Benefit Under Big Top Aids Dance Outreach

The circus came to town Sunday, raising the big top at the Santa Ana Heights estate of John and Donna Crean to support Zina Bethune’s Dance Outreach.

A crowd of about 400 showed up for the International Circus Day Benefit and saw how disabled children can be transformed into dancers through Dance Outreach, the Bethune Theatredanse company’s education and performing program. The circus cost $75 for adults and $15 for children over 10 and raised $26,700 for the program.

Clowning Around

Like most circuses, this one had clowns, jugglers, knife-throwers and flying trapeze artists. What made the day special, however, were the performances by members of Dance Outreach. Bethune, a former soloist with the New York City Ballet and artistic director of Bethune Theatredanse, showed that even children who are blind or in wheelchairs can express themselves through dance.

“It makes you cry to watch them,” Donna Crean said. The Creans first saw a performance by Dance Outreach at a fund-raiser in Los Angeles.

“We saw the children perform and thought it was one of the most wonderful things we’d seen,” Donna said. “We decided it would be nice if Zina had classes down here. We wanted Orange County to learn about the charity, and the only way to learn about it is to see it.”

Dance Outreach teaches dance to more than 1,000 disabled children in schools throughout Southern California, including Hope School and Dickerson School in Buena Park. Proceeds from the circus will go to starting a third outreach program in Orange County.

“We’re not about kids throwing their crutches away. We’re about the quality of life,” said Bethune, program founder who had to abandon her professional dance career because of a curvature of the spine and lymphedema, a disease of the lymph glands.

“The kids are extraordinarily special. Often their teachers are amazed at what they can do. Kids with cerebral palsy are sometimes told they can’t do this or that. I go in and say, ‘Let’s dance!’ ”

Under the Big Top

Throughout the day, both children and adults indulged in childish pleasures--eating ice cream sundaes, playing carnival games and greeting a Batman impersonator with hugs.

Food stations offered everything from Carl’s Jr. hot dogs to an exotic hors d’oeuvre from West Coast Productions that featured seared ahi with sun-dried tomatoes and a dollop of basil mayonnaise on a homemade potato chip.

A dozen celebrities, including Robert Blake, Joey Bishop, Joseph Campanella, Stan Freeberg, Martin Landau and Danny Pintauro, participated in a celebrity auction in which they shared dessert with the winning bidders.

“Zina’s very captivating. I couldn’t say no to her and the kids,” Blake said.

Other guests were event Chairwoman Darleen Manclark, Buzz and Lois Aldrin, Jim and Gretchen Dale, Nicole Denholm, Julia Rappaport, Bob and Rita Teller, Gary and Marjorie TeWinkle, Janet Curci Walsh, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and Bobbitt Williams.