PEREZ JAZZES UP HIS STEPS WITH ‘STORY’

Two years ago, Luis Perez was a leading member of the Joffrey Ballet and his extensive repertory of dramatic roles included Mercutio in John Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

These days, he is portraying another character based (remotely) on Shakespeare who is no stranger to street fighting. However, as Bernardo in the musical “West Side Story” (at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through Sunday), Perez is expected to be handy with switch-blade rather than a rapier.

The transition from ballet to a full-time commitment to theater seems logical for a dancer who early on developed an interest in broadening his professional horizons and who studied acting while he was still in the Joffrey.

“I had always wanted to expand more into theater,” the 27-year-old dancer said. “But I didn’t make a conscious decision to leave the Joffrey.

“I had hurt my hamstring rather badly at the end of the 1985 season, and I was going to take a couple of months off. My agent called to say that some producers were looking for someone to do Bernardo in a national tour of ‘West Side Story,’ so I flew to New York and auditioned. It just fell into my lap. I took it, and I’ve been with theater ever since.”

That national company--re-creating Jerome Robbins’ original 1957 direction and choreography--opened at the Kennedy Center in September, 1985, but due to financial difficulties a tour had to be scuttled. By then, Perez had gotten past the initial shock of his new working conditions.

“When we had the first technical rehearsal,” he said, “it felt very weird to be on the Kennedy Center stage, where I had performed so many times with the Joffrey, and all of a sudden hear words coming out of my mouth. But since then, I’ve gotten more and more used to it.”

Soon, another “West Side Story” beckoned--this time a production by Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theatre, in which Perez also portrayed Bernardo. This meant an opportunity to work within a second, completely different approach to the show.

The current Opera Pacific staging in Costa Mesa is a revival of that Detroit version, and features the same creative team: director Michael Montel, choreographer Karen Azenberg and designer Robert O’Hearn.

Reflecting on the two stagings, Perez said that “the biggest difference is that this time it is a woman choreographing what is a very masculine show. It’s very difficult to compare two choreographers, because each is going to listen to the music differently.

“Karen has gone from a very balletic point of view on a lot of things: There are more strictly ballet steps in this version.”

He said that he is enjoying the opportunity to probe more deeply into Bernardo, and believes that in the course of playing the role, “my character has gotten more shading--he has more levels than when I first did it.

“Since I’ve become more comfortable with the speaking aspect, I’m not relying only on my dancing to carry it through. I feel more comfortable, and I know the person a lot better.”

While musical-theater roles have occupied him for the past year and a half, Perez is hoping to move into straight dramatic parts as well. At the same time he has lost none of his enthusiasm for dancing, and has interspersed various ballet assignments with his other projects.

He appeared as a guest with the Joffrey in the fall of 1985, right after his stint at the Kennedy Center and before the Michigan Opera Theater opportunity presented itself. At that time, he said, “the thought did cross my mind that I was going to go back.”

Recently, he has appeared as the “Nutcracker” cavalier in New Jersey and danced with former Joffrey ballerina Ann Marie De Angelo in Germany. He also spent three weeks in Peking teaching at the Central Ballet of China just before coming to Opera Pacific.

Through all of this activity, Perez has sensed a common ground between his recent theater assignments and many of his Joffrey Ballet roles.

Referring to such dramatic Joffrey challenges as the Poet (a.k.a. Rimbaud) in Frederick Ashton’s “Illuminations,” the Profiteer in Kurt Jooss’ “The Green Table” and the protagonist (a.k.a. Othello) in Jose Limon’s “The Moor’s Pavane,” he speaks of doing “the same type of preparation that I do now: exploring how this person would walk, would think, would react to the situation.

“Even though it was more choreographed, the intention behind the movement was always directed.”