O.C. DANCE : Ballet Pacifica Will Make a Leap

Ballet Pacifica will take two big steps next season, dancing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa for the first time and moving its annual holiday performances of the “Nutcracker” from the 400-seat Laguna Playhouse to the 750-seat Irvine Barclay Theatre.

The program at the center, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m., will be a collaboration with the Pacific Chorale. Ballet Pacifica will dance premieres set to Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore” and Libby Larsen’s “The Settling Years” (choreographers to be announced) and will reprise Brahms’ “Liebeslieder Waltzes” as choreographed by James Jones. Chorale music director John Alexander will conduct 30 of his singers, the Winds of the Pacific Symphony and pianists Lori Loftus and Jan Sanborn.

“It wouldn’t be feasible for us to do the center program alone,” Ballet Pacifica artistic director Molly Lynch said this week. “But this is feasible because we’ll be splitting (promotional and rental) costs.

“We’ve been talking off and on for years about collaborating with other groups,” she noted. “This will really open the doors to us doing new work and expanding the repertory and fulfilling one of my goals, which is to do more concerts with live music.”

The “Nutcracker” will be danced at the Irvine Barclay Dec. 16 through 24 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Lynch said the shift from Laguna Beach was “to accommodate the audiences we’ve developed in the ‘Nutcracker’ with fewer performances.”

The troupe’s season will open Oct. 14 and 15 at the Irvine Barclay with the premiere of a yet-untitled work by choreographer Tina Gerstler, visual artist Megan Williams and composer Brad Dutz. Fokine’s “Les Sylphides” (Chopin) and Lynch’s “Different Trains” (Steve Reich) will complete the program.

The season will conclude at the Irvine Barclay May 19 and 20 with Lynch’s new “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Mendelssohn), her familiar “Les Femmes” (Poulenc) and Israel Gabriel’s “Eternal Spring” (Kitaro). Both programs will begin at 8 p.m. Fridays and at 2:30 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays.

Programs in the Children’s Series will be offered Sept. 24 and 25, Feb. 4 and 5, March 18 and 19 and April 29 and 30 at the Festival of Arts Forum Theatre in Laguna Beach (curtain times: 11:30 a.m and 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. daily).

Lynch estimated her 1994-95 budget to be about $450,000, about $130,000 more than this season’s. The increase doesn’t spring from the move to larger venues as much as from “our losses in (last fall’s Laguna Beach) fire. Everything has to be built new.” The company lost its warehouse and everything in it, all its sets and costumes. The total loss was more than $1 million, only about $380,000 of which was covered by insurance.

By choreographing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Lynch inevitably will be stirring up comparisons with the great Frederick Ashton, whose version was danced earlier this month at OCPAC by the Royal Ballet of Britain.

“I don’t want to be compared to the Royal Ballet,” she said. “That’s not the idea. I have a long list of Shakespeare plays I would like us to do. My interest is to try to do some smaller story ballets that can reach new audiences,” especially “high school students who are reading plays like ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ ”

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Originally called the Laguna Beach Civic Ballet, Ballet Pacifica was created in 1962 by Lila Zali, who had danced with the forerunner of what is now the American Ballet Theatre and with other important companies. Lynch took over in 1988 upon Zali’s retirement and began expanding the repertory by commissioning new work from younger American choreographers, especially through a series of annual summer workshops. Some of the works created in the 1994 workshop may be added to the 1994-95 concert schedule.

Season tickets for the concert series will be $50, $40 for students and seniors. Tickets to individual programs at the Irvine Barclay will be $18, $15 for students and seniors; tickets to the program at OCPAC will be $15 to $40. Tickets for the “Nutcracker” will be $16 for adults and $13 for children. Tickets to programs in the Children’s Series will be $10 for adults and $7 for children and seniors. Individual tickets go on sale Sept. 1.

BALLET PACIFICA

The 1994-95 Season:

* Oct. 14, 15: The premiere of a yet-untitled work by choreographer Tina Gerstler, visual artist Megan Williams and composer Brad Dutz; Fokine’s “Les Sylphides” (Chopin) and Molly Lynch’s “Different Trains” (Steve Reich). Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.

* Dec. 16-24: The “Nutcracker.” Daily at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.

* Feb. 26: Premieres set to “The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore” (Gian Carlo Menotti) and “The Settling Years” (Libby Larsen) by choreographers to be announced; James Jones’ “Liebeslieder Waltzes” (Brahms). A collaboration with the Pacific Chorale. 7:30 p.m.

* May 19, 20: The premiere of Lynch’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Mendelssohn), Lynch’s “Les Femmes” (Poulenc) and Israel Gabriel’s “Eternal Spring” (Kitaro). Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.

The Children’s Series:

* Programs will be offered Sept. 24, 25, Feb. 4, 5, March 18, 19 and April 29, 30 at 11:30 a.m and 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. daily.

All regular season productions will be at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine, except for the Feb. 26 program at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. All Children’s Series programs will be at the Festival of Arts Forum Theatre, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Information on all programs: (714) 642-9275.