Joffrey Ballet

Joffrey Ballet
General Information
Name	Joffrey Ballet
Previous Names	The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago City Center Joffrey Ballet Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet
Year Founded	1956
Founders	Robert Joffrey Gerald Arpino
Founding Choreographers	Robert Joffrey Gerald Arpino
Principal venue	Joffrey Tower Auditorium Theater Chicago USA
Website	www.joffrey.com
Artistic Staff
Artistic Director	Ashley C. Wheater
Other
Associate Schools	Academy of Dance
Formation	Principal Dancer Soloist Corps de Ballet

The Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern dance pieces. Many prolific choreographers have worked with the Joffrey including Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, George Balanchine, and founders Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey.

History

In 1956, a time during which most touring companies performed only reduced versions of ballet classics, Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino formed a unique six-dancer ensemble that toured the country in a station wagon pulling a U-Haul trailer, performing original ballets that were created by Robert Joffrey. While Joffrey stayed in New York City to teach ballet classes and earn money to pay the dancers' salaries, Gerald Arpino led the troupe across America's heartland. The ensemble's first performance in a major city occurred in Chicago in 1957. The Joffrey Ballet originally settled down in New York City, originally named the Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet. In 1962, modern choreographer Alvin Ailey was invited to make a work for the company. Rebekah Harkness was an important early benefactor and she made international touring possible (Soviet Union, 1963). But in 1964 she and Joffrey parted ways.

Joffrey started again, building up a new company that made its debut in 1965 as the Joffrey Ballet. Following a successful season at the New York City Center in 1966, it was invited to become City Center's resident ballet company with Robert Joffrey as artistic director and Arpino as chief choreographer. The 1960s and 1970s were a golden era for the company. Arpino's 1970 rock ballet Trinity was a big hit; Joffrey revived Kurt Jooss's The Green Table in 1967, followed by revivals of Ashton's Façade, Cranko's Pineapple Poll, Fokine's Petrushka (with Rudolf Nureyev), and Massine's Le Tricorne, Le Beau Danube and Parade. In 1973, Robert Joffrey asked Twyla Tharp to create her first commissioned ballet, Deuce Coupe. The company continued as City Center Joffrey Ballet until 1977. From 1977, it performed as the Joffrey Ballet, with a second home established in Los Angeles from (1982-1992). In 1995, the company left New York City and returned to Chicago to establish a permanent residence.^[1] The first several years in Chicago were financially arduous for the company, causing it to nearly shut its doors more than once; however, recent years have seen a significant revitalization as the performances have attracted larger and younger audiences. In 2005, the Joffrey Ballet celebrated its 10th anniversary in Chicago^[2] and in 2007 concluded a very well-received two-season-long 50th anniversary celebration, including a "River to River" tour of free, outdoor performances across Iowa, sponsored by Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa.

The Joffrey Ballet has been hailed as “America’s Company of Firsts.” The Joffrey Ballet’s long list of “firsts” includes being the first dance company to perform at the White House at Jacqueline Kennedy’s invitation, the first to appear on American television, the first classical dance company to use multi-media, the first to create a ballet set to rock music, the first American company to perform a rock ballet in Russia (bringing with it the first American rock band ever to perform in Russia), the first and only dance company to appear on the cover of Time magazine, and the first company to have had a major motion picture based on it, Robert Altman’s The Company.

The Joffrey Ballet appeared in the major motion picture Save the Last Dance (2001), when the two protagonists of the story saw the company perform Sea Shadow and Les Présages in Chicago. It was also the subject of Robert Altman's penultimate film, The Company (2003). This movie stars Malcolm McDowell as the ballet company's artistic director, a character based on Gerald Arpino, and is composed of stories gathered from the actual dancers, choreographers, and staff of the Joffrey Ballet. Most of the roles are played by real-life company members.

The Joffrey today

Joffrey rehearsal studios along State Street have views of Block 37 (top) and the Chicago Theater marquee (bottom).

Currently, the company boasts 42 dancers and performs its regular October-May season at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago, as well as several domestic and international tours throughout the year. Its repertoire consists of both classical and contemporary pieces, as well as annual December performances of The Nutcracker, presented in conjunction with the Chicago Sinfonietta.

On July 1, 2007, Gerald Arpino, co-founder, resident choreographer, and artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, retired from day-to-day operations after 50 years with the company, taking the title artistic director emeritus, which he held until his death on October 29, 2008. In October 2007, Ashley Wheater, assistant artistic director and ballet master for San Francisco Ballet, and former Joffrey dancer, became only the third person to ever serve as artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet when he was named as Gerald Arpino’s replacement.^[3]

For more than a half-century, The Joffrey Ballet’s commitment to taking world-class, artistically vibrant work to a broad and varied audience has created a solid foundation that continues to support the company’s unprecedented capacity for achieving important “firsts.” Today, the Joffrey, which has been hugely successful in its former residences in New York and Los Angeles, lives permanently in its brilliant new facility, Joffrey Tower, at 10 East Randolph Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The company’s commitment to accessibility is met through the most extensive touring schedule of any dance company in history, an innovative and highly effective education program including the much lauded Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, and collaborations with myriad other visual and performing arts organizations.

Classically trained to the highest standards, the Joffrey Ballet expresses a unique, inclusive perspective on dance, proudly reflecting the diversity of America with its company and audiences and repertoire which includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces and contemporary works under artistic director Ashley C. Wheater and executive director Christopher Clinton Conway. The Joffrey Ballet has become one of the most revered and recognizable arts organizations in America and one of the top dance companies in the world.

Dancers

As of October 2011:^[4]

Katherine Bruno April Daly Erica Lynette Edwards Yumelia Garcia Elizabeth Hansen Jaime Hickey Anastacia Holden Dara Holmes Victoria Jaiani Jeraldine Mendoza Caitlin Meighan

Katherine Minor Jacqueline Moscicke Amber Neumann Alexis Polito Valerie Robin Christine Rocas Abigail Simon Mahallia Ward Jenny Winton Joanna Wozniak Kara Zimmerman

Matthew Adamczyk Derrick Agnoletti Miguel Blanco Ogulcan Borova Fabrice Calmels Raul Casasola John Mark Giragosian Dylan Gutierrez Rory Hohenstein Fabio Lo Giudice

Graham Maverick Aaron Rogers Ricardo Santos Lucas Segovia Michael Smith Temur Suluashvili Jack Thorpe-Baker Shane Urton Mauro Villanueva Alberto Velazquez

See also

Ballet portal

• Billboards, a Joffrey Ballet production based on the songs of Prince.

References

1. ^ Kisselgoff, Anna."DANCE VIEW; Advice to the Transplanted Joffrey: Be Yourself",New York Times, September 24, 1995
2. ^ Dunning, Jennifer."Remember the Joffrey? At 50, It Fits Nicely Into the Chicago Spin",New York Times, October 19, 2005
3. ^ "Joffrey Ballet Names Artistic Director". The New York Times. September 27, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/arts/dance/26arts-JOFFREYBALLE_BRF.html?scp=3&sq=Gerald+Arpino&st=nyt. 
4. ^ "Joffrey Ballet 2010 Gala Video". Sasha Fornari. April 24, 2010. http://blog.sashafornari.com/?p=535. 

• Anawalt, Sasha. (January 19, 1998). The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press; Paperback Edition. ISBN 978-0226017556

External links

• Official website
• Archive footage of Robert Joffrey Ballet performing Pas des Déesses in 1965 at Jacob's Pillow
• Joffrey Tower on Emporis
• Company profile and upcoming performances on SeeChicagoDance.com