Joffrey Triumphs Over Weak Choreography

“Billboards” is a polarizing ballet. For some of us, the work--which the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago has brought back to Los Angeles after a two-year absence--is at best a grin-and-bear-it experience.

For others, it’s a hip revelation in dance in which the music of Prince, or whatever that seminal rock influence is calling himself these days, finds happy visual expression. It was that for many in the audience Thursday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Even so, it’s doubtful anyone would claim it is high art, but then, it doesn’t pretend to be. Once past the first of the four sections (each choreographed by a different person), any pretensions of art choreography are quickly dropped and the mode changes strictly to “Chorus Line,” Broadway musicals and disco parties.

Laura Dean created the lyrical, then snappy first section, “Sometimes It Snows in April.” This time out, however, her choreography looked surprisingly thin in concept, while the company looked rather stiff and awkward. It seemed hard for these ballet bodies to boogie. But it was hard to blame them.

Charles Moulton’s disco orgy in “Thunder/Purple Rain,” part two, plummets to a shockingly vulgar level, though here it was led by an elegant Julie Janus trying to oblige by slumming. After that, the simple and flashy entertainment values of Margo Sappington’s “Slide” (part three) and Peter Pucci’s “Willing and Able” (part four) looked downright classy.

The surprising thing was how solidly the talented Joffrey troupe triumphed over the choreography. It was like finding a Rembrandt where you least expect it, among the many dusty, faded, valueless prints in your grandparents’ attic.

The transforming moment occurred when Beatriz Rodriguez danced the tortuous “Purple Rain” solo, completely investing Moulton’s choreography with clarity and emotional intensity.

Similarly, Tom Mossbrucker brought an insouciant ease to the high-flying demands of Sappington’s “Slide” choreography, which also enlisted Rodriguez, Suzanne Lopez and Cynthia Giannini as hot and sharply focused figures and Tyler Walters as a sullen macho corps leader.

Maia Wilkins and Pierre Lockett generated genuine heat as the central couple in Pucci’s “Willing and Able.” The insertion of the woman’s toe shoe into the man’s mouth while he lay prone still looked silly beyond belief. But these two managed to get past the humiliation with dignity.

The company danced the choreographed bows joyously, as the audience clapped deliriously.

* The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago will dance “Billboards” today at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave. $15-$55. (213) 365-3500.