THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF BALLET.

Byline: Vicki Smith Paluch Correspondent

After a seven-year absence, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thursday through Sunday with two programs that display its dual role as a cutting-edge ballet company and one that keeps the masterpieces of 20th-century choreography alive.

The Joffrey, which called the Music Center its home on the West Coast from 1983 to 1991 as the center's resident ballet company, goes where few American ballet companies dare. Artistic director Gerald Arpino, who co-founded the company with the late Robert Joffrey in 1956, is a choreographer who takes risks, creating controversial ballets that reflect life in American society, its problems, strengths and popular culture.

Early in his career, Arpino made his reputation as a choreographer with two such works - the 1968 anti-nuclear work ``The Clowns,'' and his rock ballet ``Trinity'' in 1970, inspired by Vietnam-era peace marches in People's Park in Berkeley. On Saturday and Sunday, the company will perform the West Coast premiere of Arpino latest work, ``I/DNA,'' a ballet about the death penalty, religious themes and the death of innocence set to excerpts from Charles Ives' score from ``Unanswered Questions'' and original music by Arnold Roth. In addition to ``I/DNA,'' the weekend program includes Arpino's abstract ballets, ``Suite Saint-Saens,'' ``Sea Shadow,'' ``L'Air d'Esprit'' and ``Light Rain,'' a company signature piece.

The Joffrey will present its revival and reconstructions of three masterpieces from the repertory of Serge Diaghilev's Les Ballets Russes - ``Parade,'' ``Afternoon of the Faun'' and ``Le Sacre du Printemps'' on Thursday and Friday.

Arpino is a choreographer not afraid to tackle topical and often controversial subjects. At age 75, he remains a man of conviction and a choreographer of great passion.

``I was compelled to do 'I/DNA' when I heard about the cases of those who had been killed and later found out through DNA testing that they were innocent. I was very concerned about it, and I was awaking in the middle of the night,'' recalled Arpino during a telephone interview from his home in Chicago.

While Arpino began his work on ``I/DNA'' in 2001, the ballet has become especially timely, given recently retired Illinois Gov. George Ryan's last-minute historic decision on Jan. 11 to commute the sentences of all 167 inmates on Illinois' Death Row to life imprisonment.

Arpino is not afraid of the shock value of theater. He opens ``I/DNA'' with a man (dancer Domingo Rubio) strapped into a huge electric chair designed by Ming Cho Lee. ``The opening is grisly,'' Arpino said. ``Then the three Fates enter.'' They lead the audience into a morality play about ``the killing of any innocence, even in ourselves,'' Arpino explained. He also gives the audience hope; ``I/DNA'' ends in resurrection. Ironically, the ballet had its world premiere in Chicago on April 23, three days after Easter.

The Joffrey will open its engagement with the Diaghilev program, presenting then-avant garde ballets by Vaslav Nijinski (``Afternoon of the Faun'' with music by Claude Debussy and ``Le Sacre du Printemps'' set to music by Igor Stravinsky) and ``Parade,'' which united choreographer Leonide Massine, artist Pablo Picasso, writer Jean Cocteau and composer Erik Satie to create a cubist ballet.

``These are innovative masterpieces of their time,'' said Arpino. ``That's what the Joffrey is truly about - innovation, from our reconstruction of 'Sacre du Printemps' to 'Billboards' (the first full-length rock ballet that Arpino created to the music of Prince in 1993).''

The Joffrey reconstruction of Nijinski's ``Le Sacre du Printemps'' received its world premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1987. It was also the first performance of the work - in any form - in America.

In 1913, when Diaghilev's Les Ballets Russes presented the premiere of Stravinsky's ``Sacre du Printemps'' with choreography by the famous dancer Nijinsky, a riot broke out opening night, and the Ballets Russes could not finish the performance. It was performed in London, and then Diaghilev pulled it from the repertory.

The Stravinsky score, however, is one of the great classics of 20th-century music. During the Joffrey's 1983-91 residency at the Music Center, the company presented two seasons annually, sharing its many works in its remarkable repertory of more than 250 ballets by 90 choreographers.

The Joffrey has commissioned the first ballets of such notable American choreographers as Alvin Ailey, Laura Dean, Randy Duncan, Mark Morris, Glen Tetley and Twyla Tharp. The company reintroduced a complete program by Kurt Joss (including his 1932 anti-war masterpiece, ``The Green Table''); revived ballets by Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Antony Tudor; and was the first American company to present the work of Denmark's Auguste Bournonville. The Joffrey's repertory includes notable works of John Cranko, Mikhail Fokine, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Agnes de Mille and Paul Taylor.

After serious financial problems, The Joffrey left New York City in 1995, reorganized as the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and sprang back. ``The Joffrey has never looked better,'' said Karen Schmidt, the Music Center's dance presenter. ``We are delighted to bring them back.''

JOFFREY BALLET OF CHICAGO

What: Diaghilev Program: ``Parade,'' ``Afternoon of a Faun'' and ``Le Sacre du Printemps'' 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; Arpino Program I - ``I/DNA,'' ``Suite Saint-Saens,'' ``L'Air d'Esprit'' and ``Light Rain'' 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; Arpino Program II: ``Suite Saint-Saens,'' ``Sea Shadow,'' ``L'Air d'Esprit'' and ``Light Rain'' 2 p.m. Saturday.

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

Tickets: $25 to $85. [phone]; www.musiccenter.org.

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The Joffrey Balley of Chicago brings its commitment to innovation in dance, presenting both classic and new works, to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for a special four-night engagement.