Dancing in the moonlight: City Ballet’s 34th season opens with Serenade at UCSD

George Balanchine was so taken with California orange groves, he built Serenade’s famous opening around their visual pattern, arranging 17 women in a scattered, uneven formation of an orchard rather than traditional straight lines.

Nearly a century later, Pacific Beach-based City Ballet of San Diego will open its 34th season on Aug. 21 with “Serenade,” performed outside at UC San Diego’s Epstein Family Amphitheater, a setting Artistic Director Steven Wistrich said is particularly suited to the landmark ballet. 

“The actual lighting for Serenade is moonlight,” Wistrich said. “I always thought what a wonderful opportunity it would be to perform this ballet outside as it was originally conceived.”

Set to Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings,” the performance unfolds with a large corps de ballet in long, pale blue dresses that fall nearly to the floor. Wistrich described it as ethereal yet athletic, built around a sweeping opening and an equally dramatic close.

Wistrich, who danced Serenade across two continents and three decades, said the ballet holds a singular place in his life. He first performed in its corps as a young dancer with Boston Ballet, later rose to the lead “Waltz Boy” role and eventually danced that same part again in Geneva, Switzerland, where Balanchine himself coached him.

“If I was going to be leaving this planet and someone said, ‘You have time to see one more ballet before you go,’ it would be ‘Serenade,’” Wistrich said. “There’s just something so exquisitely beautiful about it. Once you see Serenade, you never forget it.”

The opening program also features “Rhapsody in Blue,” choreographed by company member Geoff Gonzalez, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Ecliptic,” returning for a third season after selling out in past runs and drawing audiences back for repeat viewings.

“The audience went absolutely bonkers,” Wistrich said of “Ecliptic’s” debut.

City Ballet was founded 34 years ago as a school in Pacific Beach before growing into a full company that now employs dancers from around the world, including Japan and Brazil. 

“San Diego really deserves to see world-class dancing and they don’t have to go outside of San Diego to see it,” Wistrich said.

The company is also a family affair: Wistrich’s wife, Elizabeth, and son-in-law Geoff Gonzalez both serve as resident choreographers, and his daughter, Ariana Gonzalez, a principal dancer, was recently named associate artistic director.

“It’s wonderful we get to see each other all the time. How many people get to see their grown daughters just about every day?” Wistrich said. 

Family ties are just one part of a season that continues with four more programs across San Diego County.

In the fall, “American Icons” runs Oct. 24-25 at the Balboa Theatre. The program pays tribute to three choreographers who shaped American dance and is funded in part by a National Endowment for the Arts grant commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary. The show pairs Balanchine’s “Concerto Barocco” with Peter Martins’ “Ash” and a company premiere of Gerald Arpino’s 1981 Joffrey Ballet classic “Light Rain.” 

City Ballet’s holiday staple, “The Nutcracker,” returns with its signature opulence Dec. 19-23 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido.

In March, Geoff Gonzalez’s condensed staging of “West Side Story” will have its world premiere in Escondido, sharing the bill with Elizabeth Wistrich’s multimedia work “Enigma,” last performed by the company in 2011, and a stand-alone pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s “The American.” 

The season closes in May with City Ballet’s first full-length production of “Swan Lake,” performed with the company’s live orchestra and an expanded corps of swans. 

Wistrich said the season, taken as a whole, was built with a wide range of audiences in mind.

“It’s a season for everyone,” he said. “If you like tutus, you’re going to love Swan Lake. If you like athletic ballets, you’re going to love ‘American Icons.’ If you want to be dazzled with something that’s timeless and unforgettable, you want to see ‘Serenade.’”

He added that newcomers shouldn’t feel intimidated by the art form. 

“People don’t need to know anything about ballet to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s just meant to be visually enthralling.”

Student tickets are $12 for every performance, Wistrich said, while tickets to Serenade start at $39.

For Wistrich, the payoff comes once the curtain rises.

“The highlight of the whole thing for me is watching the dancers grow right in front of my eyes,” he said.

City Ballet of San Diego performs “Serenade,” “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Ecliptic” at UC San Diego’s Epstein Family Amphitheater Aug. 21-22. Tickets and full season details are available at www.cityballet.org.