Royal Treatment

It was the end of an exhausting week, and dancers Lorena Feijoo and Steve Beirens felt more fatigued than usual.

On top of rehearsing several works for their home team, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, the couple were preparing “The Sleeping Beauty” for guest appearances with Festival Ballet Theatre of Fountain Valley. The pre-professional teen troupe performs Saturday and Sunday at Orange Coast College.

“We go nonstop from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” said Feijoo. She said they’ve been working through Joffrey lunch hours and breaks to conquer one of ballet’s most technically exacting classics.

“You have to be very precise,” said the Cuban-born dancer, “especially with the arms. You don’t use them like this, even in other 19th century classical pieces. It has to be very elegant, because Aurora is an aristocrat.”

Indeed, it’s Princess Aurora who is awakened with a kiss by Prince Florimund. Feijoo and Beirens have danced these roles but never the entire ballet. The opportunity to dance it together eases the ache of overworked muscles.

“Plus,” Beirens said, “this is a great chance for us to do a full-length ballet.” (Such works aren’t Joffrey mainstays.)

During a recent three-way telephone interview from Chicago in what they described as their small apartment, the couple said they met in 1992 when both joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders (she was a principal) in Beirens’ home country, Belgium. Feijoo, 25, had danced with Alicio Alonso’s National Ballet of Cuba and Beirens, 24, with the Zurich Ballet. They joined the Joffrey in October.

Last December, Salwa Rizkalla, artistic director of the Festival Ballet Theatre, saw the pair’s “Nutcracker” performances with the Joffrey in Los Angeles and invited them to appear with her troupe, now 7 years old.

They began to learn Rizkalla’s adaptation of the Petipa standard via video, then flew here for a few rehearsals. Using tape to pick up choreography is common, Feijoo said.

“Even in the company, there there’s not enough time [for personal instruction]. So you go to the video.”

The dancers in Rizkalla’s troupe, 14 to 18 years old and trained in the Russian Vagonova method at her Southland Ballet Academy, have been a pleasure to work with, Feijoo said.

“The energy from them is so positive because they are so excited to have someone from a professional company dancing with them. It’s nice to show them that although we are members of a big company, we are approachable; they can ask any questions, about a step or a pose or an arm, and we’re not the star-minded people who don’t want to work with kids.”

*

Working up the emotions for a love duet is a cakewalk when dancing with the one you love, they agreed.

“It’s easier with your girlfriend,” Beirens said. “You are more relaxed, and you go for it more. With another person, you would hold back a little bit in some way.”

“I find it’s a warmer feeling,” Feijoo added.

Chicago, she said, has warmly welcomed the Joffrey, which relocated there last spring after some 40 years in New York City.

The feeling is mutual, she said: “Everybody is working hard. We have much more attention here. . . . There are so many more dance companies in New York, and yet this is a very cultural city,” she said. “People are really concerned about the arts.”

* Festival Ballet Theatre, with guests Lorena Feijoo and Steve Beirens, performs Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. $12-$15. (714) 432-5880 or (714) 432-5902.