L.B. Ballet Eyes L.A. Music Center : Dance: The 9-year-old organization has ambitions of becoming Southern California’s resident company.

The Long Beach Ballet has approached the Los Angeles Music Center about performing there on a regular basis.

Artistic director David Wilcox said his goal is to see the troupe become the “resident company” of Southern California, establishing residencies in Los Angeles and Orange County as well as Long Beach. The Music Center recently lost the Joffrey Ballet as its resident ballet company when the Center canceled its contract with the company in March.

As part of its long-term expansion effort, the 9-year-old company--which has 19 members under contract and an additional 23 performing members--has also hired two former principal dancers with the Bolshoi Ballet and one former ballerina from the less-prestigious Moscow Classical Ballet.

Wilcox said Long Beach Ballet has also formed a support group called the Southern California International Ballet Alliance to aid in fund-raising and promotion for the company, which will attempt to double its operating budget this year--despite a dour economic climate which has led to financial struggles for major dance companies nationwide, including the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and the Pennsylvania Ballet.

Sandra Kimberling, president of the Music Center Operating Co., confirmed that Long Beach Ballet has presented the Music Center with its expansion plans and has asked to be considered as a possible candidate to perform its “Nutcracker” at the Music Center in December.

Long Beach Ballet performed its “Nutcracker” at the Music Center in 1984; in recent years, the “Nutcracker” slot has been filled by the Joffrey. Despite the dissolution of the Joffrey’s pact with the Music Center, the Music Center has confirmed it is in serious negotiations with the Joffrey to perform its “Nutcracker” this December.

Kimberling said any speculation on a long-term residency for the Long Beach Ballet would be premature. She called Long Beach Ballet’s expansion plans “an exciting concept” and said the Music Center is “compiling the information and distributing it to all the players here.”

Music Center president Esther Wachtell has said that the Music Center is considering developing its own resident dance company from scratch. American Ballet Theatre, which is returning to the Music Center in August after a 10-year absence, has also been rumored as a candidate for resident status.

While Wilcox expressed an interest in establishing residency in Orange County, Thomas R. Kendrick, president of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, said he is not looking for a resident company in the near future. In recent years, Kendrick has discussed resident arrangements with New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet and other major companies, but Kendrick said the center prefers to present a variety of companies on a non-resident basis.

The Long Beach Ballet plans to increase its operating budget from $1.2 million to $2.5 million in the upcoming year, and to increase its dancers’ contracts from 20 weeks to 36 weeks.

Company spokesman Robert Coontz said the company projects $1.7 million will come from ticket sales; $87,500 from county and municipal grants; $68,750 from membership proceeds, and $150,000 from combined miscellaneous sales and guild sales. The company expects to secure the rest--approximately $550,000--through patron, corporate and in-kind contributions, as well as fund-raising events. The money has not yet been raised.

The three new dancers are Alla Khaniashvili-Artyushkina and husband Vitaly Artyushkin, formerly of the Bolshoi, and Galina Shlyapina, formerly of the Moscow Classical Ballet.

All three will join guest stars Vladimir Malakhov of the Moscow Classical Ballet and Thomas Vollmer, a principal dancer with the Komische Oper Ballet in the Long Beach Ballet’s June 21-23 performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention Center, choreographed by Christopher Tabor to music by Prokofiev. The company first presented the ballet in 1986, to taped music, and received mixed reviews. In this production, live music will be provided by the Long Beach Ballet Orchestra.

The performance is billed as the company’s first production under the aegis of the Southern California Ballet Alliance. The alliance includes Tatiana Riabouchinska-Lichine, a former star with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and co-founder of the Lichine Dance Academy in Beverly Hills; former American Ballet Theatre and Joffrey Ballet dancer Rebecca Wright; former Royal Ballet member Dudley Davies, and actress Paula Prentiss. Alexander Godunov has agreed to lend his name in support of the group.