Dancers

Costa Mesa is the only stop in California for the world-renowned San Francisco Ballet’s highly touted 75th Anniversary tour. The company will visit the Orange County Performing Arts Center for a weeklong engagement starting Nov. 11. America’s oldest professional ballet company will bring a program that features modern works from esteemed U.S. choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Mark Morris, as well as works by George Balanchine and...

COSTA MESA — The Orange County Performing Arts Center has teamed up with a world-renowned Russian ballet company to create a new dance program, titled "Reflections. " An open rehearsal Friday afternoon at Founders Hall featured the production's six ballerinas and four male dancers, all of whom studied at or currently perform with Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet Academy, one of the most prestigious schools of ballet in the world. Work on the production began Aug. 11. "Reflections" premieres at OCPAC on Jan. 20 and runs through Jan. 23 in Segerstrom Hall.

THOUGHTS FROM THE SCENE: As this assignment was so full of rhythm, music and movement, my goal was to convey a sense of that kinetic environment in my photos. I focused on the dancers themselves, and chose to shoot at an angle that would fill the background with the clean, warm, neutral tones of the floor. I used a technique that allows a sense of the subject's movement to be captured in a still image. And came out with this shot of dancers Kainoa Asuega, left, and Steve Rivera practicing at Lokelani's Rhythm of the Islands in Costa Mesa.

Exotic music, elaborate, colorful costumes and lots of bare midriffs. Sounds like a rock concert, right? Well, not quite. The multifaceted art form known as belly dancing will be taken to new heights as east meets west in the Bellydance Superstars’ production of “Babelesque” Friday night at the Orange County Performing Artscenter. Miles Copeland, who founded the group in 2002, said managing a troupe of beautifully exotic belly dancers is a welcome change from the rock ’n’ roll legends he managed in the past like the Police as well as Sting and Miles’ brother Stewart Copeland solo.

Marisa O'Neil Measure A construction at Newport-Mesa schools has called for some creative improvisation for many people. Luckily for Orchesis, Corona del Mar High School's dance team, creativity is something they have a lot of. When the district-wide construction project closed Newport Harbor High School's auditorium where Orchesis traditionally puts on its annual recital, they had to scramble for another site....

Joyce Scherer The anticipated letter arrived in the afternoon mail and Erin Britt knew a small slice of her future could be in the making -- or not. But doubt faded quickly when she found the letter was indeed an acceptance to the prestigious American Ballet Theater's summer dance program. Quite a fete, considering Erin, 17, is one of only 500 aspiring dancers selected from a field of 3,000 nationwide to participate in one of the four programs held in New York, Michigan, Alabama and for the first time, California.

Suzie Harrison Watching the skilled dancers choreograph numbers while wearing dazzling costumes, one might think these performers were former Rockettes, as they captivated their audience at the senior center at the Jewish Community Center of Orange County on Thursday. Ranging in age from 60 to 80, the "Happy Hoofers" are a tap dance core of about 15 women who perform at area retirement homes, convalescence homes and senior centers or any other place they are requested.

-- Story by Amy R. Spurgeon; photo by Taya Kashuba SHE IS Stocking up on extra-strength stockings. LEOTARDS AND LEG WARMERS Costa Mesa resident Linda Harber never became a ballerina, but she knows the look. Harber provides costumes and exercise clothes for dancers through her business, Blisters dance and active wear, on Harbor Boulevard. She started the business after her children took up dancing. Her 16-year-old daughter, who has been dancing since she was 2, needed recital costumes, so Harber sewed a tutu for her. The job just stuck.

It was brought to my attention that there were some complaints from readers that the costumes and dancing style of the dancers performing at the Fish Fry were not to their liking. Well, my daughter is one of those dancers. The only thing my daughter was promoting was her love of dance, the love for her studio, and fellow dancers (who are also her friends) in conjunction with donating time to the community in the way of dance. To the casual observer, dance costumes, as well as many other performing costumes, may not please everyone.

If "Riverdance" were a movie, viewers might marvel at the surgical strikes of the dancers' feet and surmise that this visual effect was the result of trick photography. After all, people just can't move their feet that way, can they? They can and they do in this electrifying production, making its second triumphant visit to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. These young, highly energetic performers do things with their lower appendages that Gene Kelly probably never dreamed of. While "Riverdance" is a celebration of Irish music and dance, the production -- one of two currently touring the world -- also emphasizes its similarities with, and influences on, other cultures.

3-D Theatricals' production of "A Chorus Line" celebrates the unsung heroes of the ensemble by breathing new life into a singular sensation that transcends time. The show is playing through Sunday at Fullerton's Plummer Auditorium. "A Chorus Line" was an instant success when it first opened on Broadway in 1975. The production won nine Tony Awards, including "Best Musical," the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and is credited as the longest running American-produced Broadway musical.

If you haven't yet heard about the Korean wave, get ready to be submerged. The annual Irvine Korean Cultural Festival, a free arts and food bonanza, returns for the third year Jan. 14 at the Irvine Civic Center. "There is a big wave nowadays about to hit the U.S., but it has been very popular already with Korean soap operas, Korean pop music and Korean food," said Irvine Councilman Steven Choi. "People have a lot of interest of what this Korean wave is all about. " Korean barbecue vendors, pop and traditional musicians, fan and drum dancers and other artists will converge at the Civic Center.

COSTA MESA - Alexandria Kessinger wasn't a natural-born dancer, despite having an instructor for a mother. But at age 4 she decided she would dance. And that was that. "There's no holding her back," said Paula Kessinger, Alexandria's mother and owner of the Costa Mesa-based West Coast School of the Arts. Alexandria, 17, won three national dance competitions this year, and was named Dancer of the Year by one of the competitions. She is flying to Australia next month to represent the U.S. in the nine-day Showcase Dance Championship.

Some of us relax at the end of the work day with a glass of iced tea. Padraic Moyles prefers a bucket of ice. Moyles stars in "Riverdance," the original Irish dance phenomenon that first swept through the world in the mid-1990s and sparked many copycat productions. The show is now on "The Riverdance Farewell Tour" of the region before making entrées in new regions like India, Moyles said. It's making a stop at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts this weekend. "We're trying to hit all the cities we've ever been to, and lots that we've never been to," he said.

A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Broadway show is about to open in Costa Mesa. The beloved 1964 Disney film "Mary Poppins" has been remade into a wildly successful musical, and features all of the same characters: disobedient Jane and Michael Banks; their well-intentioned mother and strict father; their titular magical nanny; and the enigmatic jack-of-all-trades Bert, who introduces them to London's chimney sweeps. Canadian-born Nicolas Dromard was born to "Step in Time" as Bert.

Thursday night's all-star ballet production "Tour de Force II" at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa has lost two of its stars. A spokeswoman for the Segerstrom said that Russian dancers Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev have withdrawn from the production as a result of commitments with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. As a result, the production will drop from the program the Gioachino Rossini piece, "Pas de Deux" by Leonid Jacobson. Organizers are also working on finding replacements for the "Don Quixote" pas de deux that was also supposed to feature Osipova and Vasiliev.

It's no secret: Dance enthusiasts love the spring. The season marks the time when the world's best companies and dancers venture beyond their native shores to perform. Orange County is one of the major recipients of this bounty, due to events like the Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Tour de Force and other engagements. For those seeking more homegrown talent at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, dozens of local dancers take the stage April 23 for its original production of "Alice in Wonderland"; the following week, Backhausdance brings its newest production home from a triumphant New York City run. Slated to arrive in the coming weeks at the Segerstrom Center are St. Petersburg's Eifman Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and the National Ballet of Cuba.

Editor's note: This corrects the day the crews were expected to arrive in Ensenada. NEWPORT BEACH – Amid a light breeze and sunny skies, racers set sail Friday afternoon in the 64th annual Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race. Winning the first start was defending champion Taxi Dancer, a 68-foot bright yellow yacht from Santa Barbara. Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes, from San Diego, followed close behind. While the breeze showed promise early — at about 6 knots in the morning — by the time the gun fired at noon, it had dropped to about 3 or 4 knots from the west.

When "Kings of the Dance" first premiered in Segerstrom Hall in 2006, it became an instant phenomenon. "Kings" showcased four of the world's top male ballet dancers in technically demanding and thrilling performances, and still is being produced around the world. Now enter the world premiere of "Reflections," a converse mirror image of that production, featuring seven young world-class, Bolshoi Ballet Academy-trained ballerinas in contemporary new works. This showcase is a groundbreaking artistic partnership between the newly rechristened Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the Bolshoi Ballet.

COSTA MESA — The usually quiet Mesa Verde Country Club was alive with the sound of rock bands Monday as golfers zoomed around in their carts to find a surprise at every hole. A belly dancer and camel greeted golfers at the sixth hole, and food and drinks from restaurants around Costa Mesa were waiting as residents and city officials made their way along the 18-hole course. Golfers teed off around skateboarders, dropping in on a mini half pipe and a demonstration of martial arts.