DANCE REVIEW : Joffrey Opens With Kudelka

It was a sad opening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Tuesday. The Joffrey Ballet was returning to its coastal home away from home for the first time since the death of Robert Joffrey.

There was nothing funereal, however, about the programming, nothing solemn about the dancing. The Joffrey company has always prided itself on youthful high spirits, and, in that surface respect, the performance suggested business as usual.

The current season, which continues through May 22, is distinctly timid in matters of novelty. The only unfamiliar item on the agenda, in fact, is James Kudelka’s “Concerto Grosso,”which received its local premiere on this occasion.

Kudelka is one of the most promising choreographers of his generation. The Joffrey already proved that with “Passage” and “The Heart of the Matter.” Unfortunately, “Concerto Grosso” does not seem to be one of his most compelling efforts.

Created for the winter Olympics in Calgary, it is a complex, abstract essay on the art of partnering. Essentially, it requires nine frantically active couples to spend 23 strenuous minutes weaving in and out of intricate ensemble maneuvers in various permutations and combinations.

The patterns are undeniably intriguing. The muted bravura exercises demand uncommon speed and dexterity. The implied effort is tremendous. The impact, however, is modest.

Kudelka’s primary aim would seem to be to make the rough look smooth and the difficult easy. His dancers--the best in the company--work very hard to deliver the goods. Even when they succeed, however, one wonders if the end justifies the strain.

While Jean Papineau-Couture’s neo-classical score chugs along with aimless academic competence, Kudelka complements the impulsesof his fellow Canadian by churning out the balletic equivalent of busywork. One recognizes his musical sensitivity, applauds his cleverness, regrets his avoidance of expressive development and emotional peaks.

With its quiet pastoral costumes by Sylvain Labelle and subtle lighting scheme by Thomas Skelton, “Concerto Grosso” sustains a tasteful, somber image that often contradicts the frenetic action. The inherent dynamic tension exerts its own appeal, but that sort of appeal does not sustain a ballet for long.

When the curtain falls, one actually longs for a little pizazz in the unabashed manner of Gerald Arpino. It came at the end of the evening, in spades, with that blitz of frenzied grace called “Suite Saint-Saens.”

The new artistic director has always known how to make his dancers soar, and he certainly knows how to send a crowd home in a push-button mood of euphoria. The crowd, incidentally, was alarmingly small on this would-be gala occasion.

The contrasting offerings in the middle portion of the program attested to the vaunted Joffrey eclecticism.

In the loving restoration of the “Vivandiere” pas de six, Tina LeBlanc offered a disarmingly dainty impression of Fanny Cerrito, and Edward Stierle mustered ample speed, lightness and muscularity for the mock-Saint-Leon. This dancing lithograph has never exuded more charm.

In the lyrical pas de deux of Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes,” a willowy Leslie Carothers continued to chart her imposing progress from talented dancer to bona-fide ballerina. Philip Jerry provided partnership more notable for ardor than athletic prowess. Stanley Babin played Rachmaninoff on the needlessly amplified, onstage piano with supportive romantic allure.

The excellent pit orchestra was conducted by Allan Lewis on behalf of Kudelka and Saint-Leon, by John Miner for the Arpino finale.