FOR A BIG LIFT, TRY ABT'S `DON QUIXOTE' : DANCERS DISPLAY VIRTUOSITY THROUGH DAZZLING MOVES.

Byline: Laura Bleiberg Orange County Register

Close your eyes during a really star-powered performance of the classic ballet ``Don Quixote'' and you might think you were somewhere else.

Like a Metallica concert. Or the final of the Olympics 100 meters.

``Don Quixote'' has the same thrill quotient.

A lighthearted ballet with working-class characters, ``Don Quixote'' has wowed audiences since its first performance in Moscow in 1869. It has been retooled and rejiggered many times since, and each change only added to the ballet's athletic pizazz. While some classic ballets have retained their 19th-century finesse and delicacy, ``Don Q'' is unabashedly a showcase for virtuosity.

Yes, it has the familiar tests of the dancers' stamina the other classics have: the 32 fouettes, those leg-whipping turns that make a ballerina look like a top; the male danseur's solo of gravity-defying leaps.But it's the daredevilish lifts that have become its signature. Act 1 features the one-armed heft in which the man hoists his partner over his head, balancing her with one hand on her hip.

Later comes the two-armed overhead press, from which the ballerina is dropped within inches of the floor, caught in what is known as a ``fish'' position. Sometimes she rolls like a high diver on the way down.

``These are specific to `Don Q,' '' said Kevin McKenzie, artistic director of American Ballet Theatre, which comes to Los Angeles this week with a new staging of ``Don Quixote.''

``It's like in every classic ballet, the ballerinas have 32 fouettes. They're hard, but if you do them all the time they get easier. With these lifts, they're hard, in that ... it's an abandoned control. And with any lift that isn't straightforward ... there's always that element of danger.''

The ballet was last seen in Orange County in 1992, with a staging by legendary Bolshoi dancer Vladimir Vasiliev. In putting his own stamp on the ballet, even McKenzie got caught up in the ballet's reputation, and he has added more pyrotechnical moments. He rechoreographed the Act 2 gypsy scene, giving Basilio the barber, the ballet's romantic lead, and the head gypsy a danced face-off of multiple jumping turns.

McKenzie admitted, though, that it's those lifts that have become synonymous with ``Don Quixote.''

``They're quite dazzling,'' he said. ``(For the one-armed lift) it's an initial burst of energy and the rest is balance and timing. This type of partnering relies on the dancers' trust in one another.''

Or as principal dancer Susan Jaffe explains: ``We do (the preparation steps) tombe, pas de bourree, glissade, assemble and then he puts his arm on my hip. I put my hand on his wrist. I cross myself, and I go up.''

By the time a dancer starts doing principal roles, he or she has probably tried these lifts many times. Still, the first time it's done with a new partner, the dancers have to figure out the exact timing, balance and technique to make it work.

The only way to practice it is to do it all out - and hope your years of experience and training pay off. If it doesn't, it's a disaster.

Jaffe and partner Jose Manuel Carreno managed to get the one-armed lift down in a matter of minutes. Still, there's much more to it than just being hefted into the air.

``The woman does have to work,'' Jaffe said. ``She has to find the right balance. In just about any lift the woman has to know how to hold herself correctly. You can't just leave it all to the guy.''

For the one-armed lift in ABT's version, the woman does a small jump (the assemble) and pulls her body close to the man's. He puts his hand on her hip and, using the momentum from her jump, extends his elbow as quickly as possible, pushing her up, over and slightly in front of him, said David Richardson, an ABT ballet master.

``The elbow has to lock very fast - one fast whoop,'' said Richardson, who coaches couple Amanda McKerrow and Jeremy Collins. ``(These lifts) are not based on a trick, they're based on a technique. Definitely, a one-armed lift requires a certain amount of technical strength, which you get from doing it again and again.''

At the height of the lift, the woman either holds an arabesque position (in which one leg is behind her), or unfolds her leg to the side. McKenzie said the man must align himself so the woman can lean her other leg (the standing leg) against his body.The two-armed lift is less a toss than a press - similar to weightlifting - with the man carrying the woman up over his head. She is in an arabesque, with the toe of her standing leg folded in to the knee of the other leg.McKenzie has given his dancers a choice for Act 3; they can either repeat the one-armed lift during the final, wedding duet, or they can do the slightly more stable two-armed lift.

Richardson said the most common mistake made with the roll is that the woman spins - her body horizontal to the ground - too far away from the man's body; she should almost roll down his body. Jaffe said that even if the dancers are not doing the roll, it's still a tricky maneuver.

``He has to do a little plie (bend his knees) to let you know he's going to toss you. Then I have to gather everything together in a sous-sous position (legs tight together) in the air as fast as I can.''

He tosses her up and down she heads to the ground, being caught - hopefully - with her chin sometimes inches off the floor.

``If he's a good partner, he won't drop you,'' Jaffe said. ``I have been dropped before. Usually if a guy drops you he's never going to do it again, because he's pretty freaked.''

Jaffe said she and Carreno have chosen not to do the roll and to do the one-armed lift in Act 1 only.

``It's just that, I don't know, it (the one-armed lift) has been done so many times. I get tired of looking at it. For me, `Don Q' is not just about pyrotechnics. I'd like to make it more elegant, just for a bit of a change. We do it in the first act.

``That moment is really about those lifts. The tambourine is shaking ... (it's like) let's give them (the audience) what they want to see. We can't deprive them.''

THE FACTS The show: American Ballet Theatre.

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

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Program: 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday: George Balanchine's ``Theme and Variations,'' a pas de deux from Anthony Tudor's ``The Leaves Are Fading,'' Twyla Tharp's ``The Elements'' and Lar Lubovich's ``A Brahms Symphony.'' 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday: ``Don Quixote.''

Tickets: $15 to $60. Call Ticketmaster at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1--3--Cover--Color) DEFYING GRAVITY

With a dazzl ing new show, the American Ballet Theatre's motto becomes: To air is human

(4) American Ballet Theater dancers Keith Roberts and Sandra Brown appear in ``A Brahms Symphony,'' choreographed by Lar Lubovich to the music of Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 3.

(5) Paloma Herrera is slated to dance in the Friday evening and Sunday afternoon performances of ``Don Quixote'' at the Music Center.

(6) The American Ballet Theater will perform George Balanchine's ``Theme and Variations,'' based on Peter Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3 in G, during its repertory program on Wednesday and Thursday.