JOFFREY SHOWS TWO SIDES OF ARPINO

Up to now in the local Joffrey Ballet run, the ballets of Associate Director Gerald Arpino have been slick, lightweight, hyper-gymnastic bagatelles. But in a four-part program Thursday at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa, we also saw an example of Arpino’s deeply serious and even daring early work.

In “The Clowns,” created in 1968, Arpino tackled one of the paramount issues of our time: the threat of universal annihilation.

Using a troupe of commedia dell’arte figures, he traced the seemingly inescapable cycle of death, rebirth and destruction. It was a frightening portrait--part Buddhist parable of the destructive power of greed, part Western vision of the artist as creator-scapegoat, part circus entertainment and, unfortunately, also part pure twaddle. Some things never change.

As the central character, the virtuosic Edward Stierle offered a strong study in dazzled puzzlement at the bizarre chain of events. Tina LeBlanc was perfect as his dimwitted sweetheart.

As conducted by Allan Lewis, Hershy Kay’s score--an electronic collage evoking atomic catastrophe and circus merriment--resonated powerfully in Segerstrom Hall.

The lighter side of Arpino surfaced in his “Italian Suite,” a gracious neo-Romantic divertissement that glanced favorably back at his heritage.

Leslie Carothers and Philip Jerry, as the central couple, showed the strong rapport that has been one of the wonders of this Costa Mesa season. Sadly, the willowly Deborah Dawn was under-utilized. Lewis conducted the pastiche of gooey Wolf-Ferrari tunes with elegance.

Issues of male-female identity and relationships were the subject of the metaphoric duets and ensembles in the astonishing, exhilarating “Untitled,” created by the communal modern dance troupe Pilobolus in 1975 and acquired by the Joffrey in 1985.

This strangely gripping exploration of support vs. dependency, control vs. independence, unfolded in a non-linear quasi-narrative about courtship. Two ladies in Edwardian costume primped and competed before rising surprisingly high into the air as masculine legs suddenly sprouted from beneath their skirts.

These bizarre hybrids interacted, encountered two dandies, detached and reassembled themselves--not always in predictable ways--and gave birth to full-sized children. The work ended with ambiguous images of tender support and bodies laid waste.

Jill Davidson and Beatriz Rodriguez were the ladies. The women’s legmen (and, later, their children) were Patrick Corbin and Raymond Perrin, who wore flesh-colored tights rather than dance in the nude as Pilobolus has always done in its Southern California performances. Tyler Walters and Jerel Hilding portrayed the dandies.

Perhaps the worst ballet ever to be danced in Segerstrom Hall (or maybe the planet Earth), Gail Kachadurian’s duet “Altered States” ricocheted between angular, athletic Angst and lyric cliches--matching exactly the shifts in John Corigliano’s adaptation of his deadly film score.

The piece proved so silly, so schizophrenic, that even Dawn Caccamo (superb in extensions and balances) and Glenn Edgerton (virtually textbook perfect in turns) seemed momentarily perplexed when the music turned slurpy again before the final mist-enshrouded dissolve. Execrable kitsch unworthy of a major company.

Incidental intelligence: South Coast Plaza has posted a security guard to warn Center and movie patrons that their cars may be towed away if parked on the lot during evening performances. A spokeswoman for the shopping mall confirmed that parking is for mall patrons exclusively and that the lot is open only until 9 p.m. weekdays, but she declined to address the issue of enforcement procedures.