Music Center Will Drop Contract of Joffrey Ballet : Arts: An official of the performance complex says it cannot continue to support the financially troubled dance troupe, whose current pact expires in June.

The Los Angeles Music Center has chosen not to renew the contract of the financially troubled Joffrey Ballet, ending the Joffrey’s role as a resident company of the downtown Los Angeles performing arts center, officials said Wednesday.

The Music Center acted after the 35-year-old company failed to meet a March 4 deadline to show that it is in sound financial health or to guarantee $725,000 against ticket sales of future performances.

“Our deadline came and went,” said Sandra Kimberling, president of the Music Center Operating Co., which books all the acts at the center. “And the Joffrey knew the consequences. It breaks my heart to see this happen because we’re talking about a national treasure, a remarkable company in every way.

“But the painful reality is that the other Music Center residents suffer for our over-extension of support to the Joffrey. This is a big business and we’re not at liberty to take unwise risks.”

The Joffrey’s current contract with the Music Center runs through the end of June. It is expected to present its scheduled month of performances in May.

The Joffrey, which joined the Music Center as a resident company in 1983, is a bicoastal troupe that calls New York and Los Angeles as its homes. The company has been granted a yearly subsidy of about $1 million from the Los Angeles center for its West Coast appearances. As of December, the company had an $800,000 debt, according to Joffrey artistic director Gerald Arpino.

Michael Tennenbaum, chairman of the Joffrey’s executive committee, said of the center’s decision: “I am personally disappointed that the Music Center has seen fit to drop its support.

“At this very moment the company is dancing in New York and having a spectacular success. Over the weekend there were sold-out signs in front of Lincoln Center. Just 10 months ago the entire management and internal structure had fallen apart. Considering that, you can’t say that we’re a poor prospect right now.”

The Music Center’s move, which leaves it without a resident dance company, came after a tumultuous year for the world-renowned Joffrey that included a serious management shake-up last spring as the company was performing its annual Los Angeles season. At that time, Joffrey co-founder Arpino resigned from the company and withdrew his choreography in a dispute with the Joffrey board of directors over artistic control. Later, several key financial backers on the board resigned, and Arpino returned.

Although the artistic problems of the company appeared to have been settled last year, the financial problems were not. The Music Center granted the Joffrey only a temporary extension on its contract and demanded proof that the company was improving its financial picture.

Matters came again to a head, said the Music Center’s Kimberling, when “after months of recent talks,” the center could not get the reassurances it asked for concerning the company’s fiscal health.

The Joffrey’s spring season in Los Angeles rarely sells more than 50% of its available seats, but its Christmastime performances of “The Nutcracker” are usually quite popular and sell in excess of 80% of capacity, Kimberling said.

It was not known Wednesday whether the Los Angeles Music Center will now seek a new dance company, but center officials have held talks with the famed American Ballet Theatre about a two-week run this summer.

Other resident companies of the center include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Music Center Opera, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum.