Opportunity to create

Summer vacation is hardly a break for UC Irvine dance professor Molly Lynch. As the artistic director for the National Choreographers Initiative, July is the busiest month of the year.

In its fourth year at UCI, the three-week program offers choreographers a place to create free from pressure and restrictions, culminating in the NCI Discovery performance Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

“Essentially, the project is about giving choreographers the opportunity to create a piece of their own choosing without the pressures of having to do a premier piece,” said Lynch, a Corona del Mar native.

The project began as the Pacifica Choreographic Project in 1991, when Lynch was artistic director of Ballet Pacifica. It was inspired by NewSCRipts at South Coast Repertory, a program which allows patrons to be part of the development process of four new plays each year.

At the conclusion of Saturday’s performance, audience members are invited to ask questions and provide comments to Lynch and this year’s four choreographers: Melissa Barak, Frank Chaves, Edwaard Liang and Jerry Opdenaker.

“It’s really a dialogue between the audience and the choreographers,” Lynch said. “It gives the audience much more insight into the process that choreographers go through to create a piece.”

An accomplished dancer with the Los Angeles Ballet and a Southern California native, Barak was thrilled to get a break from ballet this summer so she could participate in the choreographers initiative.

She describes the piece of music she chose, a composition by Huang Ruo, as atmospheric with Chinese elements, but lacking a steady beat, which makes it extremely challenging to dance to and to choreograph.

“I figured this was the opportunity to work with music that I would be very scared to do if my piece was going to be reviewed,” she said. “I am not expecting it to touch people’s hearts or change their lives, but I would like them to feel like they are in another world or some other time, if only for 15 minutes.”

As one of the 15 dancers selected from various national companies, Brittany Fridenstine said the program presents a great opportunity not just for the choreographers and the audience, but also for the performers.

“It is great having dancers come together from all over the country to work with choreographers we might not normally get the change to work with,” she said, adding that she found her new career with the American Repertory Ballet after participating in last year’s initiative.

The majority of the pieces premiered in past programs have gone on to be fully produced or further developed with other dance groups.

In his second year participating in the program, Chaves expects he will leave with plenty of inspiration to take back to the River North Chicago Dance Company, for which he serves as artistic director.

“This has provided me a great jump-start for dances that will be part of something bigger in the future,” he said. “I will definitely use this material on my company.”

FEATURED CHOREOGRAPHERS

Melissa Barak was raised in Los Angeles and performed many leading roles with the New York City Ballet before joining the Los Angeles Ballet. In 2001, she received the Mae L. Wien Award and the Choo San Goh Award for Choreography.

Frank Chaves was born in Cuba. He joined River North Chicago Dance Company in 1992 and now serves as artistic director. His works have been performed by numerous companies, including Spectrum Dance Theatre and Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago.

Edwaard Liang was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He joined New York City Ballet in 1993, the same year he won a medal at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition. He was named one of the “Top 25 to Watch” for 2006 by Dance Magazine.

Jerry Opdenaker was raised in Philadelphia. He has performed with many jazz and modern companies as well as Pennsylvania Ballet, and has been choreographing since 1996. His work has been performed by Ballet Florida and Ballet Gamonet.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: National Choreographers Initiative Discovery performance

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

COST: $22 - $28; full-time students can purchase tickets at half price at the box office with ID

INFO: To learn more about the National Choreographers Initiative, go to www.nchoreographers.org or call (949) 675-4579. To purchase tickets, go to www.thebarclay.org or call (949) 854-4646.