Southern California Ballet celebrates 30 years of dance

The Southern California Ballet is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a gala featuring performances from former and current students.

The event will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 23 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road. Tickets range from $20 to $38 and are available by calling 858-748-0505, online at www.southerncaliforniaballet.org or in person at the PCPA box office Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The gala will honor Sylvia Palmer, the founding artistic director of the ballet, for her 30 years as a dance educator and artistic leader.

“We definitely wanted to make it a community event,” said Kate Hirsh, executive director of the Southern California Ballet. “We want to make it known that we’ve been here for 30 years, and that we have an artistic director who has been with the organization for 30 years.”

Hirsh said the organization had been planning the gala for about a year.

There will be a pre-performance reception on the PCPA’s plaza at 5:30 p.m., where guests can enjoy hors d’oeuvres and champagne and mingle with board members, alumni, families of current and former dancers and artistic staff. There are a limited number of reception tickets, which are $50 and include the reception and VIP seating.

The performance will begin with Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” a children’s story ballet set to an orchestra score with narration, performed by company and academy dancers with local circus performer Ehrick Costello as the Wolf.

Several SCB alumni, including Marlie Couto, Marisa Hanson, Amy McMaster, Kelsey Ottley and Lauren Worely, will perform classical and contemporary pieces during the gala, while 2004 graduate Kirsten Thorne will perform the “Bluebird” pas de deux from “The Sleeping Beauty” with guest dancer Preston Swovelin. Company dancer Kalena Tano will perform the “Aurora’s Wedding” pas de deux from the same ballet with guest resident dancer Shawn Burgess.

Gregory Dawson, artistic director of dawsondancesf, will remount his 2011 SCB world premiere “In the Midst of a Southern Storm” at the gala as well. Graduating senior dancer Megan Teeter will be featured in a duet with guest artist Preston Swovelin.

Hirsh said that some of the returning dancers would be flying in the morning of the show to perform, as many of them are part of professional ballet companies across the country.

Several other alumni, some performing in companies in Europe, were unable to take time off to come to the gala. They will instead be featured in a video tribute to Palmer, which brought several people to tears when it was screened at a gala fundraiser, said Hirsh.

“I am honored and overwhelmed when I think that some dancers started dancing with us at 3 years old and now they are making their mark in the world as dance educators, principal dancers, artistic leaders, Broadway and pop stars,” said Palmer in a press release. “It’s wonderful to have them come back, teach classes, dance with us and share their experiences for the next generation.”