NYC BALLET TO PERFORM 8 BY BALANCHINE AT CENTER

The New York City Ballet will present eight works by its late founding artistic director, George Balanchine, during an Oct. 15-19 engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center--the company’s first Southern California visit in 12 years.

Repertory for the seven-performance run, which also includes works by ballet masters-in-chief Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins, was announced Friday at a press conference at the Center Tower in Costa Mesa:

- Oct. 15: “Symphony in Three Movements” (Balanchine/Stravinsky); “Tzigane” (Balanchine/Ravel); “Tchaikovsky” pas de deux (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky); “The Four Seasons” (Robbins/Verdi).

- Oct. 16: “Mozartiana” (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky); “In the Night” (Robbins/Chopin); “Who Cares?” (Balanchine/Gershwin).

- Oct. 17: “Serenade” (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky); “Agon” (Balanchine/Stravinsky); “Symphony in C” (Balanchine/Bizet).

- Oct. 18 (matinee): “Mozartiana”; “In the Night”; “Symphony in C.”

- Oct. 18 (evening): “Symphony in Three Movements”; “Songs of the Auvergne” (Martins/Canteloube); “Glass Pieces” (Robbins/Glass).

- Oct. 19 (matinee): “Songs of the Auvergne”; “Glass Pieces”; “Who Cares?”

- Oct. 19 (evening): “Serenade”; “Agon”; “The Four Seasons.”

Casting will be announced in the fall, said Charles Raymond, New York City Ballet managing director, who was joined by principal dancer Heather Watts at the press conference.

The Orange County Center run is the last engagement in the NYCB’s three-stop tour that includes UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Auditorium, Oct. 1-5, and Seattle Center’s Opera House, Oct. 8-11. The company’s 170-member touring contingent will include 98 dancers and 50 musicians, Raymond said.

Widely regarded as America’s premier dance company, the Lincoln Center-based NYCB generally tours only in the East and Midwest. It last performed in Southern California in 1974 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and last performed in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle in 1962.

Raymond said his company hopes to underwrite part of the three-city tour. Although neither he nor Thomas Kendrick, Orange County Center executive director, would divulge costs of the Costa Mesa run, company aides had previously estimated touring costs at $600,000 a week.

Tickets, they said, would be $15 to $40 for the Orange County run.

Raymond said he had attempted to open “discussions” with the Orange County Center early last year--when the Center administration was undergoing a change of command. “I didn’t really reach anyone to talk with. There seemed to be (administrative) confusion at the time,” said Raymond, adding that negotiations were launched last fall after Kendrick became Center executive director.

Raymond said there were no approaches for a possible Los Angeles engagement this fall as well. He added that a possible NYCB run in fall 1987 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles --prior to an East Asia tour--had been considered, but is “no longer in the works.”

The Orange County Center, to open Sept. 29 with Zubin Mehta conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has already signed the American Ballet Theatre for a Dec. 9-14 run of “The Nutcracker.”

Also, several Joffrey Ballet dancers will be performing with the Master Chorale of Orange County Oct. 12 at the new center. Discussions for a possible 1986-87 appearance by the full Joffrey company are continuing, Kendrick said.