Liepa to Debut in ‘Swan Lake’ in Costa Mesa : Liepa Will Debut in ‘Swan Lake’

Bolshoi principal dancer Andris Liepa will make his debut appearances with American Ballet Theatre during the company’s Nov. 29-Dec. 11 engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, company officials announced Wednesday.

Liepa will dance Siegfried in the world premiere of ABT artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov’s staging of “Swan Lake” at 8 p.m. on Dec. 2 and at 2 p.m. on Dec. 4. (“Swan Lake” will run through Dec. 8.) Liepa also will dance in “Ballet Imperial,” at 2 p.m. on Dec. 10.

Other scheduled works include the first West Coast performances of Mark Morris’ “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes” (to music by Virgil Thomson), and the company’s first performances of two works by Twyla Tharp--”In the Upper Room” (music by Philip Glass) and “The Fugue” (to silence)--and “The Garden of Villandry,” choreographed by Martha Clarke, Robert Barnett and Felix Blaska to music by Schubert.

Tudor’s “Fandango,” originally announced, has been dropped from the engagement because the company believed it would have made the programs too long, according to an ABT spokesperson.

New company principal Guillaume Graffin, from the Ballets de Monte Carlo, will appear in a number of works. Serge Lavoie, a principal with the National Ballet of Canada, will partner Cynthia Gregory in “Swan Lake” on Dec. 7.

The schedule:

Nov. 29, 8 p.m.: “Ballet Imperial” (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky)--Amanda McKerrow, Wes Chapman, Cheryl Yeager. “The Fugue” (Tharp)--Kevin O’Day, Jamie Bishton, Daniel Sanchez. “Garden of Villandry” (Clarke-Barnett-Blaska/Schubert)--Martine van Hamel, Ross Stretton, Michael Owen. “Gaite Parisienne” (Massine/Offenbach)--Susan Jaffe, Victor Barbee, Johan Renvall, Amy Rose.

Nov. 30, 8 p.m.: “Les Sylphides” (Fokine/Chopin)--Marianna Tcherkassky, Guillaume Graffin, Julie Kent, Christine Dunham. “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes” (Morris/Thomson)--Company. “Gaite Parisienne”--Yeager, Graffin, Danilo Radojevic, Kathleen Moore.

Dec. 1, 8 p.m.: “Les Sylphides”--Tcherkassky. Graffin, Kent, McKerrow. “Fugue”--O’Day, Bishton, Sanchez. “Garden of Villandry”--cast to be announced. “Ballet Imperial”--Leslie Browne, Stretton, Deirdre Carberry.

Dec. 2, 8 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--Jaffe, Liepa.

Dec. 3, 2 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--McKerrow, Chapman.

Dec. 3, 8 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--Dunham, Stretton.

Dec. 4, 2 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--Jaffe, Liepa.

Dec. 4, 8 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--Alessandra Ferri, Graffin.

Dec. 6, 8 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--McKerrow, Chapman.

Dec. 7, 8 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--Cynthia Gregory, Serge Lavoie.

Dec. 8, 8 p.m.: “Swan Lake”--van Hamel, Stretton.

Dec. 9, 8 p.m.: “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” (Balanchine/Stravinsky)--Jaffe, Browne, Stretton, Ricardo Bustamante. “Les Sylphides”--Tcherkassky, Graffin, Kent, McKerrow.

Gaite Parisienne”--Yeager, Graffin, Renvall, Rose.

Dec. 10, 2 p.m.: “Ballet Imperial”--Cynthia Harvey, Liepa, Carberry, Brown, Summers.

“Drink to Me Only”--Company. “Gaite Parisienne”--Jaffe, Bustamante, Radojevic, Moore.

Dec. 10, 8 p.m.: “Les Sylphides”--Yeager, Chapman, Tcherkassky, Dunham. “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”--Van Hamel, McKerrow, Stretton, Brown. “In the Upper Room” (Tharp/Glass)--company.

Dec. 11, 2 p.m.: “Drink to Me Only”--company. “Fugue”--O’Day, Bishton, Sanchez. “Garden of Villandry”--to be announced. “Ballet Imperial”--Browne, Stretton, Dunham.

Dec. 11, 8 p.m.: “Les Sylphides”--Yeager, Chapman, Tcherkassky, Dunham. “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”--Jaffe, Browne, Stretton, Bustamante. “In the Upper Room”--company.