Britain’s Royal Ballet to Perform in O.C.

The Royal Ballet of Great Britain will appear next summer at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, a highly placed company official in London confirmed Saturday. Center President Thomas R. Kendrick, however, has refused to confirm or deny the booking.

The Times erroneously announced Friday that the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (one of three resident performing companies at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden) would play Costa Mesa, the most likely venue being the Performing Arts Center. In fact, it will be the more celebrated Royal Ballet that will make Costa Mesa the only West Coast stop on its three-city U.S. tour in 1990, according to the official who requested anonymity.

The tour begins July 2 in New York, moves to Washington, D.C., before its Orange County stop, and ends on Aug. 5. Dates for Orange County are not set.

The Royal Ballet, Britain’s national ballet company, grew out of the Academy of Choreographic Art, a school founded by Dame Ninette de Valois in 1926. It evolved intothe Royal Ballet under a Royal Charter in 1956. It last appeared in Southern California in 1979.

Dancers with the Royal have included Alicia Markova, Anton Dolin, Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, Rudolf Nureyev, Lynn Seymour, Merle Park, Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell (the current artistic director). Choreographers most identified with the company include Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan and, more recently, David Bintley.