DANCE

The Paris Opera Ballet is limbering up for this year’s season without artistic director and sometime dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, who has refused to return from the United States until a contract dispute is settled. A spokesman for the company said Monday the 51-year-old Russian-born dancer’s five-year contract as the ballet’s artistic director ended in August and attempts to sign him on for a further three years had been fruitless. The dispute centers on a demand by the French authorities that Nureyev spend at least six months a year working for the Paris ballet.