Enjoying dance once again

Newport Beach dancer Erin Holmes had no plans to come out of semi-retirement until she got to know UC Irvine dance professor Jodie Gates.

At the time, former Joffrey ballerina Gates was putting together her first dance festival.

Holmes, along with many of her fellow dancers, went into semi-retirement after the 2003 departure of Molly Lynch from Costa Mesa-based Ballet Pacifica due to disputes with artistic directors, which some insiders said began the company’s decline; it dissolved earlier this year. Lynch now teaches dance at UCI with Gates.

Holmes said the experience turned her off from the dance world for a while, but she has since had a change of heart.

Holmes, who works as a guest dancer and professional trainer in Newport Beach, helped Gates from behind the scenes in the Laguna Dance Festival’s first season, but was asked last year if she wanted to perform onstage again.

“When Jodie and my partner asked me if I wanted to do this, it made me like dance again,” Holmes said.

Holmes’ partner from Ballet Pacifica is Irvine resident Francisco Gella, who danced in the closing ceremonies at the Nagano Winter Olympics and is also an accomplished choreographer. He created the work the pair will perform at the festival’s gala.

Holmes described it a romantic pas-de-deux with a big-band feel.

“Cisco is really good at mixing Hollywood and ballet together,” Holmes said. “I’m actually really excited about this piece; I think it’ll be entertaining. It moves.”

Now, Holmes finds herself warming up to the idea of reentering the dance world.

“I think I want to go back, but on a different scale,” Holmes said. “It reminded me: This is what dance is. It’s not the politics — it’s the performances. Now I’m doing it the way I want to do it, instead of being dictated to.

“Everyone is so supportive of each other, and you really do feel like the audience is appreciative of what you’re doing. It’s different from being in a resident company, where you feel more pressure; this allows you to have a little bit more freedom, so to speak.”

Gates said the closure of Ballet Pacifica earlier this year left a vacuum.

“There’s a void in Southern California,” she said. “There’s no major dance company here. I’m hoping that I can really create some kind of opportunity for national and local dance to really thrive in our community.”

Holmes sees the festival, with its variety and accessible atmosphere, as a way to introduce people to dance in a non-threatening way.

“You’re breaking that stereotype,” she said. “It’s not just guys in white tights and girls in pink tights.”

It also gives dancers the rare opportunity to observe each others’ work, she said.

“It’s like the Sundance Film Festival,” Holmes said. “It’s pretty exciting when you’re able to bring that type of talent together in one place. For the dancers, it’s a really nice atmosphere to perform in. You get to see what other people are doing, which you may not otherwise get to see.”

She joins Benji Schwimmer and Heidi Grosskreutz of Newport Beach in this year’s festival. Schwimmer recently won the second season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” and his cousin, Grosskreutz, placed in the top four.

“Ballroom is hot right now. It’s a way that we can bring people in who have never been to a performance before,” Gates said.

This is Grosskreutz and Schwimmer’s first appearance at the festival; Grosskreutz said she found out about it through a friend of her mother.

Both she and Schwimmer started dancing as toddlers, and began performing together when Schwimmer was 5 and Grosskreutz was 7, she said. They are cousins of actor David Schwimmer; Benji’s parents ran a hugely popular dance studio, and his father, Buddy, created the Nightclub Two Step.

“We’ve danced together for over 20 years,” Grosskreutz said.

Then, when he was in California and she was in New York, they heard about the auditions for the TV show. Schwimmer instantly decided to try out, but Grosskreutz held out for a while before auditioning.

“Then I just had a feeling that I should,” she said.

Next thing they knew, the cousins had each made it to the top four, independent of each other.

They’ve since become teen idols, with online message boards dedicated to dissecting their every performance and Web pages full of screen shots from the show.

In addition to the stars, the Laguna Dance Festival has added a variety of local and worldwide giants of classic and modern dance to its third annual season. Founder Jodie Gates said she tailer-made the weeklong series of concerts and classes to fit Laguna.

The festival’s many performances will highlight multiple companies and genres, from swing to hip-hop to classical ballet.

In the past, the festival has featured one company for the week. Gates said that although the festival format has changed a bit, presenting organization CaDance’s mission to present high-quality, yet accessible dance remains the same.

“You’re bound to go home, no matter who you are, liking something,” Gates said.

Gates said she would love to expand CaDance’s scope in the future, branching out to other venues in Orange County and Southern California.

Candice Baker can be reached at candice.baker@latimes.com.