Joy of ‘One’ Shared by All : St. Joseph Ballet Company, Which Trains Poor Youths, Celebrates Anniversary

As dancer after dancer bound upon the stage, Elsa Salgado quickly spotted her three nieces.

“ Mira! “ (Look!) she whispered excitedly, alerting her husband and son seated beside her.

Serenaded by a rousing 12-piece mariachi band, Sara, Karla and Ruby Lopez swirled amid a sea of radiant youths, all members of the St. Joseph Ballet Company.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary with a birthday concert (which will be repeated today), the Santa Ana-based troupe drew a capacity crowd to the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Thursday. The audience whooped and whistled after “Mi Corazon Canta” (“My Heart Sings”), a balletic adaptation of Mexican folclorico.

“It’s a wonderful feeling seeing them perform a Mexican dance, to see they are proud of their heritage,” Salgado, a Santa Ana resident, said during intermission.

St. Joseph Ballet provides free dance training to inner-city youths, 9 to 19 years old, most of whom live in low-income Santa Ana neighborhoods where odds are they are more likely to learn gang hand signals than they are to practice plies.

Company artistic director and choreographer Beth Burns, a former member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, founded the troupe in hopes that exposure to the discipline and joy of dance would give underprivileged youths inspiration, hope, and a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.

Indeed. Thursday’s ethnically mixed audience was filled with proud friends, relatives and supporters, many of whom spoke of how St. Joseph’s had affected their impressionable loved ones.

“It keeps her away from bad things like drugs or gangs,” said Frankie Sotelo, who came to see his 10-year-old daughter Vanessa perform. “Sometimes I cry (with joy) when I see her dance.”

Herschel Hill, a teacher at Hoover Elementary School in Santa Ana, said his students who are involved with the troupe seem to have “more focus” than many of their peers.

“St. Joseph gives them the confidence and determination to say, ‘Hey, I want to do this and do it the best I can,’ ” he said.

The 10th-anniversary program features an ambitious, 25-minute ballet created by Burns to a dynamic score commissioned from Rene Dupere, resident composer of Cirque du Soleil, the popular circus based in Canada.

“Dancing Into One” is set within the context of pre-Columbian culture, but was inspired by actual incidents in the dancers’ lives and recounts a modern-day tale of a bitter rift between twin sisters that develops when one joins a gang.

The curtain rose Thursday to reveal scenery and costumes reminiscent of ancient Mayan civilization, and fell--after the sisters are reunited and two rival gangs make peace--to a standing ovation.

The work and its message of unity moved Salgado to tears.

“Everybody got together, no matter what race, what color,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I’m very proud of (my nieces). They are an example to other youths.”

St . Joseph Ballet performs its 10th-anniversary concert , “Dancing Into One,” again today at 2 and 8 p.m. at Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Tickets are $8 to $25. Information: (714) 854-4646.