Toy soldiering.

The Los Angeles Ballet was scheduled to begin its inaugural season with performances of "The Nutcracker" at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills on Dec. 2 and 3.

The company moves on to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on Dec. 23 and 24 and finishes the holiday season at Glendale's Alex Theater on Dec. 30 and 31.

Like most ballet companies, selling the holiday performances will be essential to establish financial security.

The non-profit ballet was founded by the husband-and-wife dancer team of Thordal Christensen, a former artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet, and Collen Neary, a repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust. To date, more than 1,000 performance tickets have been sold, as well as and several hundred subscriptions.

The Nutcracker is being staged for about $1 million, some of which came from donations and sponsorship outside the ballet's projected operating budget of $1.7 million this year. The Los Angeles Ballet's season ticket subscriptions range from $90 to $245.

Though none of the venues are technically within Los Angeles city limits, the divide-and-conquer strategy could prove useful in drawing an audience from a tar flung population like that of Los Angeles.

The ballet secured its 21-dancer roster this summer, drawing ballerinas from the Royal Danish, the New York City and the Bolshoi ballets, as well as guest principals from the American Ballet Theater. The dancers are signed to 21-week contracts.

This most recent edition of the Los Angeles Ballet isn't the first troupe to attempt to get off the ground here. The first Los Angeles Ballet, directed by John Clifford, ran from 1974 to 1985 but folded due to funding problems and a lack of a permanent home theater.

Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at [e-mail] or at [phone], ext. 225.