Baryshnikov, White Oak to Perform at Music Center

The White Oak Dance Project, the year-old collaboration of dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and modern dance choreographer Mark Morris, will perform for the first time in Los Angeles Oct. 28 and 29 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Music Center said Thursday.

The tour is also expected to visit San Diego Nov. 1.

The performances in Southern California will be part of a regional visit to the Western states and Texas, the first tour that will not exclusively feature works choreographed by Morris. Now in residency with his company at Jacob’s Pillow near Boston, Morris is not expected to be on this White Oak tour.

Announced for the repertory are two Lar Lubovitch works, a new piece titled “Waiting for the Sunrise” and the male duet from “Concerto Six Twenty-Two”; Martha Graham’s “El Penitente”; and Morris’ “A Lake.” There will also be selected solos choreographed by Morris, Martha Clarke and Meredith Monk.

The Florida-based dance company, which is housed on an endangered-animal preserve owned by paper magnate Howard Gillman, a friend of Baryshnikov, will tour with 13 dancers plus Baryshnikov. Many of the dancers will be new to this tour and drawn from the Lar Lubovitch Company. The tour opens in Phoenix on Oct. 19 and then goes to Texas, California, Washington and Idaho.

Christina Sterner, general manager of the White Oak Dance Project, said Baryshnikov is expected to perform each night of the tour, but not in every work presented.

The 43-year-old Baryshnikov and Morris, 35, first worked together in 1988 when Baryshnikov, then artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, invited Morris to create a piece for the company. Baryshnikov quit a year later in a dispute over artistic control and--except for three previous tours with the White Oak Project--has rarely appeared on stage.

He appeared in a spy film, “Company Business,” with Gene Hackman, which was released a few weeks ago. Earlier this year, he completed another full-length film, “The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez,” by Peter Sellars, which has yet to be released.

The celebrated dancer, who made headlines when he defected from the Soviet Union in 1974, last danced in Los Angeles in 1986.