Academy a Giant Step Up for Ballet Pacifica Troupe : Entertainment: The dancers breaks in their 13,000-square-foot academy with a weekend of rehearsal. Classes start Sept. 25.

Leaping, lunging, spinning and sweating. How better to celebrate the opening of a new ballet conservatory than by dancing?

Sure, there was bubbly and baked Brie, but rehearsal was the center of attention Sunday as Ballet Pacifica, Orange County’s most prominent ballet troupe, inaugurated its new digs.

“It’s so exciting to finally get into the space and start working in it,” said artistic director Molly Lynch. “The dancers are walking around saying ‘Oh, I’m home, and it feels so good.’ ”

While company members began using the space over the weekend, classes officially begin Sept. 25 at the new, 13,000-square-foot academy. It boasts three airy, barre-lined studios--roughly tripling the troupe’s class and rehearsal space--storage space for costume and scenery, and offices.

The nondescript single-story facility, housed in a reconstructed industrial building near John Wayne Airport, may not win any architecture prizes. But officials believe it will elevate the troupe’s standing, Lynch said.

Until now, the 33-year-old company essentially has been without a home. Of late, classes and rehearsals have been held in four different venues around the county, including the Laguna Beach ballet school where the troupe was founded.

The conservatory will create “more of a presence in the community” and will eventually increase donations and boost ticket sales, Lynch said during a tour of the academy last week.

“When you actually have a home and you can say ‘This is where Ballet Pacifica is,’ it helps a lot,” she said.

A better image and a bigger budget--the company will operate on roughly $500,000 this year--also could translate to better dancing, Lynch said.

The 16-member troupe, whose proficiency level is still considered pre-professional, is only paid part-time for 48 weeks a year and dancers must take other jobs to make ends meet. A full-time wage, which would allow dancers to concentrate more fully on their art, can only help, Lynch said, as will a daily “company” class, which hasn’t always been possible without a home base.

“That will make a big difference,” Lynch said.

Having a place to practice--to really delve inside the choreography--whenever the urge strikes also will help, company member Shawn Pace said.

“It’s imperative for growth to explore the ballet you’re doing, rather than just learning the steps,” Pace said. “I know all of us want to elevate the technical level and artistry of the company.”

The new conservatory, for youths 8 and older, is part of the troupe’s recent efforts to raise its profile.

Initially called the Laguna Beach Civic Ballet, the company was founded in 1962 on a $1,500 shoestring by Lila Zali, who danced with the forerunner of American Ballet Theatre, today one of the nation’s top companies.

Lynch, a student of Zali’s, took the reins in 1988 when Zali retired and quickly began expanding the company’s repertory by commissioning new work from emerging American choreographers.

Last year, the company moved its annual “Nutcracker” performances from the 400-seat Laguna Playhouse to the 750-seat Irvine Barclay Theatre (the site of its regular fall season) and danced for the first time at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the county’s premiere arts venue, in a collaboration with Pacific Chorale.

Even the Laguna firestorm couldn’t keep the troupe down.

Flames destroyed the company’s warehouse--and nearly 30 years worth of sets and costumes--and cost about $1 million. But, thanks to tutus and tiaras lent from other dance companies, devoted volunteers and donors, Lynch managed to present a new “Nutcracker” production only six weeks later and the troupe finished the following year in the black with a $17,000 surplus.

Lynch has wanted to open a conservatory for years, but the fire proved catalytic to its creation, she said. For one thing, it forced the company to re-evaluate its goals. For another, a new storage facility had to be found.

So, Lynch said, “I proposed to the board that we seriously consider a location where we could consolidate our efforts. The board approved [the idea] last November.”

Move-in costs came to about $200,000, Lynch said, which was covered largely by an insurance settlement from the fire that also paid for construction of the conservatory’s three studios, all of which have special “sprung” wood floors that give beneath dancers’ weight.

While the troupe will be abandoning the site where it was founded, its children’s performances at the Laguna Forum Theatre will continue.