WEST COAST DEBUT : PARIS BALLET TO APPEAR AT ARTS CENTER

The Paris Opera Ballet, which traces its roots to the court of Louis XIV, will make its West Coast debut in June, 1988, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The company, directed by Rudolf Nureyev, will appear June 14-19, as part of the Center-sponsored Classic Dance Series, Center officials said Wednesday.

The series will include the American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada.

The schedule announced Wednesday more than doubles the number of weeks of dance offered during the Center’s first year. It was prompted by strong ticket sales for one-week engagements by the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre during the 1986-87 opening season, officials said.

“We are moving a little more rapidly than we initially planned, going from two weeks of ballet in our first season to five (next season),” Center President Thomas R. Kendrick said.

“The reason is twofold: First, it’s based on a very positive reaction to what we presented last year, and, second, on the opportunity to get outstanding companies this year.

“The Paris Opera Ballet represents the same sort of (artistic) coup that New York City Ballet represented (for us) last year. This will be an exclusive engagement of one of the finest companies in the world.”

The Paris-based company’s appearance at the Center will be sponsored jointly by the Center and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Kendrick said.

The ballet company will dance Nureyev’s controversial interpretation of “Cinderella,” which premiered in Paris in 1986. Set to the Prokofiev score, the Nureyev version places the action in 1930s Hollywood, with the prince cast as a leading man in search of a new leading lady and the fairy godmother as a producer-director intent on creating a star.

Nureyev, 49, has danced with the company on its tours to Canada this spring and to the East Coast last year.

According to Kendrick, Nureyev intends to travel with the company. If he does, he is expected to dance the role of the Fairy Godmother at selected performances, Kendrick said.

A Russian-born dancer who was a soloist with the Kirov Ballet, Nureyev defected to the West in 1961 and catapulted to international fame with London’s Royal Ballet. He last danced locally on a program with six principal dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet in March at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Kendrick also announced the return of the American Ballet Theatre, directed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, for a two-week engagement, Dec. 1-13, 1987. (The company first appeared at the Center last December in Baryshnikov’s production of “The Nutcracker.”)

The company will dance eight performances of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s new production of “The Sleeping Beauty,” which premiered in Chicago in February. There will be a second week of mixed repertory, including a world premiere. Details will be announced later.

(ABT will also dance Baryshnikov’s “The Nutcracker” Dec. 15-27 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The company will return to the Shrine, March 1-20, 1988, but the repertory has not been set for that engagement, according to a spokesman for the New York-based company.)

ABT’s Orange County engagement “signals a long-term relationship which will feature frequent visits (to the Center) by the company,” Kendrick said.

“ABT is happy that we have chosen ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and the mixed repertory bill rather than ‘The Nutcracker,’ ” he said. “It would have been less costly to us to do that because they are bringing ‘The Nutcracker’ to Los Angeles anyway. . . . But we want to move toward presenting these companies and their repertories more fully.”

It is not known whether Baryshnikov, 41, will dance during the Orange County engagement, Kendrick said.

Completing the Center’s Classic Dance Series will be:

--The Joffrey Ballet, Sept. 22-27, 1987. The repertory will include Sir Frederick Ashton’s “La Fille mal gardee” and other works previously announced.

--The National Ballet of Canada, June 7-12, 1988. Repertory will include Glen Tetley’s “Alice,” set to music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici and based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”; and John Cranko’s “Eugene Onegin,” based on the poem by Pushkin and set to music by Tchaikovsky.

Series subscription tickets will cover five events, including ABT’s “Sleeping Beauty” and one of its mixed-bill performances, and will range from $59 to $190. Individual tickets will go on sale about six weeks before each engagement. For further information, call the center at (714) 556-2787.