Joffrey Ballet Announces L.A. Spring Season

A revival of Gerald Arpino’s 1968 anti-war dance-drama “The Clowns” will highlight the Joffrey Ballet’s spring season in Los Angeles from April 29 to May 17 in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company has announced.

Set to a commissioned, partly electronic score by Hershy Kay, “The Clowns” incorporates large, inflated plastic sculptures by Vernon Lobb and Kip Coburn.

Repertory for the three-week engagement will also include the local premieres of Arthur Saint-Leon’s 1844 “La Vivandiere” pas de six and Gail Kachadurian’s contemporary ballet “Altered States.”

In addition, the local company premiere of Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes” (music by Rachmaninoff) and revivals of Vaslav Nijinsky’s “L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune” (music by Debussy) and Frederick Ashton’s “Illuminations” (music by Benjamin Britten) are scheduled.

All-Ashton and all-Arpino programs are once more part of the season and the full-length “La Fille mal gardee” (choreography by Ashton, music mostly by Louis-Joseph-Ferdinand Herold) and “Romeo and Juliet” (choreography by John Cranko, music by Prokofiev) will each be presented again.