When the curtain goes up on the 40th anniversary season Friday, the dancers will truly be looking at the first day of the rest of the company's life.

After a yearlong hiatus marked by both major fund raising and soul-searching, the company is doing all it can to recapture and expand an audience that in the recent past drifted away. This weekend's program contains three audience favorites that helped put the company on the dance map: Eugene Loring's "Billy the Kid," not seen in Oakland since 1998, and excerpts from the restored Bronislava Nijinska classics "Les Biches" and "Les Noces."

Representing the company's present and future are an expanded version of Michael Lowe's "Double Happiness," with live music by San Francisco's Melody of China, and the premiere of "Ella," a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald by Broadway and modern dance choreographer Donald McKayle, with live music by the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra and vocals by Ledisi.

Subsequent programs are the family-friendly November offerings, including "Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "Peter and the Wolf" and the company's popular "Nutcracker" in December.

"What I hear is that people just can't wait, they are thrilled that we're back and really excited about what's coming up," says Karen Brown, who took over as artistic director in 2000 following the retirement of company founder Ronn Guidi. Although it certainly wasn't the first time the ballet, founded in 1965, faced a money crunch, a combination of factors created a deficit the company could not overcome. The 2002 "Nutcracker," normally a reliable moneymaker, lost $300,000. Then in 2003, the October program was moved and cut to one night when it conflicted with Russia's legendary Kirov Ballet at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, making its first visit to the United States in 25 years. (Coincidentally, the Kirov is dancing again at Zellerbach this week.)

"In 2003 most of the productions were in line with budget projections, but we weren't able to recoup that $300,000. It became a ball and chain," says Executive Director Tony Caparelli, who joined the company in 2002.

The company was further troubled by what many audience members saw as poor artistic choices that moved the company away from its traditional, historically important repertory.

"We heard from both sides, those who liked (the new choreography) but also those who missed the classics, what put Oakland Ballet on the map," Caparelli says.

And so in April 2004, the fall season was canceled and the dancers laid off. Earlier this year the company undertook several months of "strategic review" to try to figure out what it needed to do to be around for another 40 years.

"Artistic vision, community engagement, management structure — pick a buzzword, it was reviewed in detail," Caparelli says.

The outcome of the soul-searching is what he calls "a plan that serves as a roadmap" and Brown says is "a strategic plan to get us through this year." And it leads to this week's program.

"We wanted to have a retrospective, to think about what made the company and made the organization what it was, in the year when we had made our organizational assessment," Brown says. "We wanted to look back at the ballets that made the company renown."

"Billy the Kid" and the Nijinska ballets are obvious choices. In 1976, in honor of the bicentennial, former artistic director Guidi invited Loring to stage "Billy the Kid" for Oakland. Larger, more prestigious companies wanted it too and it was a major coup when Loring chose Oakland. He was so pleased with the result that he called Oakland's production the definitive version of his ballet, and returned to set additional works on the company.

The company had already gained attention for staging ballets of the Diaghilev era, and in the early 1980s furthered its now-international reputation with its reconstructions of "Les Noces" and "Les Biches," supervised by the choreographer's daughter Irina Nijinska.

Those who saw Lowe's "Double Happiness" in the truncated season, in which the ballet itself was also shortened, will find new delights in this weekend's production.

"He's added this wonderful portion called 'Passages.' It rounds out the complete idea of the ballet," Brown says, adding that two members of Melody of China who have moved to Las Vegas will be coming back to Oakland to play for the performances.

And then there's "Ella."

"A friend took me to Yoshi's for my birthday to see Ledesi and Marcus Shelby do a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald — my dad loved Ella Fitzgerald," Brown says. "I was sitting there listening to them and I could see a ballet. I asked them if they would be interested in doing this with me."

Choreographer McKayle, whose Broadway credits include "It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues" and "Sophisticated Ladies," signed on in January. "Ella's my muse!" Brown quotes him as saying when they discussed the project.

"Ella" has the potential to become a new signature work for the resurrected company.

"The dancers are responding so beautifully to Mr. McKayle," Brown says. "They have to be strong in classical technique — that's a given — but they do multiple styles, in ballet slippers, on pointe, in ballroom dance shoes and tuxedos. The narrative and emotion are displayed through dance and movement."

"Ella" has another thing going for it: the debut of several dancers who in June will be in the first graduating class of the Oakland School for the Arts.

"It's an opportunity for them like when I worked with Margot Fonteyn," says Brown, a former principal ballerina with Dance Theatre of Harlem. "They're working with Donald McKayle at 15. At 15!"

Now it's all up to the audience. Neither Brown nor Caparelli will speculate past the 2005 season, although both are, predictably, cautiously optimistic. The 2004 fundraising efforts produced $580,000; Caparelli is encouraged by the advance ticket sales, particularly for November's family-friendly offerings. "The first tickets we sold were for that program; it seems to speak to the community," he says.

The company has also relocated the October and November programs to the more intimate Calvin Simmons Theatre across from the Oakland Museum. "Nutcracker" will stay at the Paramount Theatre. Seven of the core company of 16 dancers are returnees who were laid off last year.

"We have dancers who are 5-foot-1 all the way up to 6-foot-4," Brown says. "They come in all sizes, shapes, heights, colors ... they are representative of the real world and a microcosm of Oakland.

"Anyone who has seen any piece, in studio rehearsals, at Oakland's Art and Soul Festival, anyone who has seen the company is absolutely thrilled about the performances. If I can get people into the theater I guarantee there is something they will see on stage that they will love."

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