The Joffrey Ballet

February 17, 2005 – To commemorate its 50th anniversary in 2006, the Chicago-based Joffrey Ballet will present a Golden Anniversary lineup spanning two seasons including a summer celebration in-between. Regarded as one of the world’s finest classical ballet companies, The Joffrey Ballet surely has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1956, when an ambitious group of dancers led by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, its Founders and Artistic Directors, toured the country in a borrowed station wagon.

The Joffrey Ballet’s 50th Anniversary celebration will be launched in the fall of 2005, with a program entitled A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, Jiri Kylian’s Return to a Strange Land, and Arpino’s Celebration, which will serve as the piece d’occasion. Back by popular demand, The Joffrey Ballet will present John Cranko’s spectacular full-evening masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet, as its Winter Program offering. Spring 2006 will bring a contemporary program, Cool Vibrations, featuring a World Premiere by Donald Byrd, along with Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe and the popular Sometimes it Snows in April (excerpt from Billboards) choreographed by Laura Dean. The Joffrey will once again present the family favorite, The Nutcracker, for the holidays.

Exciting programming details for the Summer 2006 festivities and 2006-2007 Season will be announced shortly.

“It is with pride and honor that we celebrate our 50th Anniversary,” said Gerald Arpino. “The Joffrey Ballet is an American dream come true. Robert Joffrey and I were two young fellows with talent, imagination, and total dedication to our vision of dance. With a borrowed station wagon, a U-Haul trailer and six dancers we founded the company. Today, The Joffrey has over forty dancers and more than two hundred ballets encompassing the works of master choreographers of yesterday, today and the future. We have toured to every state in the nation and almost every continent in the world. As founder and artistic director of The Joffrey Ballet, I am proud to call this great city of Chicago our home.”

“The Golden Anniversary celebration highlights the unique spectrum of The Joffrey: historical revivals, full length ballets, and the commissioning of new works. The centerpiece of the celebration will be the 50th Anniversary Gala in June 2006 that will include a significant number of Joffrey alumni and several days of festivities,” remarked Jon Teeuwissen, executive director of The Joffrey Ballet.

The 2005-2006 Season opens with a mixed-rep program, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, a one-hour story ballet based on William Shakespeare’s classic comedy of love and mischief set in the magical woods of Victorian England and featuring the music of Felix Mendelssohn. Also on the bill are Jiri Kylian’s Return to a Strange Land, a haunting intimate work that is a poetic mixture of ballet, modern dance and dream-like acrobatics, with music by Leo Janacek; and a magical staging of Gerald Arpino’s Celebration, described as “folk dancing gone mad,” set to an exciting Slavic score by Dimitri Shastakovich. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be performed by The Joffrey Ballet October 19 through 30, 2005.

Chicagoland’s most popular family holiday entertainment, Robert Joffrey’s production of The Nutcracker, returns to the Auditorium Theatre for 18 performances, December 14 through 28, 2005. As always, the Tchaikovsky masterpiece features the full Joffrey company, augmented by local children’s choruses and more than 120 young dancers ages nine through fourteen.

Following critically-acclaimed productions of John Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew in Fall 2002, and Romeo and Juliet in the Fall of 2003, The Joffrey will again present its spell-binding staging of Romeo and Juliet as its Winter Program. Music by Sergei Prokofiev, lavish costumes and sets by Jurgen Rose, and bravura dancing and acting by The Joffrey Ballet unite in this dramatic and powerful rendering of Shakespeare’s tragic love story. Originally created for his world-renowned Stuttgart Ballet, Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet is one of The Joffrey’s most romantic and sumptuous productions, capturing every vivid detail – from its regal masked ball to the harsh clang of mortal swordplay. It will be performed by The Joffrey Ballet February 15 through February 26, 2006.

The 2005-2006 season will culminate with Cool Vibrations, showcasing three exciting works set to contemporary music: Deuce Coupe (1973) a program which revolutionized the way the world viewed ballet, featuring choreography by Twyla Tharp and performed to the all-American music of The Beach Boys with live graffiti artists on stage; the World Premiere of a new work by ballet’s “bad boy” Donald Byrd set to the music of Motown; and crowd favorite, Sometimes It Snows in April, from The Joffrey’s Billboards (1993), their full evening of ballet set to the music of Prince. In this work, Prince’s music and Laura Dean’s signature moves unite in a dazzling and elegant mix of pulsing rock and classical dance. Cool Vibrations will be performed April 26 through May 7, 2006.

The entire season will feature live orchestral accompaniment by the Chicago Sinfonietta under the baton of Joffrey Music Director Dr. Leslie B. Dunner. The Joffrey Ballet will perform in its home venue, the historic Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, in downtown Chicago at 50 E. Congress Parkway.

The three-program subscriptions, which include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Good Vibrations, start at $50, a “Golden” price. Subscriptions are on sale by mail (Joffrey Ballet Subscriptions, 70 E. Lake Street, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601); telephone (312-739-0120), fax (312-739-0119), or email [email protected]. Single tickets for the entire season and The Nutcracker, are priced from $15-$125 and are available at the Auditorium Theatre box office, Ticketmaster ticket centers, by telephone at 312.902-1500, or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

For more information on the 2005-2006 Joffrey Ballet Season, or to inquire about senior and children’s tickets, please call 312-739-0120 or visit www.joffrey.com.

The Joffrey Ballet extends special thanks to its 2005-2006 Season Sponsors, the Abbott Fund and Huron Consulting Group; A Midsummer Night’s Dream Program Sponsor, Chase; The Nutcracker Program Sponsors, Exelon, Proud Parent of ComEd, and Northern Trust, the Production Sponsor for Celebration, Romeo & Juliet, and Donald Byrd’s new work, the NIB Foundation; and the Production Sponsor for Sometimes it Snows in April, Sara Lee Foundation. Live music for the 2005-2006 Season is underwritten in part by The Joyce Foundation. The 2005-2006 Season is also supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council and the CityArts Program of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Special thanks to American Airlines, the Official Airline of The Joffrey Ballet.

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