Donald Mckayle

In honor of the college's new dance major, Moorpark College will host a dance performance tonight featuring artists who helped create the program over the past 15 years. The dancers will include John Pennington of the Bella Lewitzky Company performing Scott Heinzerling's "Isaac Wanted"; L.

Even the staunch mavericks of modern dance have abandoned the solo dance concert as a means of expressing their individuality. Going it alone is too taxing on the performer and often too monotonous for the audience. But Gregg Lizenbery, former principal with the Utah Repertory Dance Theatre and co-founder of the Bill Evans Dance Company, has resurrected this idiosyncratic expression to pay homage to the pioneers who shaped the course of his art.

Things were looking pretty grim at the Wednesday night opening of UC Irvine's faculty dance concert when the curtain rose, midway through the program, on Donald McKayle's "Ringalevio." A wooden attempt at Fokine's "Les Sylphides," staged by Kathy Auten under Donald Bradburn's supervision, was weighed down by mechanical phrasing and myriad problems with myriad arms and feet.

The California African American Museum will bestow honors on actor Sidney Poitier and artist John Outterbridge at its annual gala this fall, museum officials said. Poitier and Outterbridge are to receive the museum's Lifetime Achievement Awards at a dinner on Oct. 6. Outterbridge is a Los Angeles-based artist who has focused on sculpture, assemblage and installations during his lengthy career. He served as the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center in L.A. from 1975 to 1992. His work was featured prominently in exhibitions during the Pacific Standard Time initiative, the recent survey of Southern California art organized by the Getty.

The Irvine Barclay Theatre will open its 2001-02 Contemporary Dance Series with the San Francisco-based Joe Goode Performance Group, Oct. 11-12. The season will continue with the Mark Morris Dance Group (Jan. 24-26); Hubbard Street Chicago under its new artistic director, Jim Vincent (March 8-9); and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band paying tribute to choreographer Donald McKayle (April 4-5). Specific programs will be announced.

* Champion Romanian gymnasts work with some of the founding choreographers of Pilobolus, Momix and "Stomp" in "Aeros," running Jan. 11-14 and 25-28 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus in Westwood. $20 to $35. (310) 825-2101. On Jan. 23 and 24, the company appears at California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $15 to $42. (800) 988-4253. * Dayton Contemporary Dance Company performs works by Asadata Dafora, Warren Spears, Kevin Ward, Donald McKayle and Ronald Brown on Jan.