Cleveland San Jose Ballet

It's Thursday night at the ballet. Inside the 2,700-seat San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, the curtain rises on an eruption of hot color and the twang of electric guitars. Over a cranked-up audio system comes the unmistakable sound of Elvis Presley's velvety baritone, underscoring a stage full of elegantly trained dancers adding hip thrusts to pirouettes, boogie to pointe work.

It's Thursday night at the ballet. Inside the 2,700-seat San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, the curtain rises on an eruption of hot color and the twang of electric guitars. Over a cranked-up audio system comes the unmistakable sound of Elvis Presley's velvety baritone, underscoring a stage full of elegantly trained dancers adding hip thrusts to pirouettes, boogie to pointe work.

POP/ROCK No Decision Yet on Fate of Latin Grammys The offices of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences was closed Wednesday, and the fate of the second annual Latin Grammys show remained uncertain. The gala, planned for Tuesday night at the Forum and to be broadcast nationwide on CBS, was called off in the wake of the terrorist attacks that morning in New York and Washington.

Mention the name "Bob Mackie" and visions of rhinestones and glitter, sequins and shine come to mind. The award-winning designer who created Cher's outlandish Oscar ensembles and costumes for countless television, film and stage productions has ventured into the world of ballet. Mackie created the costumes and sets for the Cleveland-San Jose Ballet's presentation of "Blue Suede Shoes," being performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion nightly through Sunday.

To add apparent star appeal to a Ballet Pacifica seven-part "Showcase" on Thursday at the new Irvine Barclay Theatre, the company brought in as guests Laurie Miller and Olivier Munoz, principal dancers from the Cleveland-San Jose Ballet. Miller happens to be the daughter of Sally Anne Sheridan, the mayor of the city of Irvine. The city happened to contribute the lion's share of money ($11.3 million) toward the building of the $17.6-million Barclay.

In a year that has already brought local audiences such pop dance disasters as the Joffrey Ballet's lurid "Legends" and the Cleveland San Jose Ballet's mindless "Blue Suede Shoes," it took our own L.A. Chamber Ballet to reveal the secret of successfully combining jukebox music with classical dance: Always work from the inside. Collaborating with "mambo noir" icon Joey Altruda, Chamber Ballet director-choreographer Raiford Rogers brought his new suite, "Cocktails With Joey," to Cal State L.A.

It's a pity that Elvis Presley's 1968 recording of "Too Much Monkey Business" isn't among the three dozen Presley hits that accompany Dennis Nahat's ballet "Blue Suede Shoes," since this classic Chuck Berry song makes an ideal epitaph for Nahat's maniacally trivial 1996 vehicle for Cleveland San Jose Ballet.

What was No. 1 last year? When it came to measuring up 1991, the numbers told the tale. Some choices were made by popular ballot--consumers voted with their wallets at the check-out stands or ticket counters, while others punched in their picks with the TV remote control. A few big-buck choices were made at the auction houses, while others simply twisted the radio dial.