Joffrey’s Spring Season in Jeopardy : Dance: The financially strapped N.Y. ballet company may not be able to make its May engagement, Music Center officials say.

In the wake of news that the Joffrey Ballet has lost its contract as the Music Center’s resident dance troupe due to the ballet company’s poor financial health, Music Center officials said Friday that the Joffrey’s money troubles remain so serious that the company may not even be able to come to Los Angeles for its scheduled performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in May.

If the Joffrey is unable to honor its commitment to perform, it could force the Pavilion to go dark for the company’s slated May 7-June 2 run--as well as leaving the Music Center responsible for as much as a $400,000 guarantee (the fee required to book the hall).

In a prepared statement, the Joffrey Ballet said it was “looking forward” to its spring season at the Music Center.

The Joffrey, the Music Center’s resident company since 1983, remains under contract to the Music Center until June 30. But both Music Center president Esther Wachtell and Sandra Kimberling, president of the Music Center Operating Co., said that the bi-coastal company may not be able to come up with the money necessary to bring the company, sets and costumes from New York to Los Angeles in May--expenses which must be borne by the Joffrey.

“This is the second year that we’ve gotten to March and been unsure that the Joffrey would fulfill its contract for May,” Wachtell said.

“What we had to do last year in order to get them from the East Coast to the West Coast was to give them a loan of $500,000 (to cover travel expenses, dancer’s salaries and other incidental costs),” Wachtell said. She said that debt is still outstanding.

Wachtell added that the Joffrey currently owes the Music Center a total of $650,000, including a $150,000 loan the Music Center made to the Joffrey to allow it to provide a 1990 summer program at Cal State L.A., the second year the company has been in residence on the campus.

Funds to cover that debt were supposed to be raised by a company benefit, but plans for the benefit were halted because of the company’s management upheaval last May, when artistic director Gerald Arpino quit the company, taking his and Robert Joffrey’s repertory of ballets with him. Arpino has since returned to head the company.

Continuing financial problems with the Joffrey led the Music Center to ask the Joffrey to provide a guarantee of $725,000 for the 1991-92 season, which would have included about $325,000 for a Christmas run of “The Nutcracker” and $400,000 for a May, 1992, engagement. When the Joffrey was unable to guarantee the money by the March 4, 1991 deadline, Wachtell and Kimberling made a joint decision to notify the Joffrey that its contract would not be extended for the 1991-92 season.

Wachtell said that for the current 1990-91 season, the Joffrey was asked to guarantee its “Nutcracker” engagement for approximately $325,000, but with the understanding that the Music Center would foot the bill if the Joffrey could not. The Joffrey was able to pay that guarantee. The Music Center did, however, provide the $400,000 guarantee for the upcoming May performances.

Kimberling said that some expenses have already been incurred for promoting the Joffrey’s upcoming May engagement. Advance Joffrey tickets, she said, have been sold to approximately 50% of the Music Center’s dance subscribers. Mail orders are being accepted now and tickets will go on sale March 31. So far, she said, no changes have been made in that plan. Wachtell said that although the Joffrey is responsible for those promotional expenses, the Music Center will pay them if the Joffrey cannot.

Kimberling said that publicity about the company’s internal problems last May may have affected advance ticket sales for their upcoming performances at the Dorothy Chandler. Kimberling and Wachtell said that future plans for dance at the Music Center remain unclear, but that the Music Center is committed to providing dance to Los Angeles audiences in years to come. Kimberling said, however, that the necessity to book engagements into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion years in advance would not allow for a new resident-company arrangement with either the Joffrey or another company any time soon.

The Joffrey was notified this week of the loss of its resident status at the Music Center. This will have no immediate effect on the company’s continuing arrangements to dance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, said center president Thomas R. Kendrick. “We have presented the Joffrey . . . three times since opening in 1986 and would like to do so again,” Kendrick said a prepared statement. “We have been monitoring their financial situation carefully. In these difficult times, it is only prudent that we consider many factors before making contract commitments to future engagements.”

Wachtell said Music Center officials have been in discussions since December about setting up a Dance Committee to discuss further options for dance at the Music Center.

Kimberling confirmed that the Music Center remains in discussions with American Ballet Theatre about the possibility of some kind of long-term arrangement, but that those discussions are independent of any discussions of residence.

“Almost a year ago, Gerald Arpino said he had no desire to keep us away from the theater (the Music Center),” said Jane Hermann, director of the American Ballet Theatre with Oliver Smith. “It was Penelope Curry (former Joffrey executive director) who had indicated she would never let us into the house except under her aegis, and then only once every other year at most. So ever since then (the conversation with Arpino), that issue seems to have gone away.”

Times Dance Writer Lewis Segal and Donna Perlmutter contributed to this report.

JOFFREY SUBSIDIES

Music Center Contributions to the Joffrey

YEAR AMOUNT 1983 $615,000 1984 $1,310,000 1985 $1,000,000 1986 $2,350,000 1987 $1,542,375 1988 $1,000,000 1989 $1,000,000 1990 $1,256,500 1991* $1,200,000

* Planned. Of this amount, Joffrey already has been given $234,693. However, this has been used to reduce a $650,000 loan through a bookkeeping transaction. The company is expected to repay the loan. SOURCE: Music Center