Joffrey back in action.

CHICAGO--The Joffrey Ballet returned to the dance studio in October, turning its attention from the offstage matters which had lately consumed its energy--such as whether to merge with Ballet Chicago and settling dancers' claims for back pay--to what it does best: dance. The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago has leased 20,000 square feet of studio space for five years. In October, the company commenced work on six ballets.

Audiences in Los Angeles, Washington, and Omaha will see Joffrey this month when it tours with Robert Joffrey's Nutcracker. (For dates and venues, see the Performance Calendar on page 14.) Los Angeles audiences will get a special treat: Tina LeBlanc, a former Joffrey star now a principal with San Francisco Ballet, returns as a guest artist to dance Sugar Plum Fairy opposite Tom Mossbrucker, her longtime Joffrey swain. "I'm quite excited," says LeBlanc. The reunion will perhaps soften the blow for Mossbrucker fans disappointed that he will now dance only part-time with the company, as will Jodie Gates, Meg Gurin, and Daniel Baudendistel, according to company officials.

The company will have have thirty full-time dancers, twenty of whom have previously danced with Joffrey. The roster includes Deborah Dawn, Beatriz Rodriguez, Pierre Lockett, Kim Sagami, Julie Janus, Tyler Walters, Cynthia Giannini, Calvin Kitten, Gregory Russell, Adam Sklute, Nicole Marie Duffy, Tomi Paasonen and Meridith Benson. Before its troubles, the Joffrey had about forty dancers, the standard minimum number usually required for a company with the repertoire and touring demands of artistic director Gerald Arpino's troupe.

Joffrey's repertoire plans are as rich as ever. In October, the company was learning Vicente Nebrada's Nuestros Waltzes, likely to have its company premiere at Chicago's Spring Dance Festival; Billboards, expected to open in Chicago in February and to be Joffrey's debut production here as a resident company; George Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, Mehmet Sander's Inner Space, Arthur Saint-Leon's La Vivandiere Pas de Six, and Arpino's Round of Angels.

As a participant in the Kennedy Center Commissioning Project, Joffrey can use--without paying a choreographer's fee--any ballets the other eight companies in the project create with their grants. These include Paul Taylor's Company B, John Neumeier's Age of Anxiety, Lar Lubovitch's American Gesture, Donald McKayle's Gumbo Ya-Ya, and Merce Cunningham's Breakers.

With its relocation, says Arpino, Joffrey is "taking a wedge of the center of the dance world out of New York and moving it to Chicago." Local support is strong. "Having the Joffrey in Chicago is the culmination of the dreams of many Chicagoans," says Joffrey board president David Kipper.

Joffrey officials say that Chicagoans have pledged $900,000 so far towards the company's $5 million budget, and that an additional $1.1 million in contributions is needed, with the rest expected to come from earned income. Much of the Joffrey's $3 million debt has been retired, including a settlement of dancers' claims for back pay as well as other other compensation. The dancers had sought $600,000, but neither side would comment on the final terms of the settlement.