BEING BALLANCHINE NYC BALLET BRINGS LEGENDARY CHOREOGRAPHER'S LEGACY TO L.A.

Byline: Vicki Smith Paluch Correspondent

After a six-year absence, New York City Ballet returns to the Southland to celebrate the birth of the company's legendary choreographer and co-founder, the late George Balanchine, who revolutionized ballet by creating a modern American style.

New York City Ballet is bringing its ``Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration'' to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Wednesday, which will give Angelenos a chance see Balanchine's revolution in action.

``We want to show Los Angeles as many works of Mr. B as possible and how his work affected choreographers and the dance world as we know it,'' says Sean Lavery, assistant to the ballet master, which is the term Balanchine used instead of ``artistic director.''

The Balanchine revolution began when he liberated ballet from its narrative chains, constructing his ballets to tell their stories musically without any extraneous story lines. Just as Picasso changed painting and Balanchine's close friend Igor Stravinsky changed classical music, Balanchine restructured ballet.

Yet, he was also a pragmatist who likened his work to that of a cook for a large family. He also was savvy enough to know that audiences would not give up the classic story ballets of the 19th century, nor did he want them to. Drawing from his own dance experience, he created his own versions of such story ballets as ``Swan Lake,'' ``Don Quixote'' and ``The Nutcracker'' on the choreography of Marius Petipa, and he transformed ``The Nutcracker'' into an American Christmas tradition.

The two sides of Balanchine are the logical extensions of his youth in Russia. Born in Georgia in 1904, Balanchine was trained in classical ballet at the czar's Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg. He grew as a dancer at the Maryinsky Theatre and spread his wings as a choreographer for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris. But it was in America that Balanchine took root and flourished. He turned away from the Old World, but not from classical ballet. He developed a new classicism for the New World.

He died in 1983, nearly a half century after dance expert Lincoln Kirstein brought him to America with the idea of creating an American style of ballet. Kirstein and Balanchine founded the School of American Ballet in 1934 and the New York City Ballet in 1948. The founding troika of New York City Ballet - Balanchine, Kirstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins - all have died, but their legacy lives.

``Some of us old dancers have the knowledge Balanchine passed down, and we try to capture the spirit of the Balanchine ballets,'' says Lavery, who joined the company in 1977, when he was 20. Former principal dancer Peter Martins has been steering the ship since Balanchine's death, first sharing the duties with Robbins, and then taking full responsibility in 1990 as the ballet master. Only three principal dancers remain from the Balanchine days - Jock Soto, Kyra Nichols and Darci Kistler.

``I have to respect what Mr. B has made and to keep fresh by always taking risks,'' says the 40-year-old Soto, who joined the company in 1981.

Principal dancer Miranda Weese, 29, who grew up in San Bernardino and studied at the Laguna Dance Center, says she fell in love with Balanchine's choreography and New York City Ballet when she was 12, after watching a videotape of the company. She moved to New York at age 15 to study at School of American Ballet.

``Balanchine is known for his ballets without a story. Yet, for us there is one. I, like Jock, have my own personal story - a scenario in my head, or maybe a mood,'' says Weese. ``What attracted me to Balanchine's choreography is that it's rooted in classicism, but it has this extra flair, a little jazz.''

Balanchine created a dance style that is big and lush - an elegant and expansive use of the arms and legs, sweeping and darting movements to fill a large stage, and an attack that can be sharp and fast or equally languid and lush.

``All of the ballets have a soul," says principal dancer Damian Woezel, 37, who joined the company in 1986 after dancing with Los Angeles Ballet for several years as a teenager and young adult. ``They have lasted because they have this impeccable structure; nothing is ornamental.''

The program at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion includes seven works by Balanchine - ``Agon,'' ``Concerto Barocco,'' ``Serenade,'' ``Stravinsky Violin Concerto,'' ``Symphony in C,'' ``Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux'' and ``Who Cares?'' - as well as Christopher Wheeldon's newest ballet, ``Carnival of the Animals,'' with narration written and performed by John Lithgow; Peter Martins' ``Hallelujah Junction''; and Robbins' ``I'm Old Fashioned.'' Music ranges from Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Bach and Stravinsky to the marches of John Philip Sousa and the jazz of George Gershwin.

``The programs are so special,'' says Soto. ``We're bringing the big, showy ballets and some new pieces. It's going to show both sides - the old and the new. It will also show we are going in a good direction.''

NEW YORK CITY BALLET

What: Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Oct. 10.

Tickets: $95 to $25. Call [phone], or www.musiccenter.org.

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Above: Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto partner in ``Agon,'' one of seven works featured in ``Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration,'' opening Wednesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Left: Maria Kowroski and Jenifer Ringer perform ``Serenade.'' This marks the New York City Ballet's return to the Southland after a six-year absence.