Concert to Cap Dance Project

Ballet Pacifica’s third annual summer choreographers workshop will culminate in a works-in-progress program Saturday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. The company’s artistic director, Molly Lynch, picked the four participating choreographers from about 25 who submitted videotapes.

“I ended up asking nine of them for proposals for the summer project, then narrowed it down to the four,” Lynch said. The choreographers are Mark Dendy, Paul Estabrook and Kathryn Posin from New York and Robert Sund from San Francisco.

“This year we branched out more,” Lynch said. “There are more modern-dance choreographers than I’ve had in the past.”

Even so, she said, it ends up being contemporary ballet.

“It is ballet and works on the aesthetic of line and design and stretching.”

So far the works have no titles and will be danced with minimal lighting and costuming. Lynch might add all or some of the works to the regular repertory, in which case they would probably get fuller production values.

After the performance, the choreographers will be on stage to talk about their works and take questions from the audience.

Lynch described Dendy’s ballet as “a very high-energy, fast-paced piece.”

“He’s working a lot with floor patterns, shapes, chaos and order. It’s just a real spitfire moving kind of piece.”

It uses three men and four women dancing to Wall Matthews’ “African Drum Score.”

Estabrook’s work, for three men and six women, is reminiscent of a piece of sculpture that moves, Lynch said. The music is two works by Diamanda Galas and David Darling.

Posin creates a surreal Chinese fable for four women and two men. It is set to an excerpt from Tan Dun’s “Nine Songs for Ritual Opera.” Said Lynch: “From what I’ve seen, it’s a relatively athletic kind of piece.”

Sund’s work, set to Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor, deals with that composer, Lynch said, “and the people he interacted with in his life.”

* Ballet Pacifica will present works in progress by Mark Dendy, Paul Estabrook, Kathryn Posin and Robert Sund as part of the Pacifica Choreographic Project ‘93, Saturday, July 31, at 8 p.m. at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive. Tickets: $5. (714) 642-9275.