Nightspot," featuring Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra, includes music by Elvis Costello and costumes by Isaac Mizrahi. Photo by Joe Gato. Click to Enlarge

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Long before he redefined what it meant to be an American male ballet dancer, Edward Villella had another talent: He was really good at beating people up.

"Nightspot," featuring Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra, includes music by Elvis Costello and costumes by Isaac Mizrahi. Photo by Joe Gato.

Villella, who came to fame as a star of the New York City Ballet from 1957-1975 and went on to found Miami City Ballet, which comes to Downtown Los Angeles this week, was also a college boxing champion. A fan of fighters like Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis ("All those guys. Oh! They were incredible."), he loved the physicality of the sport. He even had a nickname. Two of them, actually.

"They used to call me Big Ed and Fast Eddie," he says with a powerful, roaring laugh, as he refers to his somewhat diminutive status - he fought at 142 pounds and isn't much bigger today. "And you see my size, calling me Big Ed? Right?"

It wasn't that big a jump from boxing to ballet. Villella had danced before college, and he reached the upper echelons of both fields not just through physical prowess, but by infusing it with intellect, what he labels a "mind-driven physicality." It's something that informs his company and the dancers he hires.

"There is a difference between being simply intellectually motivated and having a physical intelligence, and then a dance intelligence," he said on a weekday afternoon in a fourth-floor office of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. "I don't want to hear how great anybody is until I look at the way they're dancing. Then I can say, 'Okay, now I can see there is some mind in this. Let me see how much more mindfulness I can provide.'"

That mindfulness will be on display at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Oct. 24-26, when the MCB performs four pieces. The highlight will be the West Coast premiere of "Nightspot," a work choreographed by Twyla Tharp with music from Elvis Costello and costumes by Isaac Mizrahi.

MCB is known for its repertory, and "Nightspot" is its first major commission. It is also a purposeful effort, said Villella, 72, to reach a younger audience. Although the company he started in 1986 (he also serves as CEO) has grown to a renowned group with 55 dancers and a $14.5 million annual budget, Villella said he needs to engage the next generation. Letting Tharp immerse herself in Miami's club culture to create the piece, which has a Latin flair, was part of that. So was the addition of Costello.

"I thought that with his extended background, plus with his sophisticated approach to popular culture, that this might be a good fit for us with someone such as Twyla Tharp, who is always seeking the cutting edge, fresh and new," said Villella.

Hear the Explosions
This will be MCB's second visit to the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. Renae Williams, director of dance presentations at the Music Center, brought the company to Los Angeles in 2006. She knew the audience would recognize Villella, who trained under the legendary George Balanchine in New York, but was unsure how the dancers would be received.

"There are about three companies where the audience has actually surprised me and overwhelmed me with their positive response. Miami was one of them," Williams said. "The audience was tremendously overwhelmed by the virtuosity of the company, the sincerity of the dancers and the breadth of their repertory."

While "Nightspot" is the principal draw, Williams is also looking forward to MCB's performance of "Liturgy," choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, whom she called "one of the in-demand ballet choreographers of our time."

If the new works are unfamiliar, many will find comfort in two Balanchine standards, "Tarantella" and "Symphony in Three Movements." Villella notes that the latter, written by Igor Stravinsky in the 1940s, was partly an anti-war ballet.

"If you know enough about the ballet you will hear the explosions and the marching, and you will see helicopters and radar and signal lights and all of that," he said.

If you don't know about the ballet, Villella himself will be on hand to give some guidance. Since founding MCB, he has made it a habit to speak to audiences before performances, informing them about what to look for and how to understand the work. During his 2006 pre-show address in Downtown, he directed audiences to watch for a dancer bending down to touch the floor, part of the Balanchine piece "Invitation to the Dance."

While he left NYCB 33 years ago, the Balanchine ties remain strong, and may just be felt by Downtown audiences.

"When a Balanchine ballet is being rehearsed by me or anybody else, I feel as if I'm standing in that studio, that I am in the presence and the mind of George Balanchine," Villella said. "That's a whole other place to me. And to me it's a personal joy and a professional joy."

Miami City Ballet performs Oct. 24-26 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 972-0711 or musiccenter.org

Contact Jon Regardie at regardie@downtownnews.com