‘Cradle of Fire’ Treads Violent Paths : Dance: The Bethune Theatredanse’s inaugural production is a story of two teens: one in a concentration camp in the 1940s and one on the streets here today.

A mother grieves over her inability to protect her angry, anguished young son caught up in the violence of today’s mean streets . . . A mother cradles her teen-age daughter in her arms in a futile attempt to shelter her from the horrors of a World War II concentration camp . . . In a battered-looking Westside studio, dancers are rehearsing “Cradle of Fire,” Bethune Theatredanse’s inaugural production as the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s resident dance troupe, opening tonight.

In tights, sweats and street clothes, dancers leap and spin across the studio’s scarred wooden floor as the action shifts from a graceful pas de deux between mother and daughter to an ominous gathering of gang members on the street. A driving, percussive score matches the intensity of the action as artistic director Zina Bethune and collaborator Carlos Jones watch from the sidelines, with Bethune filling in as narrator of the scripted dance work. Missing are the video projections of original and archival film footage and the lighting effects that will be integrated into this ambitious, youth-slanted, multimedia work that links present and past violence.

“It’s the story of two teen-agers caught in the respective violence of their times,” Bethune said. “One is in a concentration camp in the 1940s and one is a teen-ager on the streets here.

“We’re not trying to invite a comparison between the Holocaust and now,” she stressed. “But we are trying to say there is a climate that existed back then that created this horror and there is a climate now of intolerance and prejudice that could lead to the same thing today if we’re not careful.”

The work contains many shocking images: a child’s suicide, another’s murder, bodies being bulldozed into a mass grave; at one point dancers form a “prejudicial tunnel,” shouting racial epithets at a cowering youth. The piece also incorporates historical music and poetry written by children in World War II camps and ghettos.

One poem, “the key icon in this whole show,” Bethune said, provides the connection between a 15-year-old camp victim and a 15-year-old gang member, who finds a bittersweet resonance in the words of despair and hope.

Manuel Velasquez, a crisis intervention worker for the Valley-based Community Youth Gang Services, is the consultant who will provide “the flavor of the street,” he said, “and incorporate it into the play so that it becomes more realistic, not stereotypes. One of the things I was critical about was that they wanted a downtown street atmosphere and it sounded more like ‘West Side Story.’ ”

Some of the multiethnic cast members--five adults and 10 young people ranging in age from 8 to 19--express an emotional involvement with the piece. Andre Fuentes, 18, an athletic dancer who plays the lead role of fledgling gang member Ray, said that he was “lucky, unlike my character who is in the middle of all this anger and frustration, with people fighting and killing each other. I came from a family that sheltered me from that.”

He said he hopes the work will help audiences see “how much violence is affecting everyone and understand how ignorant it is. That’s all it is, a bunch of ignorance.”

Shiva Bagheri, 19, petite with a compact muscularity, agrees. She plays Eva, Ray’s World War II counterpart. “Back then, half those people didn’t know what they were saying. They were basically being sheep. It’s the same thing with gangs. These kids are so young they don’t understand what the gang is doing. They want friends and acceptance.”

“Cradle of Fire” was originally created by Bethune and her partner, video artist Michael Masucci, five years ago as a video for schools and libraries. Using archival and “modern-day” footage, and historical songs arranged by Michael Isaacson, it was a remembrance of the children of the Holocaust.

The expanded version hits home with Teresa Taberson, who plays Ray’s mother. “(I wonder) what can I give my child to overcome the influence of prejudice? To keep her from hating? My line in the play is, ‘You must not hate.’ No matter what, you cannot take that on. Don’t give back what is given to you. Be a leader.”

“In picking a piece for our premiere season, we felt this one was right because it dealt with issues uppermost in people’s minds, particularly in L.A.,” Bethune said. “We’re not a company that does ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Nutcracker.’ We’re going to take our best shot at creating what we believe can be a new voice.”

* “Cradle of Fire,” Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. $15-$18; (213) 660-8587.