New York City Ballet ‘Close’ to Signing for Return to Center

The New York City Ballet is “close to concluding” arrangements to return to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in September, according to the company’s executive director, William Wingate.

Wingate did not say how long the troupe would perform in Orange County, nor did he disclose repertory. But he did confirm that the company is involved “in serious talks” to include Costa Mesa on its first West Coast visit since its one-week stint at the Center in October, 1986.

That engagement, a major coup for the Center because it was the troupe’s only Southern California appearance, was part of a three-city West Coast tour that also included stops in Berkeley and Seattle. The ballet company’s press department declined this week to provide further information about its upcoming tour.

A spokesmen for the Orange County Performing Arts Center would not comment.

Widely regarded as the nation’s premiere dance company, New York City Ballet grew out of three earlier attempts by balletomane Lincoln Kirstein and choreographer George Balanchine to found an American company. The company received its present name in 1948. It has been long associated with the seminal works and style of Balanchine, who died in 1983.