Ballet

History tells us that Marius Petipa, the mastermind behind the production that made "Swan Lake" more synonymous with ballet than any other single work, plotted his choreography in the mid-1890s by toying with groups of figurines on a table top.

Ballet Preljocaj, which danced a vivid reinterpretation of "Romeo and Juliet" last month in Los Angeles, comes to Irvine this week with an equally radical "Hommage aux Ballets Russes" program at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The title refers to Serge Diaghilev's famous company, which launched a revolution in dance in Paris in the early decades of this century.

Maurice Bejart has never paid a great deal of attention, much less respect, to tippy-toe tradition with his Ballet of the 20th Century. His ballerinas don't spend much time modeling tutus, and they certainly don't worry much about the niceties of impersonating swooning swans, pretty peasants or pallid princesses. That hardly prevents Bejart, however, from casting a satirical or demeaning glance, from time to time, in the direction of the hoary conventions he has scorned.

The leader of Les Ballets Africains believes the world has gotten worse in the two years since the troupe last toured the United States. So this time, instead of a program sampling the various dances of its native Guinea, the company is bringing a full-length dance-drama with a moral. "There are so many criminals and much violence in the world now," company artistic director Italo Zambo said in a recent phone interview from San Francisco, where the company was dancing "Silo: The Path of Life."

Marc Platt was a redheaded "rowdy" guy who wanted to work with pretty girls. Paul Maure was a skin-and-bones opera singer who discovered he'd rather take ballet class three times a day. Andrei Tremaine's mother brought him to his first class against his will, while Victor Moreno took his doctor's advice to "get more exercise." As for George Zoritch, teenage heartthrob extraordinaire, discovering ballet proved both humbling and intoxicating.

Misty Copeland's size 6 feet are her compass. They guide the young ballerina's lithe limbs across the stage where she does triple pirouettes on pointe and plies with the grace of a seasoned dancer. Misty, however, is a novice with only eight months ballet training.

Franklin White joined England's Ballet Rambert in 1939, at age 15, and in 1941 moved to the Sadler's Wells Ballet, which Ninette de Valois had founded in 1931 as the Vic-Wells Ballet.

Imagine you are the artistic director of a sizable ballet company, making a wish list of projects you would like to see your troupe undertake. There is a well-known choreographer whose work you admire, with whom you would love to give your dancers the opportunity to work and whose choreography would be a welcome variety to your repertory.

American Ballet Theatre's new production of "Coppelia" has a legendary history. The dancers are learning the ballet from Frederic Franklin, once premier danseur and later ballet master of the famed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. "I have been associated with this ballet since 1933, when [Kirov Ballet regisseur] Nicholas Sergeyev came out of Russia," Franklin, 82, said by phone during a break between recent company rehearsals in New York. "We staged the first and second acts, but not the third.

Since dreams always prove more seductive than reality, it's no surprise that John Clifford's wildly unrealistic plans to form a new Los Angeles Ballet generated major excitement in the national and local dance communities a year ago. At a time when just about every ballet organization in America was scrambling for funds, Clifford announced an $11-million budget for his first year of operation--unprecedented for a new ballet company in America.