Retired Dentist Bridges Generation Gap by Leaping at a Chance to Star in Ballet

Picture yourself dancing the male lead in the classic ballet “Swan Lake.” You’re 60 years old, and you’ve never danced ballet before.

“I’m not going to be a Baryshnikov,” admitted Deon M. Carrico of Dana Point, a retired dentist whose dance experience is in modern jazz with his two daughters and ballroom dancing with his wife, “but I won’t feel self-conscious at all.”

He’ll be dancing with many other mature dancers, some in their 80s, some of whom will be dancing for the first time when they perform the ballet next month at the Orange Senior Citizens Center. Most men dancing the male lead for the first time might be embarrassed, Carrico said--”you know, getting up on the stage in tights and wondering how you look and how you’re going to do and all that.”

But since Carrico’s audience will be mostly senior citizens and family friends, “It will be much easier for me.”

His costume will be white tights and a turquoise jacket that will be made by his wife, Jo Ann Carrico.

Despite his years, Carrico is in top shape, the result of a lifelong exercise regimen. And his age is actually more in line with the original Moscow production of Swan Lake, in which a popular but mature male dancer played the prince and younger male dancers partnered the Swan Queen in the heavier lifts.

“I’ve always believed in physical fitness,” he said. “I started running when I was 12 years old and never stopped.”

The female lead will be danced by Gloria Wilson, 62, of Murrieta, a former professional dancer. The producer is Lillian Andre, 81, of Orange, who said, “This has been my vision: to actually do a good ballet performance with senior performers.”

Despite the sometimes-difficult task of finding a more mature male dancer for a ballet performance, Carrico jumped at the chance to perform as the prince.

“I’ve always liked being involved in entertainment, and I’ve always liked older people,” he said. “And I’ve always had an admiration factor for them. I just feel good being with these people. It’s also good for us all, considering the amount of activity and stretching we do.”

Of his role as the prince, Carrico said: “I don’t see the female dancers as a bunch of old women. They’re just a bunch of ladies, and they’re just as attractive as 25- or 30-year-old women.”

Carrico is realistic about his own worth. “I’m not really a good ballet dancer, but I’m going to perform and try to do my best.”

Who would think spaghetti sauce could draw 3,500 people to get a taste? Well, that happened last year, and it may be a drop in the saucepan this year when the Third Annual American Red Cross Spaghetti Cook-off takes place Aug. 30 at the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro.

That’s because 100 sauce-making teams, including Laura Ward and her “Saucy Ladies,” who won the $1,000 grand prize last year, will be competing this year. That’s twice the number that competed last year.

It costs $50 for a four-member team to enter. Each team has to make six gallons of sauce, one for judging and five for the public tasting.

And, of course, a 1987 Miss Pasta will be selected. No doubt, a saucy lady.

Lisa M. Goose, 12, of Garden Grove; Elienne M. Lawson, 7, of Brea, and Kimjera Euler, 11, of Brea, will leave Aug. 2 for a 14-day stay in the Soviet Union to promote the cause of peace with Soviet children.

“They’re going as peace ambassadors,” said Carol Wells Lawson, one of 10 adults accompanying her daughter and 40 other children who will camp next to a river near Moscow and then live four days with Soviet families. The program is sponsored by Youth Ambassadors of America, a nonprofit educational group based in Bellingham, Wash., that seeks to foster peace through youth.

“It was really something when my daughter came home with a brochure and said, ‘Mom, I’m going to Russia,’ ” Lawson recalled. She and the other parents figure it will cost about $2,400 per person, which they hope to raise through sponsors and family.

“I know this is going to be real exciting,” said Lisa Goose, who learned of the trip from a pamphlet distributed at the Church of Religious Science in Huntington Beach. “I know we’re going to make lots of friends there.”

Acknowledgments--James K. Pivonka, a student at Serrano Intermediate School in El Toro, was one of 58 seventh- and eighth-grade students to win $1,000 each for perfect or outstanding school attendance in a “Miss School, Miss Out” program sponsored by Great American First Savings Bank based in Laguna Hills. More than 400 schools participated.