Lewitzky Series Offers Therapy for the Intimidated : Dance: ‘In the Works’ program allows choreographers to perform and discuss their pieces in a relaxed format.

Scared of ballet? Intimidated by modern dance? Freaked by folk? L.A. dance doyenne Bella Lewitzky says she has the perfect therapy for you.

It’s “In the Works”--a new, low-price series sponsored by Lewitzky’s Dance Gallery that’s designed to “demystify dance,” Lewitzky says, and “enliven audience participation.”

Starting Sunday and continuing through June 10, the programs will begin at 5 p.m. at the Gascon Institute in the old Helms Bakery Building in Culver City. The goal is to make 12 L.A.-area choreographers and their works accessible in a relaxed, unpretentious format.

Each dance will be preceded by a brief introduction by Lewitzky, followed by a more intimate one by its creator. After the performance, audience members will be encouraged to chat with artists about how they cook up their pieces.

“It’s a fun, light, informal evening--with, I hope, a profoundly interesting purpose,” Lewitzky, 74, says. “The choreographers, all established artists, will be able to talk about their works-in-progress on their own terms.”

But shouldn’t the art be able to speak for itself?

“Not necessarily,” Lewitzky answers. “In order to understand dance, it’s not enough to see dance.”

It’s a lesson Lewitzky learned the hard way.

When the Dance Gallery brought William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet to Los Angeles last June, Lewitzky heard that certain audience members were puzzled by the rock ‘n’ roll, street-style, balletic idiosyncrasies.

“There’s nothing wrong with not ‘getting’ a piece,” she says. “Everyone comes to a dance with preconceptions--sometimes those distance you from a work.

“People raised on ‘Fame’ or ‘The Nutcracker’ might come to a Lewitzky concert and wonder why all these people are simply walking around on stage.

“L.A. is so multicultural. It’d be wrong to expect that we all have the same backgrounds and come to a dance the same way. Often you need to put a work in context before it comes alive.”

Such musings led Lewitzky, along with the series’ five-member panel, to arrange a dance menu filled with light fare, expositions--and juxtapositions.

The first double bill features two choreographers with wildly different styles: Rudy Perez’s cool cultural critiques and Francisco Martinez’s balletic leaps of emotional faith.

Perez is using the opportunity to present a new work: “One + 2 plus 1 = Mischief.”

The choreographer says he is going to dish up “a live version of MTV, with all the fast music and fast cuts” and is collaborating with jazz-pop composer Tommy Pelpier.

The introduction of rock and salsa into Perez’s minimalist aesthetic is new. Perez says he is eager to know “who my audience is,” and what they make of his change.

But Perez is worried that “the Dance Gallery will make the series feel too academic.”

“It’s the ‘90s,” he says. “I’d like to think that if I’m light and honest I’m on the right track. The audience is a lot smarter than we think and I trust them more than the die-hards to tell me if a work is dated or not.”

Choreographer Francisco Martinez, who shares the program with Perez, is less adventuresome.

“Although I’ve been performing in Southern California for nine years, this is my first L.A. concert,” he says of his 1987 “Palaces.” “It’s scary to have to have to deal with the audiences’ feelings.”

That’s exactly why Lewitzky says she is excited by the dialogue. The point is to dislodge the intimidating boundaries between spectator and spectacle that keep potential aficionados glued to their VCRs.

“I’ve found the L.A. audience more open than any other,” she says. “They are willing to go almost any place with the artist.”

But audiences also need dances--and theaters--to go to. Is Lewitzky’s series an attempt to quiet complaints in the dance community that it’s taking too long for her Dance Gallery to be built?

“Not really,” she says. “Education has always been one of our primary goals, regardless of the status of the Dance Gallery.

“Still, I’m happy to report that we’re closer in our fund-raising goals than we’ve been. However, with the absence of the Dance Gallery building, our challenge is all the more pressing: to develop audiences and suggest that they don’t have to be intimidated by dance.

“This series could open up a whole new relationship between dancers and audiences in L.A. Making choreographers accessible to audiences may be one of our great challenges in L.A. as well as one of our big achievements.”

Other “In the Works” programs will bring together Anthony Shay (Avaz) and Leon Mobley (Djimbe) on Feb. 11, Gregg Bielemeier and Stephanie Gilliland on March 18, Gloria Newman and Sarah Shelton Mann on April 29, Keith Terry, I Wayan Dibia and Juan Talavera on May 20, Susan Rose and Ferne Ackerman on June 10. The Gascon Institute is at 8735 Washington Blvd., near National Boulevard.