BALLET REVIEW : Joffrey Offers ‘Nutcracker’ at the Pavilion : Dance: Gerald Arpino and company are back in business after a power struggle over artistic control.

With the board of American Ballet Theatre recently threatening to disband the company during contract negotiations with the dancers, and with some board members of the Joffrey Ballet trying unsuccessfully last May to wrest artistic control from company co-founder Gerald Arpino, 1990 has been a cruel year in the dance world.

So when Arpino took a moment to tell the audience prior to the opening of the “Nutcracker,” Wednesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, that it was “wonderful to be back,” he had earned the moment in the spotlight, even if he could not resist adding a remark promoting the spring season. The company could use the support.

Otherwise, it was Joffrey “Nutcracker” business as usual--welcome business as usual--with all but one familiar face in this 1987 production that offers an exemplarily warm first scene and a number of problems later.

Robert Joffrey set the action in America in the 1850s and lived to see the premiere. But failing health had required his delegating assignments. (He died in 1988.) George Verdak and Scott Barnard shared the staging, drawing on the 1940 Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo abridgement. Arpino created new choreography for the Waltzes of the Snowflakes and Flowers.

In this version, Drosselmeyer, who usually disappears after Act I, stays on to stage manage Act II.

Making his first Southern California appearance as Drosselmeyer, Glen Harris modeled himself uncannily upon the veteran character dancer Alexander Grant, who as a guest originated the role.

Harris, who joined the company in 1988, showed youthful ardor and an edge of poetry, and danced with clean precision. Lacking Grant’s authority, he tended to fade out in the intrusive manipulations of the second act, but some of us were grateful for that.

Tina LeBlanc and Tom Mossbrucker made an oddly paired Sugar Plum Fairy and cavalier-Nutcracker Prince. LeBlanc capitalized upon strong technique, vibrant characterization and intelligent phrasing. Mossbrucker was a lyric, dreamy Prince and had some problems in finishing cleanly.

Mary Barton still looked convincing as an easily hurt but often wonder-struck Clara. (She created the role.) As her brother Fritz, Carl Corry could not overcome the disadvantage of height and age to blend in with the children. He danced Snow Prince and Tea with cautious, correct virtuosity.

Deborah Dawn and Douglas Martin (Snow Queen and Snow King, also Clara’s parents) demonstrated strong partnership, with Dawn allowing herself real risk when taking the flying turns and jumps into his arms. Like LeBlanc, Dawn can balance forever and also modulate her phrasing.

Among the mechanical dolls and divertissement dancers, Beatriz Rodriguez made a sunny, coyly flirtatious Spanish dancer. Her colleagues proved secure and energetic in their assignments.

With conductor Allan Lewis’ newly unhectic tempos, Arpino’s speed-driven choreography for the Waltz of the Snowflakes and, especially, the Flowers could bear more scrutiny than usual. The problem, for once, seemed less in the choreography than with the corps.