The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is named after one of its two founders. Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino who started The Joffrey Ballet in 1956. From its beginning, it brought a new American approach to ballet. The company began with six dancers who toured the country in a station wagon. Every day they drove to a new city to perform ballets created by Robert Joffrey. The company grew and became one of the world’s leading ballet companies. It has performed in all fifty states and around the world. After Mr. Joffrey’s death in 1988, Gerald Arpino became its Artistic Director. He is also the choreographer of one third of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s original ballets. There are almost 300 ballets by more than 90 choreographers in the repertoire.
In 1995 Mr. Arpino established The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago to carry on the traditions and legacy of The Joffrey Ballet. It is a world-famous ballet company that now calls Chicago home. The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is often referred to as an American Classic. It performs masterpieces of the twentieth century, works by its founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, and new and cutting-edge works of today. Its ensemble of versatile dancers moves with ease through these various styles. The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago has a unique vision for American dance. It blends the classical with the modern. It uses all types of music from Bach to rock. It incorporates new ideas and concepts. The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago believes that dance has the power to communicate all kinds of ideas, emotions and stories.
Gerald Arpino established The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago in 1995 to carry on the traditions and legacy of The Joffrey Ballet, which he co-founded with Robert Joffrey in 1956 and for which he served as Associate Director for many years. Upon Joffrey’s death in 1998, Arpino succeeded him as Artistic Director.
A leading dancer with the company in its early years, Arpino was one of the “original six” who established The Joffrey as a touring entity in 1956 with what is now affectionately referred to as the ‘station wagon’ tour. Arpino choreographed his first works for The Joffrey, Ropes and Partita for Four, in 1961. Shortly thereafter, he became The Joffrey’s resident choreographer and, to date, has created more than one-third of the company’s original repertoire.
Arpino’s choreography can be seen in such Joffrey signature works as Sea Shadow, Incubus, Viva Vivaldi, Olympics, Nightwing, The Clowns, Trinity, Confetti, Kettentanz, Sacred Grove on Mount Tamalpais, Suite Saint-Saens, Epode, Celebration, Round of Angels, Light Rain and Italian Suite. Clive Barnes of The New York Times wrote “Arpino and his choreography are central to The Joffrey company style.” Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote “I have often seen newcomers to the ballet seduced into loving the entire art form simply because Mr. Arpino’s accessibility seizes their imagination.”
In 1993 Arpino produced America’s first full-evening rock ballet, Billboards, to the music of Prince. Billboards, which combined the work of four different choreographers, broke box office records around the world with unprecedented lines of people waiting to buy tickets for the ballet.
Arpino’s creative output has been so varied that one critic has said “He is not a single artist. He must be an alliance.” A recipient of the 1974 Dance Magazine Award, his inscription reads “To Gerald Arpino – more than any other choreographer, he has recognized the spirit of the times. His work speaks clearly of the anguish and joy of being young in America today.”
In 2006 Mr. Arpino will celebrate 50 years of The Joffrey’s unique vision of American dance.
Jon H. Teeuwissen’s 20-year career in arts administration includes extensive experience as a dance company manager, as a dance presenter, and as a producing/booking agent for dance. He has led dance organizations as both a presenter and producer.
Teeuwissen joined The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago in December 2001, coming directly from American Ballet Theatre where as the General Manager he was responsible for negotiating all contracts and collective bargaining agreements, securing all touring engagements, and general management of the portion of the annual budget relative to artistic and production.
Teeuwissen also worked with the Dance Theatre of Harlem as Company Manager touring throughout the US, Europe, and the former USSR. But his dance experience goes beyond ballet. Ranging from Butoh to hip-hop and contemporary to Broadway theatre dance, the eclectic mix of dance companies he has worked with also includes companies such as Lee Theodore’s The American Dancemachine, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Muna Tseng Dance Projects.
As an agent, Teeuwissen worked to secure national tours for foreign dance companies representing varied works such as the aerial-dance of Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre, David Bolger’s contemporary theatre dance of CoisCeim (Ireland), Amagatsu’s unique Butoh dance of Sankai Juku (Japan), and the innovative hip-hop dance of Compagnie Kafig (France).
As a presenter, Teeuwissen for eight years was the Executive Director of the New Orleans Ballet Association, an organization that presents classical, contemporary, and indigenous dance companies from around the world. During his tenure, he eliminated an accrued deficit of $1 million and established both a cash reserve and an endowment, while greatly expanding programming and building a significant dance audience.
Teeuwissen is committed to fiscal responsibility, and his major goals for The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago are to stabilize operations and establish a significant cash reserve, as well as realizing a state-of-the-art facility at #6 East Lake Street which the company hopes to move into before the 50th year anniversary in 2006. He also plans to greatly expand the touring opportunities for The Joffrey at home and abroad.
Teeuwissen is an active member of Dance/USA and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. He has served on grants panels at local, state, regional and national levels. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting.