Joffrey Future Is Brighter, Arpino Says

Re-emerging in Los Angeles this week for his first public appearances since the Joffrey Ballet’s crisis in May, artistic director Gerald Arpino had some reassuring announcements on the company’s future here:

* A new sponsorship, with Absolut Vodka contributing $300,000 to the underwriting of three new ballets to be presented during the Joffrey’s spring repertory season.

* $2.5 million in funds raised since May, through private and corporate contributions, that improves the company’s financial status.

* Imminent signing of a one-year contract extension with the Music Center.

The contract, which was expected to be signed about Labor Day, was delayed by a Music Center requirement for the Joffrey to put up a $400,000 guarantee for its “Nutcracker” engagement Dec. 19-30. John Dunavent, executive vice president of the Music Center Operating Co., said the condition was decided upon at a board meeting in August.

“While we wanted to be as supportive to the company as possible,” he said, “we also needed to guard against having a dark house in the event of a cancellation of the dates.”

A glossy color brochure, now being sent to subscribers, details repertory for the company’s 1991 spring season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, May 7 through June 2. It includes a Diaghilev program with some works that were recently presented by the company in Paris to great acclaim. The dancers earned 14 curtain calls for the reconstruction of Vaslav Nijinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps,” the ballet that caused a riot 77 years ago at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and had not been seen there since.