DANCE REVIEW : TROUBLES AT THE JOFFREY : New Changes, but No Refunds

A deceptive air of business-as-usual infused Tuesday night’s Joffrey Ballet performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Although the printed programs still listed Gerald Arpino as artistic director, they simply omitted any mention of the three Arpino ballets originally scheduled for the evening.

Last week, Page J-13 informed all and sundry that the May 8 program consisted of Arpino’s “Italian Suite,” “Sea Shadow” and “TWO-A-DAY.” Now--presto-chango!--Page J-13 was gone. On a brand new Page J-4, the fare was listed as Paul Taylor’s “Arden Court,” Frederick Ashton’s “Illuminations” and Vaslav Nijinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps.”

No printed or verbal explanations were given for the change, or for the taped music by William Boyce that accompanied “Arden Court,” usually performed with a live orchestra.

A handful of patrons who had set their hearts on seeing the Arpino triad asked for refunds. They were offered free tickets for other Joffrey performances. One was overheard complaining to the house manager about the lack of toe shoes in the Taylor work, and a few deserted at the intermissions.

The reasons for the switch had to do with a legal wrangle over Arpino’s rights to works he choreographed before abruptly quitting the company he co-founded after a recent reorganization of its management structure. (See accompanying article.)

Company management decided to pull the Arpino repertory from the performance schedule while the dispute is simmering. (The next Arpino evening is on Sunday.) Since “Arden Court” wasn’t supposed to be on any of the Los Angeles programs, local musicians presumably weren’t prepared to play it.

It was ironic that an audience that came to be lulled, dazzled and amused was instead obliged to encounter some of the more trickily brilliant items the Joffrey has to offer.

Peter Narbutas once again offered an extraordinary Poet in “Illuminations,” lunging and lounging through his phantasmagoric world with an air at once sneering and dazed. The familiar pairing of Charlene Gehm as Sacred Love and Beatriz Rodriguez as Profane Love also has not lost its luster. Gehm’s ultra-refined, almost tremulous delicacy in the “Being Beauteous” section was exquisitely unearthly.

The tenor singing the poems by Arthur Rimbaud set to Benjamin Britten’s music was Grayson Hirst; unfortunately, program information wasn’t updated for the current state of emergency, and Hirst was listed only as singing on Thursday, when the season’s first performance of “Illuminations” would have been presented.

Rodriguez was previously reviewed as the Chosen One in the company’s fiercely primal “Sacre,” as was the cast of “Arden Court.”

Alas, the audience seemed unmoved by their good fortune. “Illuminations”--which drew laughter at the height of the Poet’s tortured journey through life--got a few enthusiastic whistles. And the company’s prodigious efforts in “Sacre” received only a thin spatter of applause from those who didn’t scurry away at curtain-fall.

* AILEY COMPANY OPENS

The Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre opens its first Los Angeles season since the death of its founder. F3