FACES TO WATCH 2009 DANCE

LILIT HOGTANIAN

GROOMING FOR THE PROS

She may not have her driver’s license yet, but 16-year-old ballet dancer Lilit Hogtanian can fouette with the best of them. The 5-foot-2 dynamo from Montebello first danced Clara two years ago in Los Angeles Ballet’s inaugural “Nutcracker,” and this year she won the Prix de Lausanne Participation Award in Switzerland. Then, having turned down an offer to study at the late choreographer Maurice Bejart’s Rudra School in Lausanne, she pirouetted her way to Monaco, where she is now on full scholarship at the Princess Grace Academy.

Hogtanian began studying ballet at age 6 with Yuri Grigoriev in Venice. A decade later, her grace and technical assurance belie her years. She has performed with the Kirov Ballet in “La Bayadere” at the Kodak Theatre in 2003 (as one of two demi-soloists) and again at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2005, when she danced the lead girl in the waltz section of “The Sleeping Beauty.” The dark-haired teen was scheduled to finish her third season as Clara with L.A. Ballet this weekend.

-- Victoria Looseleaf

--

HOPE BOYKIN

A ‘GRACE’-FUL AILEY STALWART

A striking dancer amid the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s array of prodigious talent, Hope Boykin is notable for her feisty intensity, muscular power -- and sleek pate. She shares that attribute with her boss, the estimable Judith Jamison, and they now also share the distinction of having choreographed for the troupe.

The company’s Music Center programs in March are scheduled to include Boykin’s “Go in Grace,” which had its premiere this month in New York. It features a cast of seven dancers, but the six vibrant women of Sweet Honey in the Rock not only sing their original score but also are onstage, very much part of the action. Boykin, a North Carolina native, also designed the costumes for “Go in Grace.” Onstage, her warmly vivid presence is showcased in a broad range of the company’s 50th anniversary repertory.

-- Susan Reiter

--

DANIIL SIMKIN

SOLOIST HAS A VIDEO SHOWCASE

Add another name to American Ballet Theatre’s imposing roster of male virtuosos. The company’s newest soloist is Daniil Simkin, a sweet-faced 21-year-old who has been burning up the international competition circuit and has quite a following on YouTube.

In addition to standard male variations from “Don Quixote” and “The Sleeping Beauty,” the website has a complete “Flames of Paris” pas de deux from 2007. But a contemporary solo -- an animalistic number featuring Simkin in a flesh-colored unitard performing at the 2006 United States International Ballet Competition, where he won the senior gold medal -- is the video that has racked up nearly half a million views.

Born in Russia and raised in Germany, Simkin joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet, directed by his compatriot Vladimir Malakhov, as a demi-soloist in 2006. He introduced himself to ABT audiences in October, flashing his tapered legs and buoyant jump in “Flames of Paris” and dancing the juicy “Tico-Tico” solo in Paul Taylor’s “Company B.” Look for him as Benvolio when the company performs “Romeo and Juliet” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in July.

-- Susan Reiter