Joffrey Ballet
| Joffrey Ballet | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Name | Joffrey Ballet |
| Previous names |
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| Year founded | 1956 |
| Founders | |
| Founding choreographers | |
| Principal venue |
Joffrey Tower Auditorium Theater Chicago United States 
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| Website | www.joffrey.com |
| Artistic staff | |
| Artistic Director | Ashley C. Wheater |
| Music Director | Scott Speck, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra |
| Other | |
| Associated schools | Academy of Dance |
| Formation | Company Dancers |
The Joffrey Ballet is a professional dance company resident in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The company regularly performs both classical ballets, including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, and modern dance pieces. Many choreographers have worked with the Joffrey including Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, George Balanchine, and founders Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey. Founded as a touring company in 1956, it was based in New York City until 1995 when it moved to Chicago. The company's headquarters and dance academy are in Joffrey Tower, and it performs its September–May season at the Auditorium Theatre.
In 1956, a time during which most touring companies performed only reduced versions of ballet classics, Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino formed a six-dancer ensemble that toured the country in a station wagon pulling a U-Haul trailer, performing original ballets created by Joffrey. While Joffrey stayed in New York City to teach ballet classes and earn money to pay the dancers' salaries, Arpino led the troupe. The ensemble first performed in a major city in Chicago in 1957. The Joffrey Ballet originally settled down in New York City, under the name 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 Joffrey as artistic director and Arpino as chief choreographer. Arpino's 1970 rock ballet Trinity was well received; 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), Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun, also with Nureyev, and Massine's Le Tricorne, Le Beau Danube and Parade. In 1973 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 for Chicago to establish a permanent residence there. The first few years in Chicago were financially arduous for the company, nearly causing it to close several times, but audiences later became larger and younger. In 2005 the Joffrey Ballet celebrated its 10th anniversary in Chicago and in 2007 concluded a 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.
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