DANCE REVIEW : S.F. Ballet Shows Its Strength

Two Sunday casts for the San Francisco Ballet “Nutcracker” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center confirmed the excellence of the company as a whole.

At the matinee, Jim Sohm gave Drosselmeyer more of an air of mystery than Val Caniparoli, his Saturday predecessor. But Caniparoli looked fine in the Arabian Dance, breezing through partnering hazards opposite a pliant Virginia Long. The new Clara, Aria Rosenberg, emphasized vivacity.

Although the snow scene needed better performances than those of Wendy Van Dyck and the labored Mikko Nissinen, Tina LeBlanc and David Palmer made the Sugar Plum pas de deux a memorable occasion with their instinctual rapport and fine technique. Indeed, LeBlanc was the only Sugar Plum Fairy of the weekend to physicalize the overwhelming sense of yearning in the score. Denis de Coteau again conducted.

On Sunday evening, Emil de Cou conducted with a greater sense of emotion and dynamic contrasts. Leslie Young and Benjamin Pierce went for maximum sharpness and flash in the snow pas de deux--she proving promising if undeveloped, he the master of a spectacular jump.

Anthony Randazzo danced unevenly in the grand pas de deux, but Evelyn Cisneros exuded her customary warmth and security, with her high-speed pyrotechnics in the coda especially distinctive.

Among the divertissement highlights, Ming-Hai Wu again displayed phenomenal jumps--this time in the Cossack trio, and Katita Waldo (partnered by Richard McLeod) brought unexpected delicacy to the Arabian Dance. Kristin Long seemed to be having the time of her life in the “Waltz of the Flowers.”

* San Francisco Ballet will dance a program of mixed repertory, today-Thursday, at 8 p.m. and then return to “The Nutcracker” Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $18-$55. (714) 556-2787.