O.C. DANCE : No Tiptoeing Around Truth : The St. Joseph Ballet Company’s new ballet, which is the result of work by inner-city kids from Santa Ana, Garden Grove and South-Central L.A., strives to capture the reality of urban life.

It was business as usual at the St. Joseph Ballet Company rehearsal, as sweaty dancers readied their annual spring concert, running here Thursday through Sunday.

Well, almost business as usual. Yes, a multicultural mix of bright-eyed youths leaped across the stage. And yes, they executed choreography by Beth Burns, who founded the operation in 1984 to offer low-income, inner-city youths free lessons and a new window on life through dance.

But this season, the company has prepared a new ballet, titled “Find Yourself, Lose Yourself,” that is meant to capture the pulse of urban life with greater authenticity than before: Its plot, music and scenic designs were crafted not by professionals, but by local inner-city students.

“We wanted to express the voice of the inner-city with more clarity and compassion,” Burns said during a recent rehearsal break at Rancho Santiago College’s Phillips Hall Theatre.

To do that, Burns staged a three-part competition last year that resulted in more than 1,700 entries from junior high and high school and college students in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and South-Central Los Angeles.

The story competition entries, based on Burns’ mythic, universal theme of “lost and found,” addressed a range of urban issues, including drug and child abuse, poverty, AIDS and gangs.

“These kids were really digging deep into their own lives,” said Charles Champlin, The Times’ recently retired critic at large, who led a judges panel that chose the winning story. “You had no doubt that (their essays) were coming out of real experience or the next thing to it.”

Winner Sang Quang Tran, a senior at Garden Grove’s Santiago High School, can describe in detail the 18-day boat trip he took when his family fled Vietnam in 1988. But because so many of his friends who entered the competition wrote about their own emigration, Tran said, he chose different subject matter.

Tran hasn’t come face to face with gang life, but after seeing the 1961 film of the classic musical “West Side Story,” and hearing plenty about gangs, he fashioned a contemporary, ill-fated romance about Gabriela, a young woman who falls in love with Manuel, a gang leader, only to confront her mother’s staunch opposition.

The winner of the music composition segment of the contest was Kaisara L. Esera, a junior at Fountain Valley’s Los Amigos High School, who wrote a driving pop score for synthesizer. The scenery was made by winner Jesus Cabral, a senior at Bethune Junior High School in South-Central Los Angeles. He designed a floor-to-ceiling backdrop of hilly city streets and chain-link fences. The winners were awarded $1,000 each, and three semifinalists in each category won $250 apiece.

Besides striving for a slice-of-street-life ballet, Burns staged the competition to expand her organization’s mission.

“We wanted to nurture and recognize young inner-city artists who may not be dancers” and, when possible, to “connect them with professional artists (who judged the contest) so they could be inspired and motivated,” she said. “There’s a great deal of talent and hope and drive in the inner-city, and the more we can develop that, the more lives will turn around.”

Tran didn’t meet the story judges, but Burns said she relayed to him their thoughts about his piece. Also, Burns worked closely with Tran, translating his story into movement and further developing character motivation and plot.

The 17-year-old from Saigon said he wants to be a doctor, not a writer. But winning the competition filled him with pride.

“I feel like I’ve done something right with my life,” he said.

Frank Romero, a nationally known Los Angeles artist who led the scenic design panel, invited 15-year-old winner Cabral to his studio, where he was at work on a 40-foot-high mural and several paintings.

“There’s always a lot going on here, and I think it was neat for him to see that kind of activity,” said Romero, who has given the ballet troupe a backdrop he painted for another dance in its concert. “Also, I am a Chicano, and I think that was nice for him, as a role-model thing.”

Spending a week at Hollywood’s A&M; Records studios--where superstar Janet Jackson and others have recorded--was beyond “nice” for Esera, who composed the 17-minute ballet score.

Famed trumpeter-composer-producer Herb Alpert, the “A” of A&M; Records, led the music panel and invited the 17-year-old to the multimillion-dollar studio to have his piece orchestrated by keyboardist Eduardo del Barrio, who has long played, composed and produced music with Alpert.

“Kaisara brought a tape he had made with piano and a little drum, and I didn’t add any music--all I did was orchestrate (with a synthesizer) what he had,” Del Barrio said.

Esera, who has played trumpet in school for six years but never had composed music, was initially overwhelmed by his brush with the big time.

“At first it was kind of intimidating, but after the first couple hours, it was like ‘Wow, I wanna do this!’ ” he said.

Exposing students to top-flight arts professionals is particularly critical in a time of severe cutbacks to school arts programs, said Burns, whose $192,755-a-year nonprofit organization enjoys strong community financial support as well as state funding and high praise for artistic achievement from the California Arts Council.

“The school districts could never afford these relationships,” she said.

* The St. Joseph Ballet Company will perform its spring concert “Find Yourself, Lose Yourself” on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Phillips Hall Theatre, Rancho Santiago College, 17th and Bristol streets, Santa Ana. Tickets: $8, general; $5, children, seniors, and matinee seats. $25 for tickets to benefit the St. Joseph Ballet Company scholarship fund. Information: (714) 541-8314.