Catching dance fever

Surveying a throng of hobnobbing Joffrey Ballet devotees, movie-star handsome “Joe Millionaire” -- Evan Marriott -- chuckled. “I’ve never been to the ballet. I thought the Joffrey was a restaurant in Malibu,” he said at the opening night reception celebrating the troupe’s return, after seven years, to the Los Angeles Music Center.

Not even close, he learned, joining L.A. dance mavens such as Liane Weintraub and Patricia Kennedy -- with new fiance, former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca, in tow -- to watch the Chicago company perform signature interpretations of dances originally produced by Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

Introducing a new audience to the world of tutus and toe shoes was a goal of the gala launching the Joffrey’s six-performance run at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Another goal: to stimulate the interest of L.A.’s dance community. “We need to build a future for dance in L.A. because the center doesn’t have a resident company and is looking to be home to several companies that will come here to perform,” explained Kennedy, gala chairwoman, a rock the size of Swan Lake glittering on her left hand. “The success of tonight proves the community will turn out and support these companies.”

About 450 gala-goers sipped cocktails and sampled appetizers in the lobby before joining the public to watch the June 26 production, which included Nijinsky’s “Afternoon of a Faun.” Iacocca admitted he knew little about dance. “But Patricia is teaching me,” he said. Confessed astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who attended with his wife, Lois: “I’m here because she’s here. That’s always the case, isn’t it?” Actress Jane Seymour, a former ballerina, had never seen the Joffrey, she said. “But I’ve heard incredible things about it.”

After the performance, guests swept into the Grand Hall to dine on chicken in puff pastry at tables crowned with peonies and pale roses. Among the guests: Joffrey co-founder and artistic director Gerald Arpino. “This is an answer to a prayer. It feels like coming home,” said Arpino, referring to the troupe’s residency at the center from 1983 to 1991. The buzz of the evening was that the Joffrey plans to perform at the center annually. True? “That’s up to the center,” Arpino said.