DANCE REVIEW : Joffrey Ballet Introduces Some Primal Crouching

‘In Sanskrit,” the mysterious program note for the Joffrey Ballet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion informed us on Friday, “creation is explained as lila , the Divine Play.”

The press release for “Lila” revealed a bit more. Alonzo King’s recent creation, we were told, is “earthy and spiritual.” So much for explanations.

The smoky stage was dominated by a virtuosic earth-mother in a flesh-colored unitard. She did a lot of contorting, crouching and squatting, usually on pointe. Distorted arabesques were her specialty.

Two well-matched couples, similarly attired, engaged in intertwining poses and strenuous exercises bearing erotic undertones. An echo ensemble of four women added contrapuntal twitching in careful unison. So much for illustrations.

Donald Ivan Fontowitz’s taped score concentrated on ominous drones punctuated by percussive doodles. So much for ethnomodernism.

One could savor some engaging moments of suppressed agitation in the 24-minute piece, some nice, symmetrical examples of spidery synergy. The mystic message had to be taken on faith, however, and the fusion of modern mannerism with classical technique remained tentative.

For all its inventive ambition, “Lila” rose only sporadically above its pretentious cliches. This not-so- magnum opus reached too far and probably promised too much.

Don’t blame the participants. Valerie Madonia mustered a lyrical legato even for the most strenuous staccato maneuvers. Beatriz Rodriguez and Brent Phillips stuck to each other with muted adagio bravura and staggering flexibility. Jodie Gates and Philip Gardner provided a more aggressive counterforce.

Sandra Woodall’s costumes maintained decent stylization while simulating primal nudity. Craig Miller’s streaky lights and splotchy shadows defined abstract space deftly.

Advance publicity, incidentally, heralded “Lila” as King’s “first commissioned work for the Joffrey.” That seems a bit strange, for the choreographer had set the same piece on his own San Francisco company, LINES, two years ago. Los Angeles saw it in November, 1989, as part of the first Black Choreographers Festival at the Wadsworth Theater.

The rest of the Music Center program focused on Joffrey business as usual. It was, of course, highly eclectic business, and the spirited, youthful company made the most of it.

The evening opened with a reasonably reasonable facsimile of “Cotillon,” the dark and quirky Balanchine bagatelle of 1932. Once again, Tina LeBlanc spun beguilingly through the ambiguous central turns of the Young Girl. She found a brave new partner in Brent Phillips, who has inherited the giddy duties of the Young Man from the late Edward Stierle.

LeBlanc returned in “L’Air d’Esprit,” Gerald Arpino’s prim yet tricky ode to Olga Spessivtzeva. The young ballerina remained exquisitely cool throughout this dangerous pas de deux, despite the precarious partnership of Tyler Walters--a late replacement for the injured Tom Mossbrucker.

The evening ended with the neoclassical glitz of Arpino’s ensemble showpiece, “Suite Saint-Saens.” Its amiable frenzy pleased the crowd, as always.

Both Allan Lewis and John Miner performed nobly as they shared the conductor’s duties in the well-staffed pit. Stanley Babin served as stylish soloist on the unnecessarily amplified piano for the Saint-Saens divertissements .