Troupe melds ballet, hip-hop – and Jackson

After two years of hard work, Central West Ballet is ready to dance it out.

The professional ballet company concludes its two-year grant initiative with the “Let’s Dance! Part 2” performance March 27-28 at the Gallo Center for the Arts. The show is the culmination of the James Irvine Foundation Grant for Dance Initiative the group received in 2013. The $110,000 grant funded interactive public performances and outreach efforts for the troupe.

Last year, Central West held a similar “Let’s Dance!” To date, the group has completed 12 public outreach events throughout the community. Dancers have performed at area schools, dance studios, art galleries and the farmers market, among other spots throughout the area.

“We have been very pleased how everything has been done. It was a two-part thing: It has opened us up to the rest of the community in a really unusual and original way, but it also opened the community up to us in a different way than just doing regular performances at theaters,” said Central West Artistic Director René Daveluy. “That has gone a long way to get us support, exposure and visibility.”

The “Let’s Dance! Part 2” show will feature more than 50 dancers, including the company’s 25 members, as well as 5678 Dance Studio students and guest performers. It will include George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” performed to music by George Gershwin, and a “Tribute to the King of Pop” done in the style of Michael Jackson. The more than 20 students enrolled in the new Central West Ballet Academy also will take part in the troupe’s first public performance at the Gallo Center.

While last year’s “Let’s Dance!” show had a more rock-themed program, Daveluy said this year’s celebration of Jackson was a way to integrate dance styles. Central West dancers and 5678 Dance Studio students appear in the piece together.

“I thought we could combine dance styles, like Michael Jackson,” he said. “It would be a happy medium between the ballet company and studio’s hip-hop style of dance. Michael Jackson had a very distinctive style.”

The show will be the final performance for longtime Central West Ballet principal dancer Alyssa Milano. She is retiring after 15 years with the company to pursue a career in marketing. Since joining the group in 2000, Milano has starred onstage as the Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker,” Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet,” and the lead in “Cinderella,” among other productions.

“She is one of the few that has had such a long stretch with the company. She’s been a workhorse and one of the leaders with the company,” Daveluy said.

The “Let’s Dance! Part 2” program will include an opening night cocktail party from 5 to 6:30 p.m. March 27 at Prospect Theater prior to the Gallo Center performance. Tickets to the cocktail party are $50.

Daveluy said that although the two-year grant is now complete, the company’s community outreach efforts will continue. Programs at area high schools already have been set up for this year.

“I really feel the community and company have really gotten together after two years and really delivered the grant together,” he said. “I would hope that would be something the community would remember. The grant has really transformed us in that arena. We’ve gotten more support and more tools to be able to go out and continue.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Troupe melds ballet, hip-hop – and Jackson."