<P><BR>An interview with Alan Ziter, executive director of the San Diego Performing Arts League, who views his current main task as, "getting the business community to be more aware and supportive of San Diego's performing arts groups":<P> <A HREF="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/sddt/20000712/lo/performing_arts_league_s_ziter_means_business_in_latest_task_1.html" TARGET=_blank>daily news article</A><P>Here's the League's website:<BR> <A HREF="http://www.sandiegoperforms.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.sandiegoperforms.com/</A> <p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited October 05, 2000).]

are you familiar with this organisation, basheva?

This group is one permutation of several for this sort of activity. San Diego does have a fairly good orchestra (which is always on the brink of financial catastrophe), quite good opera, which enjoys a very steady subscriber list (as far as I know), but dance is quite a different story. <P>I have to admit first of all I have never heard of the man who is now heading this organization. In the past such organizations have been fairly incestuous in allocating pooled funds. <P>Though we do have a fairly large service/technical based industry in San Diego, we have very few corporate head offices here, and therefore they feel little loyalty to fund arts in this city.<P>As for dance, the truth is that since the financial bankruptcy of the San Diego Ballet under the artisitic direction of Keith Martin, in the late 1970's early 1980's, there has been no truly professional level company here. There are indeed, some wonderful individual professional dancers - but no company. If the various pre-professional companies would pool their resources, we could again have professional level dance. But, each is the child and creation of a founder, who will not give up control of their "child". <P>Jillana (Balanchine ballerina), Robin Sheretz Morgan, Jacqueline Hepner (Balanchine dancers) are here as well as Wayne Davis, Kathryn Eyrie, Larry Eddington, Ballerina Sonia Arova, Thor Sutowski, Maxine Mahan, Steven and Elizabeth Wistrich - are all here. They are all competent - and in some cases - celebrated teachers, dancers and choreographers. (Forgive me if I left anyone out!!) <P>But - the fact remains the dance community is splintered along egocentric lines. We end up with 7 versions (I am not exaggerating) of the Nutcracker, most being less than satisfactory. <P>Becasue of this many would be benefactors have given up over the years. Several teachers of note have given up too. What could be a healthy tree, is instead - splinters. <P>We do have the theaters -but the main theater in downtown San Diego has, in my view, been mismanaged for many years and so the major companies (NYCB, ABT, Bolshoi, etc.) no longer come here. This lack of being able to see the great companies, undermines the appetite for dance. A child in San Diego would have no opportunity to see a performance - in it's full glory - except a couple of Nutcrackers. A very sad state of affairs - it was better 25 yrs ago.<BR>I travel 100 miles for the ballet season in Costa Mesa - and even that is only 4-5 performances per year - that's how I get to see ABT, Bolshoi, etc.

yet another wonderful word image from basheva! -<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>What could be a healthy tree, is instead - splinters. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>sonia arova - i saw her dance when i was a child! tell me a bit more about her, now, if you can?.....<P>forgive my geographical forgetfulness - and my disinclination to find an atlas website! - what is the closest city for you, for ballet performances? los angeles? is costa mesa the name of a town? or the name of a theatre (in what town?)? did you see the royal ballet when they were in los angeles?

Los Angeles is about 120 miles (it seems to always be creeping closer thru the years) north of San Diego. In between, but closer to LA, is Costa Mesa (a city) which is in Orange County. A fine theater complex exists there called the Orange County Performing ARts Theater. It is a fairly wealthy community. (Guess that's why one of the biggest shopping malls is also there). There are a number of high rise hotels very close to the theater. My husband and I get season tickets every year for the ballet, and spend the night at the Marriott directly behind the theater, at which the dance company performing, often also stays. <P>Sonia Arova - she was born in Bulgaria - trained under Olga Preobrajenska - has had a stellar career. She came to San Diego with her dancer/choreographer husband, Thor Sutowski,in the 1970's. When Nureyev first defected he, Rosella Hightower, Erik Bruhn, and Sonia toured as a foursome. <P>While here, she and Thor were directors of the San Diego Ballet. Jillana, Balanchine ballerina, had retired from NYCB, moved here and she and Thor danced in many SDB productions. I don't ever remember Sonia dancing on stage in San Diego. I think she was having some health problems. Sonia gave company class (which I took) - classes were quite difficult. I remember she would set the combinations only using her fingers to demonstrate what she wanted, which gave me a devil of a time. It was hard to see her flashing fingers from across a fairly large studio. A finger that flashed up two inches was a grande battement, but if only one inch - well that was probably a degage'. I remember once she put on a new pair of pointe shoes, stood in the center, and did 8 grand battements, en croix (for a total of 32), sur la pointe, never wobbled even once. Then, she pouted and complained that her shoes "were not right". (If they had been my shoes, I would have kept them anyway - any pair of shoes that can do 32 unsupported grand battement with no wobbles, in the center are keepers). <P>Then she and Thor left and went to head up a dance dept. at the University of Alabama - where they were quite successful having several of their students join companies like ABT. Now, retired from the University of Alabama - they are back in San Diego. They joined California Ballet - but I knew that couldn't last. That pre-professional company (here in San Diego) was given birth to and belongs to Maxine Mahon. <P>There are a number of good links online for Sonia Arova - if you have Google Search Engine - you will see them. Let me know if you want me to post them for you.

Here is an update on some dance events in the San Diego area - no less than 5 Nutcrackers and some Flamenco ------<P> <A HREF="http://www.gosandiego.com/results.tmpl" TARGET=_blank>http://www.gosandiego.com/results.tmpl</A> <BR>