DANCE REVIEW : Ballet Pacifica Adds Star Appeal to Its ‘Showcase’

To add apparent star appeal to a Ballet Pacifica seven-part “Showcase” on Thursday at the new Irvine Barclay Theatre, the company brought in as guests Laurie Miller and Olivier Munoz, principal dancers from the Cleveland-San Jose Ballet.

Miller happens to be the daughter of Sally Anne Sheridan, the mayor of the city of Irvine. The city happened to contribute the lion’s share of money ($11.3 million) toward the building of the $17.6-million Barclay. Sheridan also happens to be on the board of directors of Ballet Pacifica. A cynic might pause over these connections.

Yet, the young Miller is a credible dancer with noticeable accomplishment. In the Black Swan pas de deux, she made a frail but alluring Odile, vamped perhaps more than necessary and did not assay the 32 fouette marathon (not everyone does), offering, instead, 24 of the whipping turns followed by a series of pique turns.

Munoz began his Variation with a shot-from-guns circuit of turns but ended his spins sloppily. He was considerate as a partner.

(Unfortunately, the prerecorded tape they used contained sounds of applause for an unseen performance.)

In the pas de deux from Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations,” Miller exhibited poise and speed but not sufficient brilliance. Munoz partnered effacingly.

Ballet Pacifica still looked stuck at the level of an advanced class. The men could appear feeble merely walking around. The women often made going up on pointe look blocky, rugged, effortful.

Even when choreographer Sandra Winieski relied upon fluent, expressive port de bras in her regressive new “Flower Songs” (set to four piano pieces by Schubert), the five women complied with stiff, angular arm movements.

Deborah Appleton’s “Fantacia” (Tchaikovsky), a plotless neoclassical suite heavily indebted to Balanchine, perhaps most brutally exposed the technical limitations of the company. But while company director Molly Lynch, in her “Counterpoint,” responded with fitful musicality to Steve Reich’s “Vermont Counterpoint,” unresolved remained the question whether Lynch’s inspiration or the stamina of her six dancers evaporated sooner.

Israel Gabriel’s moody “Duetto” to Barber’s Adagio for Strings, set Janine Paulsen entwined about Lee Wigand in a quasi-erotic, shallow exploration of sadness and loss.

Introduced in 1989, James Jones’ “Rhapsody in Blue” again managed to unify the company as nothing else on the program, even though Emma Sutherland looked uncertain of what to make of her central role.