
DATE: Thursday, May 1, 1997                 TAG: 9704290146

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  114 lines

BACK TO BALLET HOME RECOVERED PRIMA BALLERINA RETURNS AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE VIRGINIA BALLET PRODUCTION OF ``SERANADE,'' A WORK BY GEORGE BALENCINE.

WHEN THE VIRGINIA BALLET Theater takes the stage May 8-9 in its most ambitious production yet, it will be the beginning of a rebirth of sorts for Norfolk-bred prima ballerina Lorraine Graves.

Less than a year ago, Graves - a principal dancer and company manager at the famed Dance Theater of Harlem for 17 years - was hospitalized for a month, her finely honed body racked by the ravages of lupus. So weak she could barely walk, much less dance, Graves suffered devastating joint pain and swelling.

Dancing - an integral part of her life since childhood, when she trained under the legendary Gene Hammett at the Norfolk Civic Ballet - was put on hold.

Today, Graves is strong again and has resumed her career, albeit ``at a different level'' and based closer to home. For the Virginia Ballet's spring production, the Norfolk native is serving as artistic director in charge of staging and setting the performance.

As a ``step up to the next level'' for the Olney Road-based ballet theater, the scheduled repertoire will be a challenging one and only the second in which professional dancers will be featured.

Among them is another Norfolk-trained dancer, Stacy Caddell, a former soloist at the prestigious New York City Ballet and the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, who now freelances. Todd Rosenlieb, a principal dancer and company director of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, will also perform.

In a major coup, the cast of 23 - including a corps of the school's most promising students - have received permission to perform ``Serenade,'' a work by the legendary choreographer George Balanchine. The Balanchine Trust, which oversees the late New York City Ballet master's estate, is fiercely protective of the work. Only a select few are granted performing rights each year, and then only after a careful screening process.

The ballet troupe has spent months rehearsing the piece under Graves' guidance. On a recent weekend, trust repertorist Victoria Simon visited the Norfolk studio to do some quality control and put a few ``finishing touches'' to the performance.

But the Balanchine piece is not the only tough work in the program. The dancers will also perform ``Heyoka,'' a piece done in tribal masks composed by famed choreographer Erick Hawkins, one of the first male dancers at New York City Ballet under Balanchine; ``The Abyss,'' a dramatic work created for the Harkness Ballet; and ``By George,'' set to the music of George Gershwin and choreographed by Virginia Ballet's director, Frank Bove, especially for the May performance.

Having a dancer of Graves' calibre on board to ensure that the program - and, particularly, the Balanchine work - is of the highest calibre possible is a godsend, noted Bove. With $62,000 invested in staging the production and the school's reputation on the line, a lot rides on the success of the program.

``I'm very serious about the responsibility of this piece,'' Bove said. ``This is a big deal for us; it's a major classical piece. Lorraine is a national treasure. We're very fortunate that we have her and all these other professionals available to help us make it first-class.''

It's not the first time Graves has worked with the Virginia Ballet. Last spring, she danced in the school's Azalea Festival performance.

Weeks afterward, her health began to fail. At a turning point mentally and physically, she left the Harlem dance theater.

``My career was winding down, and I had been thinking about the next step,'' she admitted during a break in rehearsals recently. ``The lupus helped me make a decision. Dancing and traveling takes a toll on everyone. It was just too much stress on my body. So I said, `OK, I've had a wonderful career. Let's slow down a bit. Let's find something a little more stationary and stable and nearer to my doctors.' ''

With family still in the area (Graves' father owns a downtown funeral home), Norfolk was the logical place to resettle.

In fact, throughout her career, the Campostella native has continued to keep in touch with her ``home school'' even though she has performed throughout the world.

``It was a natural extension for me to get involved here,'' said Graves, who also teaches at the Governor's School for the Arts. ``I'm at a transitional point in my life, so working here is helping me to decide what's next. It's nice to finish where you started.''

Graves started at the civic ballet - later called ``The Tidewater Ballet Association''- as the school's first minority student. Of the hundreds of promising dancers who would train at the school under Hammett, many went on to prominent dance careers.

After Hamment died in 1989, the school's artistic director, who had just been diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, contacted Bove and asked for help. A professional soloist who was co-directing a successful regional dance company and school in California with his wife, Bove took over the financially strapped school in 1990 and renamed it the Virginia Ballet Theater. Since then, he's worked to make it financially stable, artistically sound and an integral part of the Hampton Roads arts scene.

``Artistically, this is a really big step for us,'' he admitted. ``We're doing it . . . and we're doing it well. We're the missing piece of the arts community in Hampton Roads, and we want people to take notice of that and support us.''

With such top-knotch performers as Graves to help, it may only be a matter of time. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by MOTOYA NAKAMURA

Dancers rehearse for Balanchine's ``Serenade,'' under the watchful

eyes of choreographer Lorraine Graves (in blue leotard) and Victoria

Simon of the Balanchine Trust.

Stacey Cadell, center, a Norfolk-trained dancer who is a former

soloist at the New York City Ballet and the Twyla Tharp Dance

Company, will appear in the Virginia Ballet's spring production.

Graphic

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: The Virginia Ballet Theater's spring gala

WHERE: May 8 at the Harrison Opera House and May 9 at the

Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater

WHEN: Curtain time for both performances is 8 p.m.