Lula Washington was an indifferent college student. "I wasn't motivated," the former nursing student said. That changed dramatically the day a Harbor Junior College teacher bought her a ticket to a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

"I had never seen a live dance performance in my life," she said. "For the first time, I saw people who looked like me."

Nor had she seen a multicultural troupe.

"That was amazing to me," she said. "I realized that was what I wanted to do."

Three decades later, she is the co-founder and artistic director of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, which will perform this weekend at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater.

Nothing in Washington's early life suggested that she would one day be a respected dancer and choreographer with movie and stage credits, and former students dancing for everything from classical troupes to Cher's lavish show.

The native of Watts' Nickerson Gardens housing project was not an outstanding student. In community college, she had been shunted into a nurse's aide training program in which she had little interest.

"For African-American women at that time, it was either nurse's aide training or secretarial," she said.

Neither interested her in the least. Dance changed that.

Not only did she find the motivation to study and work hard, she found the motivation to scale mountains that lay before her once she had discovered her passion.

UCLA did not even want to let her in, and, once she was admitted, did not want to let her into the dance program. Between her poor grades and the fact that she was age 22, closer to the end of a student's dance career than the start, neither the school nor dance teachers wanted Washington.

"At 22, you're over the hill," Washington said.

But she persevered. She enlisted the aid of her husband, Erwin, a writer, for a letter begging for a chance to prove herself. She got it.

She entered UCLA under an affirmative action program and got tutoring to get her launched academically. And prove herself she did, though she had to struggle every step of the way.

She enrolled in Janice Guddy's class, where dancers were not even allowed to audition until they did 100 sit-ups. When the qualifying students were ushered onto the floor, Guddy told them to assume first position.

"I had no idea what she was talking about," Washington said.

Her only dance experience had come in 12th-grade physical education and it did not qualify as preparation for the university. Washington watched those around her and followed their lead.

It did not, of course, fool the teacher, who approached her afterward to say, "You don't know anything about this, do you?" Washington said.

Washington admitted she did not, but promised unstinting effort in her pursuit of the skills that would provide her entree to the world of dance.

"She said, 'You can stay, but you will have to work really, really hard,' " Washington said.

She did. But she went beyond working hard.

She never missed a chance to improve, not only under the core program teachers, but masters who were brought in for the graduate classes. Her teachers forbade her to attend the master classes. She went anyway.

"That made my core teachers really, really angry," Washington said.

She also defied their ban on off-campus auditions.

"I was always in trouble," Washington said. "But I started so late, I needed to take every opportunity."

Her dedication to the craft took her through undergraduate and graduate school and has brought her to the leadership of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, the incarnation of all that she found compelling that day back at Harbor Junior College.

The troupe's Temecula program is diverse, ranging from classical to modern to jazz.

It includes Donald McKayle's "Songs of the Distant Disinherited" and "We Wore the Mask" based on the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the first black poet to gain national prominence.

Music for "We Wore the Mask" was composed by Washington's son-in-law, Marcus Miller, who will also perform live with the company.

"Mahal Dances" is a tribute to the Taj Mahal and "A Tribute to Ms. D" is a paean to Catherine Dunham, a black dancer and choreographer and cultural anthropologist who transformed the dances she found in the dances of America and other nations into contemporary artistic expression.

"Spontaneous Combustion" was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History to interpret the impact on the Southern California landscape of the many fires that have ravaged it over the years.

Washington's daughter, Tamica Washington-Miller, wife of Marcus Miller, will solo in "Together."

Lula Washington Dance Theater

When: 8 p.m. June 15-16

Where: Old Town Temecula Community Theater, 42051 Main St., Temecula

Tickets: $30-$36

Info: (866) 653-8696