South Bay Ballet welcomes the summer season...

South Bay Ballet welcomes the summer season with “In Concert,” a program at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center featuring jazz and classical works choreographed especially for the company.

The weekend program continues with a performance at 2 p.m. today. Five of the six works to be presented make their premiere with the troupe this weekend.

A segment of one of the ballets, created by longtime troupe member Kim Olmos, was selected by judges for a showcase program at the Regional Dance America / Pacific Festival ’93 last month in Modesto.

The 12-minute dance called “Brother’s Keeper” is divided into three parts and set to music by the Neville Brothers.

During the ballet’s first section, the dancers wear expressionless masks to symbolize “that we all have masks on and sometimes we’re too terrified to get rid of them and show ourselves,” Olmos said.

The dance expresses themes such as trust, racial division and unity, and fear of the unknown. While ballet dance was in the works long before the Los Angeles riots, Olmos said, last year’s disturbances give the piece new resonance.

A second dance, “Technical Velocity,” was designed for the South Bay Ballet by Jon Cristofori, director of the Yuma Ballet Theatre and a former dancer with the Joffrey Ballet.

Cristofori based his dancers’ movement on a peculiar ritual performed by eagles, said Diane Lauridsen, the company’s artistic director.

Sometimes eagles, which mate for life, entertain themselves by diving off a cliff in pairs, talons linked together, speeding perilously toward the earth. Within seconds of crashing, like feathered bungee jumpers, the birds swoop up to safety.

“City Summer,” created by eight-year company veteran Daniel Berney, features seven dancers moving to George Gershwin and Cole Porter classics such as “Begin the Beguine,” “Fascinating Rhythm” and “Embraceable You,” adding a sophisticated, nearly jazzy feel to the program, Lauridsen said.

Troupe member Gustavo Unguez has choreographed “Excerpts,” a neoclassical work in the Balanchine style set to Beethoven’s Bagatelles for Piano.

The 16-member company also will present “Incident at Black Briar,” a sometimes controversial ballet that has been performed nationally. Ron Cunningham, director of the Sacramento Ballet, choreographed the work for the company.

Finally, the company’s 17 junior dancers will present “La Source,” an “old-fashioned ballet in the romantic style,” Lauridsen said.

The work choreographed by Mario Nugara, a former dancer with the Boston Ballet, is performed in flowing tutus and is “the kind of thing people think about when they think about ballet,” she said.

--MARY HELEN BERG

The Torrance Cultural Arts Center is at 3330 Civic Center Drive. Tickets are $11 for adults, $7 for children. Information: (310) 781-7171 or (310) 375-3693.