NEW PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTER MAKES BIG PLANS IN L.A.

David Sefton, the former head of contemporary culture at London's South Bank Centre/Royal Festival Hall, took over as director of UCLA Performing Arts in October. He filled a position left vacant since May, when Michael Blachly moved to the University of Florida at Gainesville after a sixteen-year combined tenure as director and associate director.

Sefton is being watched closely by the Los Angeles dance community, given that UCLA is the leading presenter of contemporary dance in Southern California. With three venues--including the 1,814-seat Royce Hall--and a program budget estimated as equal to that of all other regional presenters combined, UCLA annually presents three times the dance programming of any other local venue, budget figures varied according to how much presenters could corral for performances. Blachly, along with Associate Director Celesta Billeci (now director of UCSB Arts and Lectures) had a passion for presenting groundbreaking work such as Bill T. Jones's 1991 Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin and Pina Bausch's 1994 Nur Du, both of which UCLA participated in commissioning. They also brought in international artists that otherwise would never have made it to California.

As the Southern California anchor in a tight network of West Coast presenters that often work together, UCLA has been indispensable. Nancy Martino, performing arts curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, is currently working with UCLA on a national tour by Maguy Marin. "If San Francisco and UCLA can cover the major fees of a tour, we can help make these artists available to a range of smaller venues," she said. "It's good for the artists, it's good for the communities, it's good for the art field. Everybody wins."

Likewise, Blachly and Billeci inaugurated a local commissioning program in 1994, guaranteeing Los Angeles-based companies a place on the season roster. Jordan Peimer, board president of Diavolo Dance Theater, admits that such support is critical for the Los Angeles dance community. "For emerging artists, the UCLA imprimatur means that other presenters will take the artists much more seriously."

Although the consensus has been to maintain a wait-and-see attitude, Sefton's track record as head of contemporary culture at London's South Bank Royal Festival Hall demonstrates an adventurous spirit. Sefton expressed enthusiasm for exploring the local dance scene and spoke of his plans for furthering UCLA's program. "We're looking at big, big things. We're in a position where we can present the Nederlands Dans Theaters of this world, but at the same time we're in a position to introduce new people to the Los Angeles dance audience."

One of Sefton's first commissions, scheduled for May 2002, will be the U.S. premiere of a project by Royal Ballet star Carlos Acosta, who has taken a year off to return home to Cuba, to create a dance reflecting the street and social dance that he learned in his youth.

While his own tastes lean toward work on the cutting edge, "that place where you're not quite sure what to call it," Sefton also hopes to be able to bring to Los Angeles some of his favorite international choreographers and companies--Lucinda Childs, Teshe Gawara, dumb type, Alain Platel, Les Ballets C de la B, and the British company Cholmondeleys, with whom he has worked in the past.

For now, Sefton is tempered by budget realities: "I've an ambition to bring Frankfurt Ballet, but whether or not my budget can live up to my ambition is another question altogether."