Q&A; -- Keeping the Center on its feet

In May, the Los Angeles Times called the Orange County Performing Arts

Center “the primary destination for dance in Southern California.” Just

take a look at the slate for this season and next -- the Bolshoi, the

Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theater -- and it’s easy to see why.

In fact, Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company will have the American premiere

of Sylvie Guillem’s “Giselle” here next month, a production that is only

slated to appear in one other place in the states, the Lincoln Center in

New York.

Some of that, if not most, is thanks to the work of Judith O’Dea Morr,

executive vice president of the Center. Morr, who came to Costa Mesa in

1985 from the Kennedy Center, is in charge of dance programming at the

Costa Mesa venue. She sat down with Features Editor Jennifer K Mahal this

week to talk about putting together one of the best dance programs

around.

What are your responsibilities at the Center?

My first title when I came here was general manager, which had been my

title at Kennedy Center, where I did similar kinds of things for 15

years. And now my title is executive vice president, but my

responsibilities are programming and theater management.

I have general responsibility for programming, which does not mean

that I am the artistic person for the opera and the symphony. But I,

specifically, do the dance programming and, of course, with Jerry Mandel

(Center president), work on the Broadway season, which is our most

popular season.

How do you choose which dance companies to invite year after year?

I have a general knowledge of the companies in the world, and what’s

important to do is keep a good eye on them so that you know where they

are and when you would want to bring them and show them to our audience.

And when you would want to bring another one, you think about what

programs you would want to have them show. You think about what artists

you would like to have dance. And then, in consultation with the

companies, you make that decision.

Is there an artist that you have not been able to bring in that you

would like to see perform at the Center?

There’s always the challenge of finding an artist that’s new. However,

I think we’ve been quite successful in bringing the artists that we want

to have here. When I look back at the range of companies and the numbers

of companies that we’ve had here, we’ve really had just an extraordinary

array. I’m happy with what we do.

What’s your favorite ballet?

The wonderful thing about dance and story ballets is that every

choreographer who decides to change it or put his or her stamp on it is

completely different. I would honestly say, I actually, even though

programming doesn’t reflect it, I’m most interested in contemporary

choreography and where it’s going. But remember when I talk about doing

things for the Center, I’m looking at what’s appropriate for Segerstrom

Hall. And Segerstrom Hall has 3,000 seats. It is truly an opera house in

all respects. We can take the biggest and the best. And my focus on

working on this series for the Center is to present the biggest and the

best.

When possible, it’s important to present the range of programming that

a company will do so that you have some of their contemporary work and

some of the traditional classical dance so you can see the full scope of

what their capabilities are.

What was your first exposure to dance?

As a child I took dance lessons, piano lessons, like most young

people. And it was after I began working at Kennedy Center that I really

began to study and learn more about dance. I worked at Kennedy Center in

Washington D.C. for 15 years. There we had five theaters . . . it was

glorious opportunity to learn and to develop my own talent.

What do you like best about your job?

The constant changing nature of every day, because we do some 360

performances every year, and that means there’s a new artist or a new

company or a new production challenge every day. Almost. So no day is

quite the same.

I have such respect for all of the colleagues that I work with --

backstage people, wardrobe people, ushers . . . . Everyone who works in

the theater is here because they really love the arts, or they wouldn’t

be here.

It seems like the dance season sometimes gets less recognition than

the Broadway season when it comes to audiences. Is that true?

Not in the world. I mean it really was our dance season that gave us

recognition in the international world of theaters. You just can talk to

anybody who has any involvement in international travel and they say “Oh,

Costa Mesa. Yes, that’s where they have that dance series,” because a

dance company comes and really has a great experience here and they go

back and say, “Come to Costa Mesa, it’s a great place.”

We’ve built a lot of support -- we’ve had wonderful board support,

we’ve had wonderful audience support. Dance is always a challenge to

present. A challenge for many reasons -- audience, expense . . . . It’s

also a challenge to find the right opportunity, the right time in our

schedule when a company is able to travel. We very often have just very

tiny windows of time that have to make a travel company’s schedule fit

within that. It makes it difficult.

How do you grow support for the dance series in terms of the local

audience?

We have preview talks before every performance so interested people

can come and listen to a person who has expertise in that area talk about

the performance they’ll see that night. We make available reading

material within the program, and most people who are interested in dance

carefully read the material. We send out our own publication, called

Revue magazine, and most often have articles about upcoming productions

which give a lot of information.

And word of mouth is always part of it. I think those who just saw

the Paris Opera Ballet will talk about the next company we have, which is

the La Scala Opera Ballet. And that’s all part of audience building.

BIO BOX

Name: Judith O’Dea Morr

Occupation: Executive vice president of the Orange County Performing

Arts Center

Education: Bachelors from Illinois College, master’s from Simmons

College in Boston, Mass.

Interesting note: Before joining the Center in 1985 as general

manager, Morr was general manager for the theaters for the Kennedy Center

Community involvement: Member of the boards of St. Joseph’s Ballet and

AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County