L.A. Treated To Rare Ballet Showcase - BalletFest 2000 held - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, August, 2000 by Zan Dubin

DEPENDING ON HOW you count it, BalletFest 2000 is either the first Southern California ballet festival of the new millennium or the last classical jamboree of the twentieth century. Either way, the event is noteworthy for Los Angeles, which can't seem to support a major resident ballet troupe, although it has tried for years.

Six companies will dance works ranging from Giselle to a "ska ballet" for the festival, held August 17-19 at the Harriett and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex at California State University, Los Angeles. The troupes include Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre, Inland Pacific Ballet, Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, Pasadena Dance Theatre and State Street Ballet. The only non-Southern California participant is the Bay Area's Diablo Ballet, which is staging Balanchine's Apollo.

The idea behind the first annual effort is to support local troupes doing "outstanding professional work," said festival coordinator Donald Hewitt, a much-admired longtime ballet instructor at Cal State Los Angeles.

"We do audience surveys at the Luckman," Hewitt said, "and when we ask, `What do you want to see more of?' people always say, `Ballet.' I am blown away by it. Also, I teach all kinds of students and have them write reports on the various performances here. They love the classical and romantic work."

Just east of downtown Los Angeles, the campus has a long history of strong local dance support. Bella Lewitzky, considered the state's dance matriarch before she folded her 31-year-old company in 1997, staged her first and last performances there. The university has hosted Dance Kaleidoscope, an annual summer festival showcasing all dance forms, for over a decade.

The Luckman, which receives university operating support, is funding the event with what it would normally spend to present out-of-towners like the Martha Graham Company or Les Grands Ballets Canadiens du Montreal. It will give each BalletFest troupe a $4,000 stipend, which is meager, but participants won't have to pay any producing costs. Victoria Koenig, Inland Pacific Ballet's director, estimates that producing a single performance anywhere in the area would cost more than $10,000, which most troupes can't afford.

"The opportunity to get visibility in Los Angeles without having to risk the cost of self-producing is just, well, a miracle," Koenig said.