S.F. Ballet to Dance at Orange County Center

The San Francisco Ballet will make its first appearance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa in October, as part of the center’s 1989-90 dance season.

San Francisco Ballet will join the series along with the previously announced Kirov Ballet, appearing in August for its only Southern California engagement of the season, and the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, center officials announced Monday.

The San Franciscans will dance seven programs of mixed repertory, including Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations” (music by Tchaikovsky), William Forsythe’s “New Sleep” (music by Tom Willems), and artistic director Helgi Tomasson’s “Handel--A Celebration.”

The company’s only other Southern California engagement this year will be its annual presentation of “The Nutcracker” in San Diego during the week of Thanksgiving.

Among the artists heading the Kirov touring company will be Altynai Assylmuratova, who danced Odette/Odile in Baryshnikov’s “Swan Lake” with American Ballet Theatre this month in Los Angeles.

The Joffrey will bring its recent production of “The Nutcracker” to the center in December, after which it will take the ballet to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

American Ballet Theatre will offer Kenneth MacMillan’s full-length “Romeo and Juliet” (set to Prokofiev) and two weeks of mixed repertory in March, 1990, including a revival of Antony Tudor’s 1938 comic ballet, “Judgment of Paris.”

Set to a suite from Kurt Weill’s “Dreigroschenoper,” Tudor’s one-act ballet parodies the classical story--in which three goddesses vie to have young Paris name one of them as the most beautiful--by setting the action in a sordid night bar. Tudor’s ballet has not been danced by ABT since the company presented it in 1958 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Casting will be announced at a later date.

The season:

--The Kirov Ballet, Aug. 18-27. Full-length ballets will include “The Sleeping Beauty” (set to the familiar Tchaikovsky score) and “Le Corsaire” (music by Minkus). There will also be a program of mixed repertory, including Petipa’s “Paquita” grand pas (music by Deldevez), Fokine’s “Chopiniana” (also known as “Les Sylphides”) and selected pas de deux. “Paquita” and “Chopiniana” were danced by the Kirov in Los Angeles on the company’s last tour in May, 1986.

--San Francisco Ballet, Oct. 17-22. Repertory will include Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations” (music by Tchaikovsky), Robbins’ “Interplay” (Morton Gould), William Forsythe’s “New Sleep” (Tom Willems), Helgi Tomasson’s “Handel--A Celebration,” David Bintley’s “The Sons of Horus” (Peter McGowan), Jiri Kylian’s “Forgotten Land” (Benjamin Britten).

--Joffrey Ballet, Dec. 12-17. Robert Joffrey’s production of “The Nutcracker” (Tchaikovsky).

--American Ballet Theatre, March 6-18, 1990. Kenneth MacMillan’s full-length “Romeo and Juliet” (Prokofiev). Programs of mixed repertory will include De Mille’s “Rodeo” (Aaron Copland), a revival of Antony Tudor’s “Judgment of Paris” (Kurt Weill), Clark Tippet’s “Rigaudon” (Britten), Natalia Makarova’s staging of the “Kingdom of the Shades” from Petipa’s “La Bayadere” (Minkus), Balanchine’s “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” and three works by Twyla Tharp--”Bum’s Rush” (Dick Hyman), “Everlast” (Kern) and “Quartet” (Terry Riley).