Performing Arts Center Given $500,000 for Dance Programs

The Harry and Grace Steele Foundation in Newport Beach has given the Orange County Performing Arts Center $500,000 to help underwrite its 1997-98 dance series. The grant is the latest of many from the foundation, which gave money for the construction of the center and has supported opera programs there.

Also, it is the second $500,000 grant in the space of a week to an arts group in Orange County. On April 10, the Pacific Symphony announced it was receiving half a million dollars from philanthropist Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. of Los Angeles to promote classical music in the county’s public and private schools.

“There is something of a rebirth of generosity in the county,” Mark Chapin Johnson, chairman of the performing arts center’s board, said Thursday. “But I don’t think it’s coming simply as a result of an improved economy, although certainly that facilitates generosity and philanthropy.

“My sense is that the arts organizations in the community are doing an increasingly effective job of nurturing and cultivating their existing and prospective donors and supporters. It’s a long-term cumulative process, which has been going on for the last couple of years, before the economy turned. We’re thrilled by it.”

Louis G. Spisto, executive director of the Pacific Symphony, agreed Thursday that “the fund-raising climate is definitely stronger this year.” But, he added, “the announcement of these gifts may be more a coincidence than anything else.”

“Certainly the grant from Howard Ahmanson is something we have been working toward for the last year. Individual gifts have been strong this year. That’s a result of a somewhat better economy but also the result of a great deal of hard work on the part of our staff and volunteers.”

However, he said, corporate gifts “continue to be a challenge. Corporate gifts are down. This is a regional as well as a national trend.”

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In other arts news, the center has announced that the Royal Ballet’s appearances there next month--underwritten by an earlier Steele Foundation grant--will begin May 20 at 8 p.m. with Anthony Dowell’s staging of “The Sleeping Beauty.” The cast will include Darcey Bussell, Stuart Cassidy and Zenaida Yanowsky. The ballet will be repeated May 21 at 8 p.m. with Leanne Benjamin, Bruce Sansom and Rachael Whitbread.

On May 22 and 23 at 8 p.m., the troupe will dance Frederick Ashton’s “La Valse” and “Daphnis and Chloe” (with Sarah Wilder and Cassidy on May 22, Miyako Yoshida and Sansom on May 23), Kenneth MacMillan’s “La Fin du jour” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “Pavane pour une infante defunte” (with Bussell and Jonathan Cope on May 22, Chloe Davies and Inaki Urlezaga on May 23).

“Sleeping Beauty” will repeat May 24-25, with the opening night cast on May 24 at 2 p.m. The cast on May 24 at 8 p.m. will include Yoshida, Irek Mukhamedov and Nicola Tranah. The cast May 25 at 2 p.m. will include Belinda Hatley, Cope and Tranah.

Tickets: $20-$75. Information: (714) 556-2787.

* DANCE MONEY

The Steele Foundation has given OCPAC $500,000 to help fund dance at the center. F25