DANCES REUNITE TEACHER, STUDENT\A.V. College hosts concerts.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Dancers Kathy Bingham and Cindy Littlefield last worked together in 1992 as teacher and student.

This weekend, Littlefield will join her former teacher at Antelope Valley College's annual Dance Dimensions concerts as a colleague and a friend.

"Seeing one of my students mature so beautifully and offering her an opportunity to work is like a gift. It's really nice," said Bingham, 37, artistic director for Dance Dimensions and head of the dance department at the college.

Littlefield considers Bingham one of her mentors. Bingham encouraged her to branch out in dance and audition at the California Institute of the Arts, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts in dance last year.

"She got me interested in modern dance. Before that, I was just taking ballet, jazz and tap," said Littlefield, 24, a Palmdale resident who has been dancing since she was a young girl. "I didn't know dance as an art form until I met her."

The dance concerts will be at 8 tonight and Saturday at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 750 W. Lancaster Blvd. The concerts will showcase works by Bingham, Littlefield and other guest artists and feature dances from ballet to modern to jazz.

Tickets, on sale at the theater box office, are $9 general and $7 for seniors over 62 and students. Call 723-5950 for ticket information.

Students will perform a work by guest artist Lisa Lock titled "Twilight" and described as an "insectlike" modern dance quartet piece on point. Lock, a native of Switzerland and also a CalArts graduate and now resident of Santa Clarita, also will perform a solo piece.

"They are night creatures and they start to wake up," said Lock of "Twilight." The piece is set to "industrial jungle jam" music by Eat Static.

Littlefield has choreographed two dances for the concerts. The first is a modern piece, "Little Wing/Riding With the Wind," set to the music of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The second, "Me in the Spotlight," follows a teen-ager turning from spiritual beliefs and losing touch.

"It's a lot of fun," Littlefield said of her experience working with Bingham. "I get a lot more respect. She treats me, instead of as a student, as a colleague and a friend."

Littlefield said she now teaches at her mother's dance studio in Acton and is working on creating a dance with a group of other CalArts students that will incorporate Indonesian music. They will premier the work at CalArts in April.

Bingham's work entails a classical ballet piece set to Irish music, titled "Ferny Hill," and a modern dance, "Together and Not," divided into two sections - the first a body sculpture piece and the second a Romeo and Juliet type of duet featuring Littlefield and Keir Basilio.

Three students' works also will be shown as well as works by local choreographers Laurie Curtis and Lara Arnaiz.

The first Dance Dimensions concert was put on by Bingham in 1988 after she first arrived at the college. It was a small production with 12 students, held in the "black box" theater at the college, which seated 200 people.

"When I started it, I wanted to give my students the experience of working with a company. They all audition and are responsible for all rehearsals," said Bingham, herself a CalArts graduate. "We ended up selling out for two nights and turning people away. It showed there was a definite interest."

This weekend's production has 40 students in the 750-seat Lancaster theater.

One of Bingham's goals was to expose more people to modern dance.

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Photo (color) Dancers rehearse Thursday for the Dance Dimensions concerts tonight and Saturday at Antelope Valley College. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News