New Artistic Director of Ballet Pacifica Says Job Is Scary as She Replaces 27-Year Leader

Molly Lynch is clearly nervous these days about taking over as artistic director of Laguna Beach-based Ballet Pacifica. But she seems to like the feeling.

“It’s a big responsibility. It’s really scary,” Lynch said in a recent interview in her Corona del Mar home. “There is hard work ahead. You never feel ready or prepared. But I think it’s important for me to be on the edge, to feel nervous about it.”

After 27 years, Ballet Pacifica is undergoing its first change in leadership. Founding director Lila Zali, who turns 70 on July 22, is stepping down and Lynch, 32, has been appointed to replace Zali.

“It’s an early-morning-to-late-night job,” Zali said Monday of her decision to hand the company’s reins to Lynch. “I’ve been doing it for 27 years. I had been dancing since I was 7. And that’s a pretty long time to be in one profession.”

The change comes at a crucial time. The Laguna Beach-based company, long nurtured in the beach community, has come under fire from local dance critics lately.

Lynch doesn’t consider the criticism “particularly unfair” but countered: “You always have to strive for as high a quality as you can, but you’re also dealing with different technical levels in a company like this, where there is a professional level and a student level. You have to adapt to both.

“We’re a semiprofessional, regional company, which has a strong concert and a children’s series, both of which have expanded. . . . We do 50 or more performances a year, which gives students a chance to perform and allows the community to see more dance and at a reasonable price.”

Envisioning “no major changes” in the near future, Lynch said: “I don’t go in for a philosophy of walking in and changing it all. I will see how we can all work together. It’s a pretty well-established company.”

Last year there were 724 subscribers, a growth of about 18% over the previous year, according to Zali. The budget was about $213,000. The company--10 paid dancers, supplemented by dancers from the Ballet Pacifica school--operates in the black.

But quality remains a problem. The better the dancers are, the more likely they will be wooed away by big-time companies. Gregory Osborne, now a principal with the National Ballet of Canada and previously a member of American Ballet Theatre for eight years, was one of Lynch’s classmates.

“That’s part of the role of Ballet Pacifica,” the new director said. “It’s good training for professional dancers. It’s a fact of life that until we get to a fully professional level we will lose dancers to professional companies, and I think that’s very healthy and good. . . . The way to tackle (the problem) is by improving the quality of Ballet Pacifica.”

Unlike Zali, however, Lynch does not bring a great deal of experience as a dancer or a choreographer to her job. But she feels that she has had enough to do it.

“I have done choreography,” she said. “I have a master’s in dance from UC Irvine. I choreographed works there and two works for Ballet Pacifica, one of which, ‘Characters,’ was taken to the gala performance at the Pacific Regional Ballet Assn. Festival in Utah last May.

“I also choreographed two works for South Coast Repertory--’Cinderella’ and ‘Wind of a Thousand Tales.’ I am scheduled to do two new works for Ballet Pacifica. That was scheduled even before this happened. I would like to do more.”

Lynch, who was born in Los Angeles and moved to Newport Beach when she was 2, began her ballet studies with Zali when she was 6. She became a principal dancer at Ballet Pacifica at 17. Later, after a year’s study at the Joffrey Ballet school in New York and other experience, she returned to Ballet Pacifica in 1980 to be assistant artistic director for three years.

Then, to get more business experience, Lynch then moved onto other arts organizations, including SCR, where she was annual fund director for the past 2 1/2 years.

Lynch’s goals are limitless: “As far as you can dream,” she said. But on a more tangible level, she hopes to add more paid dancers, gain recognition beyond the immediate region, make tours and schedule appearances at the Performing Arts Center.

“But we’re not going to be there tomorrow,” she said.

“Ballet Pacifica can be similar (to the Joffrey), but not on the same level,” she said. “But we tend at this point to have a (similar) young, fresh point of view.

“This could (also) be a wonderful opportunity for emerging choreographers. I believe that there are choreographers in the area that we’re not aware of.”

She considers one of her biggest challenges to provide “the energy, resources and challenges to dancers, to keep them--pardon the pun--on their toes or the edge.

“That’s a hard thing to maintain for a lot of years.

“More than anything, I’m sort of nervous but excited and enthusiastic about doing this. I’ll bring in whatever I’ve learned. . . . But it’s a little early (to set a precise plan).”

Whatever her qualifications, Lynch receives the mantle of authority with Zali’s blessing.

“I really, truthfully, do have complete faith in Molly and couldn’t be happier,” said Zali, a former Ballet Russe member.

Zali, who will remain artistic adviser, added: “I’m not going to interfere with anything. If (Molly) wants to put down her own laws or even change some of the dancers, that’s her business. I don’t want her to feel like Big Mama is looking over her shoulder.”