PUTTING MODERN INTO DANCE.

Byline: Vicki Smith Paluch

Correspondent

For more than 50 years, the Joffrey Ballet has been pushing the envelope of American dance.

"My vision has always been to emblazon the country with contemporary ballet," said co-founder and artistic director Gerald Arpino. "My concept of what American dance is has been to take classical ballet and incorporate new voices."

Founded by the late Robert Joffrey and Arpino in 1956, the Joffrey Ballet is one of the top three companies in America and is known worldwide for its vast repertoire of historical ballets, as well as groundbreaking works such as "Billboards," a full-length work set to the rock music of Prince.

Together, Joffrey and Arpino created a uniquely American company of dancers for whom they choreographed original and socially relevant ballets.

The Joffrey Ballet also has strong ties to Los Angeles. It was the resident company at the Music Center from 1982 to 1992, when it performed two three-week seasons a year at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

When the Joffrey Ballet returns to the Dorothy Chandler for four performances this week, it will bring two programs that exemplify Arpino's aesthetic and the company's depth.

The ballets in the first program have historical significance, re-creating avant-garde masterworks, while the second program demonstrates the company's amazing ability to blend pop culture with high art.

On Thursday, the company will perform a program called "Destiny's Dances," featuring three modern ballets from the 1920s and 1930s -- Leonide Massine's "Les Presages," George Balanchine's "Apollo," and Kurt Jooss' anti-war ballet, "The Green Table."

Beach Boys ballet

For the Friday and Saturday night crowd, the Joffrey will rock the house with its "Cool Vibrations" program, featuring Twyla Tharp's "Deuce Coupe," set to the music of the Beach Boys; the West Coast premiere of Donald Byrd's "Motown Suite"; and Laura Dean's "Sometimes It Snows in April," from "Billboards."

"The program is in keeping with Mr. Arpino's philosophy of addressing current issues through dance," said executive director Jon Teeuwissen. "It's a part of what kept the Joffrey contemporary; it is a mirror to relevant issues."

For example, in 1967 when the Vietnam War was escalating, the company had Jooss stage "The Green Table," a 1932 ballet about war whose major character is Death. Choreographed in the style of German Expressionism, it starts out with diplomats and corporate heads standing around and on top of a large green table, shaking their fists at one another until negotiations end with the firing of a gun.

"What hits home is the fact that major decisions affecting all of us are being made by a small group of people," Arpino said.

"But the important aspect of the ballet is it shows that we do have choices and that some outcomes can be avoided. We live in a world of options."

'30s groundbreaker

Los Angeles audience will have the rare opportunity to see Massine's 1933 ballet "Les Presages, which is set to Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

The ballet is considered a precursor to contemporary abstract ballets.

Balanchine's "Apollo" was first performed by Diaghilev's Ballet Russes in 1928. It joins other Stravinsky works in the Joffrey repertoire such as "Le Sacre du Printemps" and "Petrouchka," choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and Michel Fokine, respectively.

Joffrey and Arpino took risks, fearlessly leaping into the popular culture to bring a youthful excitement to classical ballet.

Arpino brought contemporary dance choreographer Twyla Tharp into ballet. Her 1973 "Deuce Coupe" was her "cross-over" ballet. The work taps into the infectious good humor of the Beach Boys' music.

The dance uses the pop/social dances of the 1970s as the hurricane, and a lone female dancer becomes the eye of the storm, calmly going through the entire classical ballet vocabulary.

In 1993, the Joffrey took Los Angeles by storm with Arpino's production of "Billboards." The dancing fountains at the Music Center were flowing purple in honor of Prince. Choreographer Laura Dean's "Sometimes It Snows in April" opened the evening and was performed to the title song, "Trust" and "Baby, I'm a Star." Silver-clad dancers cross the stage in Dean's signature geometric patterns building to its breathless finish. This revival marks the first time the work has been seen in nearly a decade.

Donald Byrd's "Motown Suite" blends classical ballet and contemporary movement to highlight the versatility of the company's dancers.

"The Motown era was a time of great optimism and idealism. Radio stations seemed to bridge America's racial divide in the 1960s," Byrd said.

"The Motown sound began to liberate the restraints of Jim Crow and certain negative racial stereotypes by wooing us into noticing that adolescent hopes and desires, regardless of race were similar, if not the same."

THE JOFFREY BALLET

What: Two very different programs from one of America's premier dance companies.

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

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $115 to $25. [phone].

www.ticketmaster.com.

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(color) no caption (Joffrey Ballet)