DEANGELO PREMIERE FOR PITTSBURGH'S FIRST NIGHT.

PITTSBURGH--"First Night" is a dance night in Pittsburgh. The New Year's Eve festival, organized by First Night[R] Pittsburgh Inc., showcases local premieres ranging from op.eklekt's fractured Japanese traditions to Safarace's Senegalese freedom dance and a fusion of Emanations' contemporary dance with Afro-Cuban rhythms. The focus, however, is on Pittsburgh Ballet Theater--and choreographer Ann Marie DeAngelo.

Her abstract ballet, slated to premiere at the Benedum Center, is designed with a twelve-woman cast to complement the late Salvatore Aiello's all-male Journey (1978), the program's curtain-raiser. With a New Age score by Yanni and contemporary, eclectic movement vocabulary, "the ballet will be fun, require a lot of energy and be dynamic," she predicts. In mid-September Terrence S. Orr, PBT's artistic director, "just called me with a unique and very specific request," says DeAngelo, who first met Orr during her tenure with Joffrey Ballet. "He needed something to suit the occasion."

The New York City-based choreographer was delighted by the opportunity to work with the twenty-eight-member PBT, especially during the troupe's thirtieth-anniversary season. "I haven't seen the company recently. I enjoy working with new groups and like challenging dancers' capabilities through the choreographic process," she explains.

For DeAngelo, New Year's Eve blurs into her dozen pending commissions. But she says that "First Night," an annual alcohol-free arts and cultural celebration, is a "great concept. I think every night should be a `First' night The entire city rocks with entertainment and art."