Arpino and Joffrey: ‘We Outlined the Next 20 Years’

“These are not the easiest times, I tell you that from my heart. . . . “

With a passing reference to his private grief, the Joffrey Ballet’s newly appointed artistic director, Gerald Arpino, discusses the era in the company’s history that began on March 25 with Robert Joffrey’s death.

“The saving grace is that Bob and I had been together for 31 years collaborating on practically every project that the company has undertaken,” the 60-year-old choreographer and former associate director says. “There wasn’t a matter that he and I didn’t discuss.

“Up to the last week before he died, we talked about future (company) plans, never thinking that this would ever happen. We outlined the next 20 years, really.”

He manages a small laugh at Joffrey’s fabled organizational savvy, then says in a tone of disbelief, “We really thought he would recover. . . . “

A pause, and then back to business: articulating long-range company goals--including a full-length “Cinderella” (a dream of Robert Joffrey’s) that he expects “maybe two years down the line, probably not home-grown.” He won’t confirm or deny company interest in the 1948 Royal Ballet “Cinderella” by Frederick Ashton, a choreographer who has become something of a Joffrey Ballet specialty. But he admits that he spent time with Ashton in London in early April.

Before any “Cinderella” goes into production, there are two company projects to premiere in the fall. “It was Bob’s intention for a long time to do ‘Billy the Kid,’ ” Arpino reveals. “Bob always felt it was (Eugene) Loring’s masterpiece, and he visualized it as a Joffrey tour de force. He felt we would perhaps bring a new stimulus to the roles, a fresh approach, as we did with ‘Rodeo.’ ”

Joffrey also asked Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer--the team that reconstructed the original Nijinsky “Le Sacre du Printemps” last season--to piece together George Balanchine’s lost ballroom ballet, “Cotillon.” Created for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1932, it’s a work that Arpino sees as important to understanding the style of such New York City Ballet-era masterpieces by Balanchine as “La Valse” (1951) and “Liebeslieder Walzer” (1960).

“ ‘Cotillon’ is truly a romantic/dramatic work that will reflect much of the theatricality and style that Mr. Balanchine incorporated in his later ballets--the idiosyncrasy of his arm movements, the broken wrists, the byplay between the different rhythms, the mature approach as opposed to the innocent approach to movement. A major part of his output came from this,” Arpino says.

Los Angeles audiences will not see either “Billy the Kid” or “Cotillon” until next May (when Arpino also intends to revive Joffrey’s own 1973 ballet, “Remembrances”), because the company has traded its annual fall repertory season at the Music Center for a Christmas engagement devoted exclusively to its new “Nutcracker.” Arpino defends the decision as “a means to gain bigger support for the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles, to bring audiences in who might not come to a regular repertory program.”

“Just as ‘The Nutcracker’ served New York City Ballet, I think Bob planned it to serve this company. I know it will give us greater strength in Los Angeles so that then, in another season or two, we will be able to do both repertory and ‘The Nutcracker.’ That was Bob’s plan.”

Pennie Currie, Joffrey Ballet executive director, also finds the new May/December dates in Los Angeles “a more sensible schedule” than playing Los Angeles immediately before or after New York, as was formerly the case.

“Beginning next spring, when we go out to the West Coast in May, the engagement is linked with a Midwest tour that helps pay for the trucks going out,” she says. “Then we continue to go out to the West Coast. And, for the first time we play the West Coast connected with Los Angeles: San Diego, Sacramento. We stay out on the West Coast for the first time.

“I feel that having the next two years for sure, and maybe three years, where we can do a ‘Nutcracker’ winter and then a spring repertory season, we won’t be cutting back on repertory but we will actually have an opportunity to present a more varied repertory (each spring).”

Currie agrees that Arpino’s appointment as artistic director has helped stabilize the company in this time of transition. “No one can replace Robert Joffrey,” she emphasizes. “But the fortunate thing for us is that Robert and Jerry founded the company together and Jerry has always been part of the team. So the situation is one of still working with somebody who very much knew Robert’s feelings as opposed to inheriting someone brand new.

“There’s a very special feeling (in the company) right now of wanting to make sure that we continue with everything that Robert and Jerry wanted.”

Arpino is highly aware, however, that his freedom to choreograph will now be severely curtailed by administrative duties. He cites as examples the reduced creative output of Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell--and Robert Joffrey.

“Bob’s duties were many, extending himself into many, many areas that brought great attention and value to the Joffrey Ballet,” he says. “These are going to be duties that I previously never handled. I will continue to choreograph but perhaps my output will not be as prolific as before.

“I have no resentments. I have always gone along with the pattern that life dictates. If it’s now time to be the producer/director, that’s what I will be. If I’m to be the next Joe Papp of the Joffrey, I will be that. And I will have no regrets.

“I’ve always been a builder and I have a gift for recognizing talent and promoting it. I’ve done it with dancers--I was a terrific teacher in the early days--and I will do it with the company. I will produce through others. But if I can be a terrific artistic director too, maybe I will be smart enough to leave myself time to create and choreograph.

“I think Bob left the company with great durability and the idea of extending his vision into the years to come through me and through the plans he outlined. Of course, there will be variables, but in general it will proceed according to Bob’s wishes.”

Arpino does allow himself, however, one impossible fantasy of escape.

“If I had my druthers and my choice, I would be a dancer first of all,” he confesses quietly. “That’s all I would do: You can have all the rest.”