PAS DEDEUX : Intricate Dance by Joffrey Ballet and Music Center Keeps the Ballet Company in Residency Here

. . . They (the Joffrey Ballet) must come to grips with the question as to whether or not they can get their act together, and we must decide whether or not we feel the price for retaining the Joffrey is worth it to the Music Center and to the community.

--”The Beran Letter,” March 21, 1986

Pretty strong language, that letter of Walter F. Beran, vice chairman of the accounting firm of Ernst & Whinney and head of a special Music Center task force on the Joffrey Ballet question, to F. Daniel Frost, chairman of the Music Center’s board of governors.

The major concern about the Joffrey, which had established its “second home” at the Music Center in the summer of 1982 was not over art, but money. At the time of the Beran letter, the Joffrey was running up an accumulated debt approaching $1.1 million.

The letter stated the problem--”whether or not we wanted to continue the Joffrey in Los Angeles and under what conditions”--and sniped at founding artistic director Robert Joffrey, saying that “reasonable restraints” must be placed on the way he manages the company.

In other words, the Joffrey and Music Center might have had to split up.

Last June, in a letter to Frost, Joffrey board chairman David Murdock, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Holding Corp., urged the business and social community to “continue the life support” for the ballet company.

Although the Music Center did pump an extra $550,000 into the Joffrey’s coffers, the solution was only temporary. And until two months ago, the relationship remained on shaky ground. Rumors about the departure of the Joffrey began to circulate.

Then on March 16--five days short of one year after the Beran Letter--the Music Center’s Board of Governors sanctioned, as it has been dubbed, The New Agreement. Although awaiting official lawyer language, the agreement essentially provides:

A $1 million commitment to the Joffrey Ballet each year for three years, from July 1, the beginning of fiscal year 87-88, to June 30, 1990.

A minimum of six weeks of ballet a year at the Music Center with at least half the Joffrey premieres here.

Establishment of a Joffrey Ballet school and apprentice program in Los Angeles this fall.

A cosmetic change involving the name of the 30-year-old ballet company. It is now: The Joffrey Ballet NY/LA.

A revolving three-year contract where at the end of each fiscal year, each side looks at the status of the relationship, and decides whether or not to add another year to the back end of the agreement.

“It’s (the agreement) a big turnaround from, ‘Maybe we won’t be here,’ ” said General Director Penelope Curry “to, ‘We are here.’ Now we just want to make it work. . . .

“I think it (continuing the relationship) was a big question on both sides,” she added. “Could we afford to stay? Could we have dates? Was there room for us?”

Curry continued: “Ron Arnault (Arco senior vice president and chief financial officer) was the man Dan Frost appointed to solve the Joffrey problem, to talk to everyone and to find out what was needed. . . . We asked for a lot of things we didn’t get, and at the same time we can’t afford to say, ‘Goodby folks.’ ”

Anthony Bliss, New York board chairman of the Joffrey, who for 30 years had been consecutively president, executive director and general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, pointed out that although the $1 million is $550,000 less than what the Joffrey is getting from the Music Center this year, it was better than having to go out and raise $1.5 million” by saying ‘no’ to the Music Center. He believes the agreement “provides a stability of financial support.”

From his office on the 50th floor of the Arco building downtown, Arnault noted: “It was appropriate to redefine certain relationships between the Music Center and the Joffrey in light of the first several years of working together.”

What helped pave the way for the Joffrey-Music Center agreement were key management changes on both coasts. In New York, Curry, who been at the Joffrey since 1970, was named general director, and in Los Angeles, Patricia (Patti) Skouras became vice chairman of the Los Angeles board. They quickly formed a close working alliance.

What also helped was that with key fund-raising by both boards the Joffrey’s accumulated debt by the end of the last fiscal year decreased from $1.1 million to $670,000.

Curry jokes that when the Joffrey first came to Los Angeles “some people didn’t even know what the Joffrey was. Was it a car dealership?” At first, money did not appear to be a central concern. In each fiscal year until the special $550,000 increment this year, the Joffrey received $1 million.

Almost from the start, there was misunderstanding between the Music Center and the Joffrey over the matter of moving the Joffrey to Los Angeles, and a certain uneasiness between the New York and Los Angeles boards. “It’s been difficult because of the distance,” said Bliss. “It would have been much easier had we gone to Washington or Boston--a shuttle flight away.”

“To move the company here lock, stock and barrel, originally that’s what everyone (at the Music Center) wanted to do,” Curry explained. “The members of the New York board weren’t especially happy about that. People who had been with the company a long time felt like we were leaving them even though we would still be bicoastal.

“And we had always thought of doing a home season and rehearsing some, and spending most of our time here (in Los Angeles). Then the reality sunk in. It costs money, and we couldn’t come out here and be put in some ballroom of a hotel. It amazed me. People here weren’t educated to the needs of dance companies. They had no idea dancers danced from 10 in the morning till 8 at night, and when they performed from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. And you couldn’t just spread them all over the city. They don’t have car problems in New York City. . . . “

However when Michael Newton was still in charge at the Music Center, any disagreements could be kept under wraps, and under control. Newton, president of the old Performing Arts Council, took a leave of absence to undergo cancer therapy in December, 1985. He resigned the following March, and died in October.

“There was an understanding between Bob (Joffrey) and Michael that went back a long way,” Curry said recently on a note of nostalgia. “Michael had a vision for the Music Center that doesn’t exist today in the same way. A wonderful, wonderful man and he cared tremendously about each dancer. . . . He was the major supporter of the Joffrey. He also was raising most of the money here. Then Esther Wachtell (Music Center executive vice president) and Dan Frost took over. And the question was, could the Music Center afford to give the Joffrey X amount of dollars if they really weren’t a full-time company in Los Angeles?”

For Skouras and others, the question became: Could the Music Center, a major national performing arts center, afford not to have the Joffrey?

“My premise was that the Music Center should present dance. Music Center chairman Dan Frost agreed. If the Music Center were to present dance, the Joffrey was without a doubt the absolute best the center had available. There had been a lot of suggestions: Why don’t we start a Los Angeles ballet? I said, Nifty! Get an endowment of $10 million to $20 million, give me 30 years, and you might have a company as good as the Joffrey, a company of artistic maturity with fabulous reviews from across the country. . . . No guarantee.”

Today, the Joffrey and the Music Center are on a much firmer footing, although there is still a question of money and the difficult matter of dates. At the moment the Joffrey has six weeks in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, three weeks each for the spring and fall seasons. According to Curry, the Joffrey would be happy to trade away the fall for three weeks in the winter, two in December and one in January for “Nutcracker.”

A partial victory for the Joffrey came last month when, Curry said, Los Angeles Philharmonic Executive Director Ernest Fleischmann agreed to “give us two weeks in December that he had had a hold on to give his musicians time for vacations. That’s a huge big step.” But Curry added that doesn’t begin until 1989. Nor does it provide for the third week. The matter is still up in the air.

With all good intentions, the Joffrey, like the federal government, eventually contemplates a balanced budget. On both coasts, officials suggest that at the end of this fiscal year, the deficit could be reduced to $200,000--$400,000. “I don’t know of a performing arts company in the country that isn’t in trouble all the time, if not frequently,” said Bliss. “Even the Met would be if it weren’t for its $100 million endowment fund.” He notes that the Joffrey could have a perfect budget plan, “but if there’s a three-foot snowstorm in New York, there go ticket sales.”

The bicoastal boards are moving a bit closer, thanks to a gift of teleconferencing facilities from Citicorp. Twice a year the boards meet face-to-face, but 3,000 miles apart.

Penelope Curry spoke long-distance, as if in conversation with recalcitrant board members. She speaks with considerable passion:

“Don’t you see what has been accomplished? Don’t you see a top professional company that’s built up a reputation for 30 years? This isn’t going to fold tomorrow. We’re not the Tuscaloosa ballet. We’ve gotten a little better each time. You (we) try to think how to be competitive, keep the budget on track, give dancers enough employment, and artistically keep the right vision. If we lose sight of that there is no Joffrey company.”