It’s not often that education and entertainment...

It’s not often that education and entertainment can mix so easily. But that’s what members of the South Bay Ballet hope will happen when they present “The Toy Shop” this weekend, followed by an hourlong dance workshop.

The ballet, with its simple plot and short running time of one hour, is specifically designed to entertain a young audience with a shorter-than-normal attention span. And along with the post-performance workshop where children from the audience can learn one of the dances from the ballet, organizers hope to provide these young theatergoers with a crash-course education in the cultural arts.

“There’s not much of an audience for ballet anymore. We hope that the kids who see this show can learn about ballet and see how it’s done,” said Diane Lauridsen, artistic director for the South Bay Ballet. “We see this as an introduction to the arts for children that they don’t get in school anymore. And the workshop after the show provides a more hands-on experience with ballet.”

“The Toy Shop” is the story of a young girl who visits a toy shop to buy a doll. She then finds that she must choose from among many dolls that each perform a dance for her. Some 35 dancers, from young children to professionals, are involved in the production, dancing to musical scores that some may recognize from “The Nutcracker” and “Sleeping Beauty.”

The dance workshop will immediately follow the performance. Several workshops will be offered simultaneously to accommodate the hundreds of children expected to flock to the post-performance sessions.

This is the ninth year that the South Bay Ballet has performed “The Toy Shop” during the holidays. The Ballet will offer another program for children during the President’s Day holiday weekend in February, when it performs “The Carnival of the Animals” and “Cinderella” together. In June, the Ballet will perform its Spring Concert, featuring a mix of classical, modern and original dance.

The South Bay Ballet is a member of Regional Dance America, whose membership includes some of the top ballet companies in the country. The Ballet is also one of the four recipients of the 1992 City of Torrance Excellence in Arts Awards.