Pacific Festival Ballet announces world premiere production

Pacific Festival Ballet, the resident ballet company of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, will present the world premiere of a new, full-length ballet, "The Sea Princess," at 4 and 7:30 p.m. Fri., May 18 at the Fred Kavli Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.

The ballet has an original score from film and television composer Eric Allaman. The music was recorded in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2006.

The production will feature guest artist performances and spotlight the achievements of graduating students from California Dance Theatre, the training school for Pacific Festival Ballet.

"The Sea Princess" will mark the company's fifth full-length original ballet in as many years.

Always intrigued by the idea of expanding classical ballet's traditional boundaries, artistic director Kim Maselli used "The Sea Princess" as an opportunity to mix the old world with the new.

"There are several levels to the ballet," Maselli said. In the palace scenes, Maselli holds true to the classical ballet style. As the story progresses, "the dancing becomes more emotional and neoclassical," said Maselli, and in Act 2, "The movement becomes more abstract and vibrantly contemporary," a way of visually expressing the story's descent to the world under the waves.

Tickets are on sale at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza box office at (805) 449-ARTS (2787) or TicketMaster, or on the web at www.californiadancetheatre.com.