NO HIDING THE TALENT, ARTISTRY OF JOFFREY BALLET OF CHICAGO.

Byline: Rick Mortensen Staff Writer

In the 1997 political farce ``Wag the Dog,'' Dustin Hoffman plays a successful movie producer tortured by the fact that his behind-the-scenes contributions to film and politics will always go unnoticed.

The ballet world is perhaps kinder to its producers. Thursday and Friday night, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago gave early 20th-century ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev top billing on a program that also included such artists as Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Pablo Picasso and Vaslav Nijinsky.

Called ``The Diaghilev Dynasty,'' the program included ``Parade,'' ``The Afternoon of a Faun'' and ``The Rite of Spring.'' All three works premiered at Diaghilev's Ballet Russes between 1912-17, and all three caused controversy unimaginable in today's ballet world. ``Afternoon'' was considered pornographic, ``Parade'' landed composer Erik Satie in jail and ``Rite of Spring'' caused an actual riot at the premiere.

Diaghilev deserves as much credit as the artists involved for the groundbreaking work. More than just finding the right combinations of talent, Diaghilev found the right combinations of artistic vision.

He combined Satie's witty, sardonic music with cubist sets by Picasso and eclectic choreography by Leonide Massine to create ``Parade,'' a bizarre, comic scene about a troupe of performers trying to induce passersby to come to their show. The first character on stage was a 12-foot-tall block of scenery with a dancer's legs sticking out of the bottom. Attached to the costume, which represented the troupe's Manager in Evening Dress, was a cubist cityscape, including a building and a tree.

Despite his massive costume, Samuel Pergande was remarkably light on his feet. Although his face and torso were covered, he gave the manager personality and life. So did a similarly encumbered Fabrice Calmels, who played the Manager From New York.

Also unseen were David Gombert and Michael Smith, who were the front and hindquarters of a pantomime horse and drew big laughs from the audience. The piece also included a Little American Girl and a Chinese Conjuror - each with appropriate music - who were ably danced by Jennifer Goodman and Calvin Kitten, respectively. While the orchestra struggled slightly with intonation and entrances - and a misplaced microphone amplified the backstage dancers' loud conversation - the Joffrey turned in a powerful performance of ``Rite of Spring,'' Stravinsky's ode to primitivism, powerfully choreographed by Nijinsky.

Maia Wilkins' portrayal of a human sacrifice who dances herself to death was frighteningly real and the corps dancers' movements had the appropriate energy.

Nijinsky's choreography for Debussy's ``Afternoon of a Faun'' did a better job of expressing the primitive beauty Stravinsky craved. His sparse, angled, intriguing movements gave startling dimension to Debussy's unpretentious music, and Davis Robertson's exquisite portrayal of the Faun captured the un-self-conscious joy of an animal in nature.

JOFFREY BALLET OF CHICAGO

What: ``The Diaghilev Dynasty'' was presented Thursday and Friday. Works by choreographer Gerald Arpino are scheduled to be presented today and Sunday.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 2 and 8 p.m. today, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $25 to $85. Call [phone] or go to www.ticketmaster.com.

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The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago's version of ``The Afternoon of a Faun'' was a highlight of the troupe's performances Thursday and Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.