ABT Cancels August Engagement at the Pavilion : Ballet: ‘Funding obstacles’ are cited; Music Center confirms Joffrey’s ‘Nutcracker’ in December.

American Ballet Theatre has canceled its August engagement at the Music Center--and, in an unrelated development, the Music Center confirmed Thursday that the Joffrey Ballet will perform its “Nutcracker” at the Music Center in December.

ABT issued a statement Thursday morning saying that its scheduled Aug. 6-18 performances at the Music Center had been canceled “as a result of funding obstacles.” The engagement would have been the company’s first appearance at the Music Center since 1981.

“The (ABT) board decided it would simply be too risky,” said Music Center president Esther Wachtell. “All of the arts organizations across the country are having to be very careful about taking risks because this is a difficult time for fund raising,” she said. “She (ABT director Jane Hermann) is in the same boat that we are.”

An ABT spokesman said the company had no comment Thursday beyond its prepared statement, in which Hermann said the company would be unable to honor its August commitment to the Music Center because “some of the private funding which we thought had been secured cannot be realized.” (ABT, which is currently performing an eight-week season in the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, has been carrying a $5-million debt for months.)

ABT’s performances here would have been co-presented by the dance company and the Music Center, which planned to subsidize the company’s two-week engagement by $150,000. The company had already announced its program, which would have included the Los Angeles company premiere of Twyla Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs.”

Wachtell said that no plans have been made to present another dance company or production at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during the Aug. 6-18 period, but she said it “is awfully late” to reschedule.

“Truthfully, as far as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is concerned, we are very heavily booked,” Wachtell said. “We need time for cleaning house and those sorts of things; for us, it is not that painful to have an extra week or two to clean the place up, However, our audiences wanted to see ABT, and we wanted that first and foremost. We haven’t thought about what we’re going to do.”

Wachtell added that, since ABT had only recently printed its brochure, very few tickets had been sold so far, and all ticket fees paid so far would be returned.

ABT’s cancellation at the Music Center is not expected to affect the company’s scheduled performances at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in November and next February, according to Center president Thomas Kendrick.

The cancellation also removes competition for the Royal Ballet of London, which is due at OCPAC for a one-week run beginning Aug. 6.

Wachtell also said Thursday that the Joffrey Ballet, which recently lost its contract as the Music Center’s resident dance company due to the company’s financial problems, would perform its “Nutcracker” at the Music Center in December.

“As far as I know, (Joffrey executive director Robert) Yesselman . . . said the board has given (financial) guarantees (against ticket sales) for the ‘Nutcracker,’ and they will be coming,” Wachtell said. “They will be coming as a tenant, a short-term tenant . . . I know they would like to come, and we want them to come.”

Yesselman was unavailable for comment, but Los Angeles investment banker Michael Tennenbaum, chairman of the Joffrey’s executive committee, said Thursday that “I have been advised that the Joffrey will be dancing the ‘Nutcracker’ at the Music Center during the Christmas holidays” but declined further comment pending a joint news release from the company and the Music Center. “I think it is inappropriate for me to go into detail except to tell you that the board of the Joffrey is very pleased to have this continuation of our relationship,” Tennenbaum said.