Despite Its Grand Plans, Ballet Pacifica Cancels 2006-07 Season

On the heels of big promises for 2006-07, Irvine-based Ballet Pacifica has canceled the season to restructure and raise money, board President Janet Ray said Friday.

In addition, a statement issued by the company said that Executive Director Thomas Gulick has resigned “for personal reasons” and that Orange County businesswoman Melody Wolfgram has been hired as interim management director.

The 46-year-old regional troupe had hoped to upgrade its status in the ballet world with the appointment last year of American Ballet Theatre star dancer Ethan Stiefel as artistic director.

Stiefel, 33, told The Times in 2005 that he would hire a company of 20 to 25 permanent members by this month, schedule 25 to 30 weeks of repertory performances in Southern California and on tour and present a production of George Balanchine’s lavish “Nutcracker” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in December. His proposed budget was $6 million to $6.5 million for his first season.

Auditions were held in Orange County in February and in New York this month, but no dancers were contracted, Ray said.

Instead, the launch of Stiefel’s plans has been delayed until 2007 and the Balanchine “Nutcracker” has been taken off the boards.

To date, more than $1.5 million has been pledged to the troupe, the largest sum in its history, Ray said. She declined to say how much was actually in hand.

“I am deeply saddened that Ballet Pacifica will not have a 2006-07 season,” Stiefel said in a statement.

“The board’s heart is in the right place, but it has been unable to provide me with sufficient confidence to hire dancers for this season. The last thing I want to do is lose the faith and support of the dancers for whom I have fought throughout my career,” he said.

Ray said that the cancellation was disappointing for everyone, but “going from what we were not too long ago, from a $1.5-million budget to $6.5 million, is a daunting leap.

“We would have liked to do it in the time we had planned,” Ray added, “but we just feel that an extra 12 months will put us in a much stronger position and that there would be no compromising Ethan’s vision.”

With the Ballet Pacifica production out of the picture, the Orange County Performing Arts Center has less than eight months to find a new “Nutcracker.”

“We are moving forward to make alternative plans,” Judy Morr, executive vice president of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, said in a statement Friday.

Stiefel’s appointment ended a period of turmoil for Ballet Pacifica that began in 2003 when artistic director Molly Lynch resigned after 15 years at the helm, citing artistic differences with the board.

She was quickly replaced by Christina Lyon, a former ABT corps member and Newport Beach resident who left less than two months later after the board scrapped most of her plans, citing a $200,000 budget shortfall.

At the time, the troupe, which was founded in 1962 in Laguna Beach, operated on a budget of $1.5 million. It ran a children’s series, an annual “Nutcracker” production and a subscription series at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.