DANCE, MUSIC REVIEWS : Ballet Pacifica Presents ‘Graduation Ball’ in Laguna

When dancers’ enthusiasm is obliged to substitute for technical assurance, it helps to have lots of amusing stage business to do. For Ballet Pacifica, performing Saturday night at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach, the winning ticket proved to be David Lichine’s 48-year-old “Graduation Ball.”

The ensemble work looked brisk and buoyant. Company women seemed in their element as girls primping, pouting, cheering and flirting at a dance with military academy cadets--some of whom could have used more spit and polish, however. But individual performances showed up numerous deficiencies in precision, partnering and musicality.

Lee Wigand was effective as the shy guy offered up to bratty Sylvia Rico, who provided the strongest, most fluid dancing of the evening. Louis Carver, as the Drummer, started bravely but got lost in the turns and footwork.

Paula Hoffner was heavily earthbound in the “La Sylphide”-like pas de deux, wobbling perilously on partner David Miller’s shoulder. Gina Cerato and Kitty Sue McCoy pumped out their fouettes without igniting the sparks of a genuine competition.

Perpetually smiling, Kristi Moorhead, the Mistress of Ceremonies, moved from pretty pose to pretty pose without filling in the transitions and parted company with the recorded Johann Strauss music in her variation. The fussy, lovelorn Headmistress, traditionally danced in drag, was dispatched by Charles Colgan in an intermittently amusing performance that could use some fine tuning.

“Moods of Ancient Russia,” a new piece by company artistic director Lila Zali put to the music of Arensky, is built around a small repertory of gestures (deep, one-armed bows; an elbow-cradling, cheek-touching pose), predictable tableaux and numerous lifts the company turned into effortful heave-ho’s.

If the adagio sections failed to flatter the dancers, so did “Troika (Laughter),” in which six girls made hash of the rapid foot and head movements. The oh-so-solemn finale, with each dancer toting a little flashlight, was kitsch to the max.

Also on the program were James Jones’ strutting “Celebration” and Constance Dominguez’s “Les Nuages,” in which three women stepped backward into stark-looking lifts, pranced percussively and attempted acrobatic trips around their partners’ bodies--a curious interpretation of the music by Debussy.