Ballet Pacifica choreography project jetes into action

It’s not often you find a Pilates reformer in a boardroom. But the exercise contraption is a tool of the trade for Molly Lynch, artistic director of Irvine’s Ballet Pacifica. Especially during most of July, when it is put into overdrive by 15 company members and four visiting choreographers who have been invited to participate in Pacifica Choreographic Project 2003.

The annual three-week workshop was launched in 1991 when Lynch, who has helmed the company since 1988, decided to have new works created for her dancers by guest choreographers. Since its inception, the choreographic project has sponsored 44 choreographers and inspired 48 new works, with 21 ballets having been added to the troupe’s repertory. The efforts of this year’s choreographers -- Adam Hougland, Gina Patterson, Matthew Neenan and Jodie Gates -- can be seen at the Barclay Theatre on Saturday, when their works in progress are given concert performances.

Lynch, 47, sports a dancer’s long blond ponytail; her ears are peppered with piercings. Like a kid in a candy store, she says, she is unable to stay in her office doing paperwork while the choreographers are in the studio working with the dancers. She recalls the impetus for the choreographic project: “I was interested in Diaghilev -- the way he developed the art form to help choreographers create new work. And Antony Tudor and Agnes de Mille.... I also recognized the Joffrey Ballet had an eye for new talent. My goals are the same -- to create contemporary ballets to be presented and produced.”

The selection process is easy enough. This year Lynch received about 20 submissions, which included videotapes, resumes and word-of-mouth recommendations, from which she selected four dance makers. Since the project began, nine works created in the workshops have been danced by other companies, including Pascal Rioult’s “The Game,” made in 1994, which his own company subsequently performed, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s 1997 “Triptych,” a work Carolina Ballet later presented.

Lynch, whose annual operating budget is $1.5 million, says that for the last three years the James Irvine Foundation has provided $150,000 for the project, which is augmented by individual donations. This money is used to fly in and house participants and, most important, give them 37 hours of rehearsal time with dancers.

The parameters, says Lynch, are simple. “In the choreographers’ proposals, they choose a theme and music, and describe their basic ideas. The works run about 15 minutes, and my dancers each work with two choreographers.”

On a recent afternoon, veteran Gates, who is best known for her 12-year stint dancing with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City (under the late Robert Joffrey in the early ‘80s) and currently performs with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt is sweating out a session with a small group of dancers. A 16-minute CD plays, a collage of sampled sounds by Dietrich Kruger, Frankfurt Ballet’s sound technician, mixed with a Bach viola and piano sonata.

Demonstrating a lift to Adam Hundt and Hitomi Yamada, Gates talks them through it: “Arabesque around her. Hitomi, let him feel your weight. He’s playing you -- you’re the viola.”

The moves are lyrical, fresh, clean; the dancers seem to embody Gates’ ideas.

“I’m just now feeling comfortable sharing and creating what I know with fellow dancers,” says Gates, who only recently forayed into choreography. “Here, they are so easy and open-minded. It makes the work a joy. I’m influenced by every choreographer I’ve ever worked with -- Balanchine, Jiri Kylian, Lar Lubovitch. They’ve definitely had an impact on how I move my body, so I can then tailor-make my work on these dancers.”

Neenan, 29, won a Choo San Goh Award for Choreography in 1999. He currently dances with and choreographs for Pennsylvania Ballet. In addition, in 2000, Neenan co-founded Philadelphia-based Phrenic New Ballet, a troupe for which Gates, coincidentally, made a piece in 2001.

In rehearsal, Neenan deploys his six charges with aggressive lifts, lots of pointe work and an array of humor-inducing crab-like walks, set to lively Mozart string quartets and quintets. “The quality of the dancers is high,” he says. “They are a big inspiration.”

Hougland, 26, was watching the clock tick on his career as a dancer. The Texas-born choreographer studied at Juilliard, where he was awarded the Hector Zaraspe Prize for outstanding choreography for his ballet “Beyond,” which has been staged by, among other companies, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. As a dancer, Hougland performed with the Limon Dance Company for two years, before quitting in 2001.

“This choreography thing was taking off,” he explains, “and since my career had some sort of momentum, I thought I needed to jump on these opportunities.”

Hougland’s schedule allowed him to participate in this year’s project, and the match with Ballet Pacifica dancers, whose ages range from 22 to 32, has proven propitious.

“My background is eclectic, a lot of Graham and Limon,” Hougland says, “but my goal here was to find new ways of exploring pointe work.”

The experience is also positive for 33-year-old Patterson, who dances with Ballet Austin and counts 10 choreographies in her resume. The artist says her work, set to Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor’s “Appalachia Waltz,” is a response to today’s war-torn climate: “I’d been listening to a lot of classical music and wanted to make something to lighten up my soul, something more joyful.”

Patterson’s octet is shaping up to be just that. It also appears that with four individual personalities coming together to create dances on and for Ballet Pacifica, the project, now in its 13th season, seems to have, well, legs.

Says Lynch: “These choreographers are supplied with the freedom and talent to unveil their vision. And the Southern California community gets a first peek at what will be the dance repertory of tomorrow.”