DANCE / EILEEN SONDAK : Famine Now Feast as Acts Step on Each Other’s Toes

The new year got off to a sluggish start for dance buffs with the cancellation of the Limon company’s January concert. But February promises a double dose of big-league dance and a pair of noteworthy grass-roots efforts as well.

Kodo and Ballet Hispanico of New York, two acclaimed imports, are San Diego-bound this weekend. Stage Seven Dance Theater will end a nine-month hiatus with a concert of new works, and California Ballet will jump the gun on the Soviet Arts Festival by showcasing four Soviet dancers in its winter repertory concert.

Unfortunately, three of these events are scheduled for the same two nights. Kodo’s stay in Symphony Hall and Stage Seven’s City College Theater stint go head to head Feb. 10-11, while Ballet Hispanico locks horns with both during a one-night stand at Mandeville Auditorium on Feb. 11.

Providing a clearing house for dance concerts was one of the primary goals of the San Diego Area Dance Alliance when it announced plans to print a bimonthly calendar of events, so why the destructive overlap?

“We have so many more activities than we did eight years ago,” said alliance executive director Tom Corcoran. “We do put notices about dates in our newsletter, but the real problem is that people are dictated to by the availability of space and the availability of performers.

“With so few affordable theaters for dance, they don’t have any choice. Sometimes they’re caught in that bind of having to schedule performances in spite of conflicts. It’s too bad for real danceomanes,” Corcoran acknowledged. “But the majority of dance audiences aren’t so much a crossover any more. In earlier days, we all drew from the same audience.”

If you have to make a choice, Kodo and Ballet Hispanico are about as diverse in style and content as any two performing groups can be. Kodo’s calling card is a fusion of highly physical, ritualistic drumming and strong, stylized movement, while the classically trained Hispanico dancers perform modern dance with the accent split between their Latin origins and their strong American roots.

This weekend’s competition hasn’t hurt Kodo. Although the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts began promoting the concert right on the heels of its decision to scrap two series events, Kodo has turned out to be the foundation’s biggest seller.

In fact, at least $37,500 in underwriting for a fund-raising event in conjunction with the opening-night performance has already been funneled into the organization, and the foundation is expecting a repeat of last year’s sellout.

“They were a big hit at the Olympics, and they’re better known than most of the companies we’ve been bringing in,” said Danah Fayman of the foundation, “so we knew they’d do well.”

UC San Diego’s University Events, sponsors of Ballet Hispanico of New York, knew the company was an unknown quantity here. But the University is bullish on the troupe because “it’s a contemporary company that hasn’t lost its heritage,” events director Lynn Peterson said. “They’re not a folklorico troupe, yet there’s a definite theme of Latin dance.”

The 8 p.m. concert at Mandeville Auditorium Saturday is “stylish and contemporary, but not avant-garde,” Peterson said, and, with its eclectic orientation, “it should dispel some stereotypes, at least as it applies to the Latin dancer.”

California Ballet’s “Stars of the Russian Ballet” concert follows as more than a footnote to this weekend’s dance marathon. The single performance at the Civic Theatre on Feb. 21 will introduce four Russian soloists--one pair from the Bolshoi Ballet and one from the Kirov--in a program that is split down the middle. Home-grown dancers will open with samples of old and new repertory, and the Russians will dominate the finale, doing what they do best.

“They’ll dance classic pas de deux on their half of the program,” director Maxine Mahon said, “and John Clifford (director of the Los Angeles Ballet) is choreographing a piece for the four of them.”

The centerpiece of the San Diego portion of the program is the long-neglected “Miraculous Mandarin,” choreographed by Marius Zirra during his tenure as ballet master for the company.