The mention in The New York Times two weeks ago was an unexpected valentine.
In an article about the city’s lackluster fall dance season, dance critic Anna Kisselgoff wrote:
“Gone are the days when the Joffrey Ballet filled October with all-American verve and the revival of rarely seen works. In fact, to have the Joffrey absent from New York in the late 1990s . . . is to account for much of the void felt today, especially with respect to ballet.”
That “all-American verve and the revival of rarely seen works” has moved here, to grace not just our winter–an engagement opens Tuesday and plays through Feb. 2 at the Shubert Theatre–but a grand total of six weeks scattered throughout the next half-year, including, a possible stint at Ravinia still being negotiated.
The Joffrey’s move here, tempered with the reminder that the troupe remains an internationally touring one, is finally paying off in terms of a concentrated series of performances this season, beginning with “The Nutcracker” in November.
The Joffrey powers-that-be were delighted by The Times’ lament, though they see an ironic side: “We seem to do better in New York,” quips Dr. David Kipper, president of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago board, “when we’re not there. “
Nonetheless, the remarks came as welcome news for a troupe still struggling to regain its financial footing and international status.
“It’s wonderful to hear that Chicago is the winner in all this,” says Kipper. “Of course, we hope to perform in New York again, although I know (Joffrey artistic director) Gerald Arpino wants to do so with the strongest possible program. He wants to come back triumphant.”
Meanwhile, administratively and otherwise, the Joffrey remains in transition. Kipper says the company’s first fiscal year ended last fall “at a more or less break-even point,” good news for a troupe that left New York because of a huge debt. On the other hand, the move itself racked up a new deficit, and earlier this month, the company announced that Arnold Breman, executive director during the 1 1/2-year-old transition, is leaving to write a book and return to consulting.
But the rash of engagements here–and what officials call an aggressive fund-raising campaign–are part of the company’s effort to whittle down the debt.
“Arnold undertook an enormously difficult task,” Kipper says by way of appreciation. “He came into an abnormal situation, where a 39-year-old, world-class company was moving to an empty office. Here we were expected to do business as usual, but there was no infrastructure. He had to build a staff and manage a $5.6 million operation, and, in the beginning, without any money coming in because we weren’t initially dancing.”
Meanwhile, a new era began in Joffrey management with the arrival last week of Robert Alpaugh, who left his job as associate artistic director of Urban Gateways to take up the challenge. Urban Gateways, where he was helping raise funds for a $5 million N.E.A. matching grant, wishes him the best, he says.
“They have a long relationship with the Joffrey, dating from the ’70s when both organizations collaborated on student matinees,” Alpaugh says. “I am tremendously hopeful about the Joffrey’s prospects. I went to my first board meeting the other night, and the large number of committed people there greatly impressed me.
“We want the Joffrey to be right up there with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago as one of the premiere arts organizations of the city,” he continues. “I want it to happen, and I know it will happen.”
Kipper assesses the current situation this way: “Before we moved here, we were barely breathing. Now, we’re finding our focus.”
The upcoming engagement promises both rare revivals and American verve. For the first time in many years, the company is reviving the 1954 “Pas des Deesses,” an important, beautiful early work by the late Robert Joffrey. Its subject is that of legends, inspired by a famous lithograph depicting three of the most important ballerinas of the early Romantic period: Marie Taglioni, Lucile Grahn and Fanny Cerrito.
Each ballerina was famous in her time for a different strength, and together they represent a trio of Muses of the form.
For many years, “Pas des Deesses” was a company mainstay, a showpiece for the male lead, who dances with all three of the women. Former Joffrey dancer (and now University of Iowa dance professor) Francoise Martinet, who starred in the work during the late ’50s, has come to Chicago to restage the classic and says, despite its difficulty, she has never met a male dancer who doesn’t love the work.
In a different vein, associate artistic director Anne Marie DeAngelo, one of the multiple contributors to last season’s “Legends,” is unveiling a new work steeped in Jungian psychology.
“My piece (titled `Kali Ma’) tells a story and is in some ways a fractured fairy tale,” she says. It features six characters: a bird, a skeleton, a serpent, a monkey, Kali Ma (Hindu goddess of transformation) and a human being, which DeAngelo is coming out of retirement to dance herself.
Other works in the varied, two-part engagement include revivals of Pilobolus Dance Theatre’s “Untitled,” Alonzo King’s “Cante,” Mehmet Sander’s “Inner Space,” Randy Duncan’s “Initiation” and three by Arpino: “Suite Saint-Saens,” “Valentine” and “Light Rain.”
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THE FACTS
Joffrey Ballet of Chicago
What: Performing “Pas des Deesses.” “Untitled,” “Valentine” and “Suite Saint-Saens” Tuesday through Friday and “Cante,” “Inner Space,” “Kali Ma” and “Light Rain” Saturday and Feb. 2
Where: Shubert Theatre, 22 W. Monroe St.
Tickets: $10-$45
Call: 312-902-1500
