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Diablo Ballet, approaching its fifth anniversary, was created by Lawrence Pech and Lauren Jonas to present ballet to Contra Costa County and using the Dean Lesher Performing Arts Center in Walnut Creek as its home base. The major funding force behind it is a U.C., Berkeley trained engineer Ashraf Habibullah who, no surprise, has a Berkeley- based software company.

This is a formerly rich agricultural county which has yielded to real estate development of bedroom communities, beginning its boom post World War II. The introduction of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) increased it along with the development of the computer industry in Santa Clara County, better known as Silicon Valley. The disposable income of the participants and the growth of dance interest made it an idea asking to be wed with entrepreneurship.

From the beginning the twelve dancer Diablo Ballet has utilized an orchestra for some part of its program. A major item in any production budget, and helped to garner critical and popular interest from the beginning.

The program usually comprises a catchy opener, a pas de deux or two, one of which is a novelty, a reconstruction of some note by Marina Eglevsky (daughter of the famed Andre), and a rousing finale, often loud and peppy over stylistically finished. Any drama is usually softened by pop lyrics and deep-seated angst is avoided. The programs which start at 7:30 on work nights, usually are four in number with occasional guest engagements in the summer. Frequent choreographers are company affiliated and include Nikolai Kabaniev, Associate Artistic Director; Sally Streets, Artistic Advisor; Kelly Teo, company dancer.

The appearance at Zellerbach is quite a feather for it was sponsored by CAL Performances, directed by Robert Cole, who brings Misha, Mark and Merce annually to the University of California campus, in addition to American Ballet Theater, Morris' "Hard Nut" and will present Ballet Nacional de Cuba. He has brought the Ballet de Lyon and Paris Opera Ballet and commissioned in part a West Coast debut of Pina Bausch's Wuppertal Dance Theater as well an Early Music Festival every two years and productions directed by Peter Sellars. It's safe to say that since its inception in an earlier manifestation under the direction of Betty Connors and appearing on a shallow platform in Wheeler Hall, U.C. has provided a venue to introduce the best of modern and unusual ballet companies. At least two residencies by The Joffrey on the U.C. campus in the early 70's quite galvanized the dance audience on both sides of the Bay.

For this program at Berkeley, dances from previous as well as the current seasons were chosen, the earliest of which was the opener, a 1996 Kabaniev piece titled "Pas de Quatre et Pas de Six", sub-titled the company's signature piece, danced by Corinne and Lauren Jonas, Karen Portner and Patricia Tomlinson. For the "Six" section they were joined by Kelly Teo and Kyongho Kim.

It may well have been this ballet which prompted Paul Parish (Ballet Review) to remark that Kabaniev had something to say. The ballet opens with the four women on the floor in a dusky setting, likes swans pausing on water, and it closes that way.

Kabaniev, a Vaganova Institute trained dancer who danced with the Kirov, spent a brief time with Oakland Ballet, and then segued into this comfortable niche in Bay Area ballet life. He is very fond of assembled electronic and jazzy scores, and this one is no exception. He has taken quite classical white tutu and ballet vocabulary en pointe to create a marked series on contrasts between gestures, enchainements and the sound, augmented by occasional swivelled hips and a hip thrust. Balanchine did the same thing in "Rubies" but didn't employ the tutu in the bargain.

In the "de Six" Kelly Teo, Singapore born and trained, was provided a slot to display his amazing ballon and jump. On the short side (like Wayne Sleep), Teo has a finish, gesture inflection and sense of style quite rare among American-bred dancers. Choreographers love to exploit his technical bag of tricks, which are formidable, at the expense of his talent for characterization. Recently released from a year's tour of "The King and I", he looks chunkier than usual and the buttocks swagger has become more pronounced.

Kyongho Kim is one of the early Korean-trained dancers to join American companies. Kim's route lay through Reverend Moon's supported Universal Ballet (Moon also supports the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C.) and Ohio Ballet, plus performing credits with Ivan, Nagy, the late Patrick Bissell, Fernando Bujones, Edward Villella and Judith Fugate. One of the company's most reliable partners, Kim possesses a good jump and a presence with the indefinable touch of the Korean yangban.

Corinne and Lauren Jonas trained at Marin Ballet under Maria Vegh who also was responsible for the training of Joanna Berman of San Francisco Ballet. Corinne worked with Ben Stevenson at Houston Ballet and Lauren with Milwaukee and Oakland Ballets, as well as touring the U.S. with Vaslav Gordeyev's Moscow Ballet. Both possess ideally shaped legs, high waists, with Lauren dramatically strong and Corinne the more lyrical.

Karen Portner is a tallish native who studied with Grace Doty in Berkeley and danced with the Joffrey, Eglevsky Ballet, Nashville and Milwaukee Ballets.

Patricia Tomlinson was utilized by Natalia Makarova for her ensemble, as well as Pennsylvania and Houston Ballets.

(This recitation is primarily designed to indicate the degree of experience for this small, relatively unknown local company.)

Intermission

Kabaniev was followed by Sally Streets "Variations on Baroque", using Gluck's music for "Don Juan", and rendered as authentic a balletic adaptation can be of baroque style by Angene Feves, who has conducted a number of baroque workshops in Holland and Belgium, a couple of decades between her stint with Theatro Fenice in Italy and a master's degree at S.F. State University (see her biographical sketch on http://www.idanews.com).

Sally Streets was briefly a member of NYC Ballet and mother of NYC Ballet's Kyra Nichols. She has a school, Berkeley Ballet, in a converted church on College Avenue designed by noted Bay Area architect Julia Morgan, and almost every program has a work by her.

"Variations on Baroque" is arguably Streets' best to date. It extends baroque vocabulary with point shoes, but utilizes clothing of the period and two of the company's elegant stylizists, Kyongho Kim and Erika Johnson, who perform it like a glove and with a sparkle which glows quietly. It simply suspends one from rock, roll, salza and Country Western for its dance span on stage and is to understand the strength and durability of Western musical and dance style. I think it is a piece which could travel comfortably to other countries and to dancers interested in having a number of genuine charm in their repertoire.

Erika Johnson is another of the talents trained by Maria Vegh and Margaret Swarthout (ex Royal Ballet, one of the original chickens in "La Fille Mal Gardee) who danced with Houston Ballet in works by Ben Stevenson, Christopher Bruce, Jiri Kylian, James Kudelka and Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

Pause

With the aid of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, the company premiered "Apollo" in September with Nikolai Kabaniev as Apollo, Corinne Jonas as Polyhymnia; Karen Portner as Calliope and Patricia Tomlinson as Terpsichore. Like the current NYC Ballet production Apollo's birth has been eliminated as well as the climb to Mount Olympus.

Kabaniev is on the short side and having seen Peter Martins and Charles Jude in the role, plus knowing it was created for Serge Lifar and danced by Lew Christensen, I'm a little askance to seeing shorter men in the role unless they have the charisma of a Baryshnikov. There also is a certain animal vitality, or sensuality, required in the role in addition to the self discovery of a god about his own godhood. Kabaniaev is very earnest but the elemental eludes him, where it is present in his twin brother Viktor, who also dances in the company. His reaction to Polyhymnia and Calliope's variations was excessive - dismissal is sufficient, grimaces are too close to the vernacular.

Of the three Muses, Karen Portner as Calliope seems to possess the best degree of aesthetic astringency for a divine Muse. Technically they are all equal to their tasks, but Tomlinson's Terpsichore was so astringent it lacked a necessary touch of sweetness and Jonas' Polyhymnia was a bit too patently theatrical, and, in addition, she has developed wings in her back marring her line, accented by a thrust head.

Regardless, the choreography remains breathtaking, and one can see in it portents of what Balanchine developed further - the thrust, jazzy hip; the daisy chain with arms and hands; the choreographic pause - three dancers doing the same thing at different heights; work from the floor, unusual (except perhaps at the beginning of Act II Pas de Deux in "Swan Lake" and in the Wedding Pas de Deux in "Sleeping Beauty.") in its frequency. Another gesture which started a trend is the multi- circled striking of the harp in the opening solo of Apollo - a gesture which can degenerate into flailing arms in later choreography or less focused interpreters.

Intermission

Kelly Teo's "Incitations" used an arrangement of Astor Piazzolla for four dancers who take off their skirts and jackets mid passage, bring on and take off a quartet of chairs, open and close their legs on the support like snapping scissors, and square off in pairs or opposite each other but never touch as one expects in tango Argentina style. In this respect Teo harkens back more to the flamenco origins than down Argentine way. None the less, the men - Brent Davi and Viktor Kabaniev look suitably macho and Patricia Tomlinson and Erika Johnson plenty and provocatively sexy.

As an early choreographic essay of Teo, the swift changes of direction and accents reflect his own sharpness and theatrical savvy. One hangs on each move wondering which one will segue into body contact, but never does.

Ronald Borelli provided wonderful accordion support.

There was a brief pause and then the sound level increased ten fold with Peter Escovedo's Latin Jazz Orchestra for Nikolai Kabaniaev's "E Medley." It was a very colorful ending, but scarcely in the choreographic league of Priscilla Regalado's piece for New Shoes Old Souls seen the evening prior.

The choreography seemed comprised of struts with thrust hips, high supported lifts and multiple spins for the men. Alas, one could spot Kirov-style pirouette preparations by Viktor Kabaniev and a few tour en l'air scarcely in keeping with the musical style. Brother Nikolai needs some coaching in Latin style.

The positive element in Diablo Ballet, besides its enterprise, is reinforcing ballet as a small professional enterprise, producing a variety of works supported by a local community. Judicious programing designed to please sometimes falls short of serious comment, particularly when the choreographic assignments are consistently in house. Still, the dancing level and the choreographic level is sufficient competent and consistent that one keeps hoping and is rewarded occasionally with a gem or two like "Variations on Baroque", "Incitations", plus revivals of works which the late Andre Eglevsky made so notable.