Vaslav Nijinsky

Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," with Vaslav Nijinsky's original choreography, returned here Wednesday for the first time since it horrified French audiences in 1913 and closed after five shows. The Joffrey Ballet and the French National Orchestra conducted by Allan Lewis brought a vivid reconstitution of the landmark production to the Theatre des Champs Elysees, where it premiered 77 years ago before a howling audience. Spectators in 1913 grunted, hissed and booed.

A revival of Gerald Arpino's 1968 anti-war dance-drama "The Clowns" will highlight the Joffrey Ballet's spring season in Los Angeles from April 29 to May 17 in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company has announced. Set to a commissioned, partly electronic score by Hershy Kay, "The Clowns" incorporates large, inflated plastic sculptures by Vernon Lobb and Kip Coburn.

Yarilo, the Sun-God, claimed a new victim in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday: the Joffrey Ballet's Jodie Gates, only the fourth dancer in history to be cast as the Chosen One in Vaslav Nijinsky's epochal "Le Sacre du Printemps." Maria Piltz would have warned her that it wasn't going to be easy--and both Beatriz Rodriguez and Carole Valleskey probably did. No matter.

For groundbreaking music, historic dance and museum-quality scenic design, nothing this summer beats the Diaghilev program to be danced by the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on June 26 and 27. Impresario Sergei Diaghilev loved sponsoring major collaborations, and the Joffrey's Music Center engagement includes three of the starriest.

Tamara Nijinsky, 74, is Vaslav Nijinsky's youngest daughter and executive director of the Vaslav and Romola Nijinsky Foundation (named after her parents). The foundation's collection of his artwork will be exhibited at the Severin Wunderman Museum opening Sunday. (Kyra Nijinsky, 80, the dancer's other daughter, has been living in a convalescent hospital in Northern California for about four years, recovering from multiple strokes, according to Tony Clark, curator of the exhibit.

Who would have thought there was so much lyricism in Stravinsky's raw, propulsive "Rite of Spring" until David Robertson and his Orchestre National de Lyon revealed it Sunday in UCLA's Royce Hall? Maybe it's that fabled French clarity and refinement that Robertson, though a native of Santa Monica, comes by legitimately, having served as music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, founded by Pierre Boulez in Paris, from 1992 to 2000 until he took over the Lyon orchestra.

Re-emerging in Los Angeles this week for his first public appearances since the Joffrey Ballet's crisis in May, artistic director Gerald Arpino had some reassuring announcements on the company's future here: * A new sponsorship, with Absolut Vodka contributing $300,000 to the underwriting of three new ballets to be presented during the Joffrey's spring repertory season. * $2.

Casting for the Joffrey Ballet's 6-day engagement starting April 18 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa was announced by the company Monday. Scheduled works include a new production of Eugene Loring's "Billy the Kid" and the first performances in Orange County of the reconstructed "Le Sacre du Printemps," choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky to the Stravinsky score. The schedule: --April 18, 8 p.m.: "Cloven Kingdom" (Taylor, Corelli)--Ensemble.

Casting for the Joffrey Ballet's six-day engagement starting April 18 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa has been announced. Scheduled works include a new production of Eugene Loring's "Billy the Kid" and the first performances in Orange County of the reconstructed "Le Sacre du Printemps," choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky to the Stravinsky score. The schedule: April 18, 8 p.m.: "Cloven Kingdom" (Taylor, Corelli)--Ensemble. "Billy the Kid" (Loring/Copland)