‘BalletFest’ Puts a New Spin on the Season

Mid-August isn’t L.A.’s high season for dance, but a new event is working to change that situation. Supplemented by satellite activities, six California companies will present three nights of classical dancing during the first “BalletFest” in the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A.

In the opening performance (next Thursday), Pasadena Dance Theatre offers Laurence Blake’s “Etudes,” and Inland Pacific Ballet Company dances an excerpt from George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” and Act 2 of “Giselle.”

Aug. 18 will feature the Diablo Ballet Company, the Francisco Martinez Dance Theatre and State Street Ballet Company. The Aug. 19 lineup includes Diablo again and the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet.

Supplementing the performances: A screening on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Luckman of two ballet documentaries from the 28th “Dance on Camera Festival Tour.” A doomed Kirov virtuoso is profiled in “Yuri Soloviev: I’m So Tired of Living in My Native Land,” and one of Canada’s most beloved ballerinas is celebrated in “Karen Kain: Dancing in the Moment.”

If you came to L.A. to get away from toe shoes or simply want to see a dance company grapple with the same issues as the nominating convention, check out the reliably adventuresome Collage Dance Theatre in its site-specific look at democracy, “Governing Bodies,” on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the courtyard of City Hall in Culver City.

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