staged with the goal of artistic integrity and historical accuracy, staying as close to the original intentions of the creators as possible. Following the example of classic films from the Golden Era of Hollywood, Cinballera productions are staged with subtlety, taste, and decency, so viewers of all ages and backgrounds can come. However, they are not geared exclusively to children; we tell mature, exciting stories in a clean, artistic way.

Hollywood architect S. Charles Lee said, "The show starts at the sidewalk." With this concept in mind, movie theaters built 100 years ago were worthy of being called movie palaces, so grand was their beauty. We believe that the venue is an important player in a production, so we host our performances at locations with historic significance throughout Southern California. 

This production company was founded by Tiffany and Rebekah Brannan on June 18, 2023. The sisters have been in the performing arts throughout Southern California their whole lives, studying and performing singing, dancing, and acting since early ages. They were both homeschooled K-12, so they had the freedom to pursue artistic endeavors. After graduating from high school at age 13 each, they spent the traditional high school years honing their crafts, so they were able to turn professional at age eighteen. Although Tiffany is three years older, Rebekah has always been nipping at her heels, eager to keep up with everything her big sister is doing as well as pursing her own interests. 

Tiffany Brannan

Tiffany Brannan has two passions, the classical arts and history, especially entertainment related. She has been a professional journalist since 2019, writing primarily about Hollywood history, and had a classic film blog for three years before that. Her first professional writing job was as a contributing writer for The Epoch Times, and she has written several articles per month for the East Coast, West Coast, and national editions of this paper, in print and online, ever since. Her passion for old movies inspired her love for vintage fashion. However, singing has always been her first love. 

Tiffany has been singing since age four. She started musical theater classes at age five and had her first private voice teacher at age six. At age seven, she started studying with a college opera professor, Paul Sahuc, who would become the biggest influence in her singing training. He introduced her to her first Italian aria at age eight, and by the time she was ten, she had decided that she wanted to be an opera singer. She continued studying with him for the next ten years at Idyllwild Academy of the Arts, at the University of California in Redlands, in Claremont, at the University of California in Santa Barbara, and finally over Skype after he moved to Louisiana. 

Tiffany was in many theatrical productions as a child, including community plays, musicals, and ballets, often playing prominent roles. She performed in her first opera, Luisa Fernanda by Federico Moreno Torroba, at UCSB at age twelve, singing in the chorus, dancing, and understudying a soloist role. She studied ballet, tap, and ballroom dancing with many teachers from age three onward. 

In 2022, Tiffany turned professional as an opera singer, appearing in four operas during the 2022/23 season with four different companies, playing featured roles in Carmen, two productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and The Pirates of Penzance. She also has performed as a featured soloist at many classical singing events throughout Southern California.

Going into the 2023/2024 season, Tiffany plans to perform in local professional opera productions, compete in classical vocal competitions, and sing at operatic events. However, she is very excited about growing Cinballera and expanding her writing niche at The Epoch Times with writing a column for the Southern California daily paper and developing a show for EpochTV. 

Rebekah Brannan

Rebekah Brannan has had many artistic endeavors her whole life.  Beginning both singing and dancing at age three, these two artforms have been her main focus for most of her life. While not a prolific, paid writer like her older sister, Rebekah enjoys fiction writing and hopes to publish some of her works one day.

After studying ballet since age three, Rebekah went en pointe at the age of eleven while studying with Ellen Rosa Taylor, dean of the dance department at Idyllwild Arts Academy. At age thirteen, she began studying at The Ballet Studio Inc., in Murrieta, CA. During her four years there, she had extensive classes, private lessons, and multiple performing opportunities, including dancing the lead role of Clara-Marie in TBS's unique production of "The Nutcracker" at age 17. While there, she also had extensive pas de deux training with her teacher, former professional dancer Mark Erickson, fellow students, and semi-pro dancer Sergio Gomez, a two-year partnership which culminated in their writing and performing original ballet "Trixie and Hyde" in October 2021. Rebekah was hired by San Diego Ballet at age eighteen and danced with the company for two seasons. 

Rebekah has had private voice lessons since age three. She sang three times on the Patti Daly Caruso Show between the ages of 5 and 7, was a chorus member in a production of the zarzuela "Luisa Fernanda" at UCSB at age nine, appeared as both a singer and featured dancer in the Fine Arts Network's 2022 production of "Cinderella" in Temecula, and earlier this year played Kate in Landmark Opera's production of "The Pirates of Penzance." Rebekah is passionate about both ballet and opera, and also dabbles in video editing and graphic design. One of her greatest passions is writing, choreographing, and performing original ballets with Tiffany.