Youth Arts Fest Appeals to Mind’s Eye

A dozen costumed dancers--some dressed as bug-eyed reptiles, others as colorful toucans--will use props and puppets to invoke the flora, fauna and misty magic of the rain forest for the 14th annual Imagination Celebration, April 17-May 2 throughout Orange County.

“Rainforest,” to be staged at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on April 29 by the Denver-based David Taylor Dance Theatre, is billed as a highlight of the youth arts festival.

The plotless 90-minute piece “follows the evolution of the rain forest, from its primitive development to the time man appears on the scene,” said center education director Troy Botello, stressing that the work doesn’t seek to promulgate any political viewpoint.

Some 250,000 children, teens and adults are expected to experience 60 arts events at 30 sites during the festival, sponsored by the center and the Orange County Department of Education.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., hatched the Imagination Celebration concept in 1977. It spawned similar festivals in Orange County and nationwide, aimed at encouraging youths to use their imaginations and creativity and appreciate the arts.

Activities will be staged at parks, theaters, malls and elsewhere by the center, the Pacific Symphony, the Orange County Museum of Art, South Coast Repertory, local schools and other groups.

The center also will present dance and acrobatics, a la Cirque du Soleil, with the Seattle-based Do Jump Extreme Movement Theater performing May 1. It will conclude the festival May 2 with RhythMatix, a Canadian tap troupe said to be similar to the Stomp percussion-dance ensemble.

Absent from this year’s festival will be the Imaginarium, which for the past decade brought a buffet-like mix of outdoor performances and hands-on fun to an empty lot adjacent to the center.

The center administration wants to shift its efforts to presenting professional troupes only inside Segerstrom Hall--where it can have greater artistic control, Botello said. He also cited the Imaginarium’s high cost--about $90,000--and noted the center’s plan to use the lot that had been used for the Imaginarium for a major expansion expected to be complete in about five years.

In the Imaginarium’s place, however, will come the free ImagUtopia, to take over Anaheim’s Pearson Park on opening day from noon to 5 p.m. Performances will include music, drama, dance and storytelling by such groups as Pacific Chorale, Laguna Playhouse and Anaheim Ballet.

Clown, juggler and musician Michel Lauziere will headline. Hands-on activities will allow youths to paint a mural, scan their own drawing and e-mail it to a friend, or craft a butterfly puppet.

Other festival events: exhibits, performances and workshops illuminating the cultures of Brazil, Peru, Chile and Paraguay at the Children’s Museum of La Habra (April 18); dinosaur- and fossil-making workshops at the Fullerton Museum Center (April 18); and Celtic storytelling and music by Scotland’s Robin Williamson at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library (April 24).

BE THERE

The 14th annual Imagination Celebration will be held throughout Orange County from April 17-May 2. Most events are free. The David Taylor Dance Theatre will perform “Rainforest” on April 29 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7:30 p.m. $8. (714) 556-2787, Ext. 6071.