14 From County to Dance With Joffrey

Some young dancers from Orange County are enjoying the benefits of having two major companies visiting the area.

Fourteen of the dancers have been chosen to perform in the Joffrey Ballet’s new production of “The Nutcracker,” Dec. 23 through 31 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The dancers were picked in an open audition that drew about 130 to try out for 66 available parts.

Four--Seona Turner, 10; Sandra Trujillo, 11, and Xochilt Garcia and Zuly Garcia, both 12, all of Santa Ana--are members of Sister Beth Burns’ St. Joseph Ballet, an inner-city company.

Six are students at the Huntington Academy of Dance in Huntington Beach. They are Tarin Mealer, 11, of Lakewood; Erin Haynes, 12, of Huntington Beach; Nicole Deleon, 9, of Fountain Valley, and Christy Jue, 13; Ashley Jue, 8, and Stacey Jue, 11, all of Huntington Beach.

No ballet school affiliations were available for the other four dancers, Melissa Fernandez, Amber Gallegos, Delen Goldberg and Patricia O’Bee, who were identified as Orange County residents by a Joffrey spokesman.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Bustamante, a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, which is at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through Dec. 11, will conduct a master class for the St. Joseph Ballet Company Monday at 4 p.m. at the company’s studio in Santa Ana.