NYCB SHOWS THE STEPS TO BALLET

It wasn’t your usual sedate crowd Thursday morning at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Yells and roars of approval from approximately 2,800 youthful throats started the minute the lights dimmed and two New York City Ballet principal dancers walked on stage to begin a special hour-long educational program designed to introduce kids to the art of the ballet.

Maria Calegari, dressed in a white tunic, and Sean Lavery, in white tights and a green tank top, served as hosts for the fourth-grade and special education students who were bused in from 12 school districts in the county.

The program was the first that the company has offered outside New York’s tri-state area. It was sponsored by a $32,000 grant provided jointly by the Los Angeles Times and its parent firm, Times Mirror Corp. (The grant also will fund a similar educational program to be presented by the New York City Opera during that company’s appearances at the Center in January.)

Calegari and Lavery, speaking alternately, introduced key concepts of ballet, which they and 18 other company members demonstrated.

Two sign language teachers were positioned in the front row to sign their explanations and comments to approximately 25 hearing-impaired children sitting in the rows behind.

The program began with demonstrations of how everyday movements are transformed into the ballet vocabulary and how a dancer’s body is reshaped for erect carriage and turnout of the feet and legs through daily exercises.

Four company members illustrated the exercises, which began at the barre with small, precise steps that later were sped up, sharpened and executed over larger space.

The dancers then moved away from the barre to practice jumps, turns and large traveling steps across the floor.

Quiet gasps from the kids could be heard whenever a ballerina was lifted by a partner so that she momentarily seemed to float weightlessly across the stage.

Calegari demonstrated how important such partnering was. She showed how the turns and balances that she could execute by herself could be greatly extended “with a little help from Sean.”

Lavery explained his role in such partnering: “The challenge for me is making the ballerina’s movements as smooth and comfortable as possible.”

The 20 dancers were also seen in excerpts from seven works by seminal choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, ranging from the neoclassicism of Balanchine’s “Divertimento No. 15” to the angular modernism of his “Agon”; from the jazzy wit of Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” to the expansive elegance of Robbins’ “Dances at a Gathering.”

Both Calegari and Lavery were left momentarily breathless after dancing the adagio and finale of the “Grand Pas de Deux” from Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker,’ thereby showing the youthful audience--far better than any telling could express--that no matter how easy, graceful and beautiful ballet can look--dancing is also hard work.