BALLET CONTEST MAY NOT BE REPEAT PERFORMANCE

What had been ballyhooed as the first in a series of Los Angeles-held ballet competitions may end up as a one-shot affair, according to Bud Corbin, founder of the Marguerite Amilita Hoffman Ballet Competition.

The Laguna Beach businessman told The Times recently that unless he is able to interest other philanthropists from the private sector and obtain public funding for the national contest that bears his mother’s name, it will not be repeated. The inaugural event took place June 30 through July 5 at Royce Hall, UCLA.

“All in all I think the competition was a helluva success,” Corbin said. “But I’m not prepared to go on financing it single-handedly. Much as I like being an agent for these kids and a talent scout for ballet company directors, I can’t do it alone.”

He complained about the residue of bills and paper work left over from the weeklong contest that cost him upward of $140,000. According to former executive director Jonette Rettig, Corbin still owes her money.

While most of the judges, all from recognized ballet companies and schools, said they approved of the general format, several urged a revamping of procedures.

Marjorie Tallchief-Skibine of the Chicago City Ballet suggested that the number of contestants be considerably reduced prior to the semifinals. “It’s impossible for a judge to watch 93 consecutive dancers and not become saturated by the time they’ve each performed. The whole thing needs a lot of work,” she said.

Corbin himself allowed that there should have been “a better audition process to weed out the less qualified people and upgrade the level of entrants.”

But the issue that caused him the greatest consternation was what he deemed “the appearance of judges’ decisions being influenced” by Rettig, the City of Orange ballet teacher whose student--David Cohen--was about to be awarded a scholarship before Corbin disqualified the 17-year-old Santa Ana dancer.

And in an allegedly heated outburst, moments before announcing the winners on stage at Royce Hall, Corbin fired Rettig “on the grounds of conflict of interest.”

“I told Jonette at the outset that she would have to be like Caesar’s wife,” he said, “that our conduct must be beyond reproach and her wearing two hats--executive director and teacher--was touchy.”

However, Rettig pointed out that she was not a judge and that several of those who were also had students competing for and winning scholarships--a situation reconciled by having an alternate judge to rate dancers whose teachers were on the adjudication panel.

“We deliberately kept certain identifying information from the judges,” explained Rettig. “No one even knew that I had students competing, least of all who they were. But the judges called me before them for advice on who might or might not be available to accept a scholarship. That way they would not end up making empty offers.”

Corbin countered: “Since it was my competition, I reserved the right to disqualify him. I’m very sad about what happened. But it’s just a small part of the picture. What I learned, among many things, is not to make this mistake again--letting students enter whose teachers are affiliated (with the contest). I have to worry about the appearance to the outside world.”

Cohen commented on “the irony of it all. . . I’m being discriminated against in a contest that is supposed to put fairness above everything else. It upset me. But, only in principle, because I already had another scholarship even before the competition.”

Meanwhile, alternate judge and panel chairman Ted Kivitt, director of the Milwaukee Ballet, expressed alarm at the suggestion that partiality was shown.

“He (Corbin) is damaging my credibility by implication,” Kivitt said. “I told him, in front of everybody, that I did not know Jonette’s students. We were all so impressed with the talent and there was so much positive excitement that his sudden decision caught us completely by surprise.”

Kivitt went on to say that he and the others were inexperienced in competition protocol but pleased with how things were proceeding until Corbin’s intervention, which occurred during the final judging session. “It could’ve been handled differently,” he said, of the incident, “with a little stepping back and cooling down.”

Pacific Northwest Ballet co-director Francia Russell, also a judge, said that she and the others asked Rettig to brief them on the curriculum vitae of certain students “in order to reduce confusion and speed up the decision-making process.” She added, “Rettig never did anything that was out of line.”

Tallchief-Skibine, four of whose students were among the competition’s candidates, said that she offered a scholarship to both of the Southern California boys, Jason Zarookian and Cohen, “because I like to do everything to encourage the few boys we get,” but did not seem unduly upset that Cohen was barred from receiving his. “It would be easier without having one’s own students involved,” she added.

Rettig said she is lobbying for “a continuation (of the effort), but I think it should be brought into line with all the others and renamed the Los Angeles National Ballet Competition.”