The Joffrey Ballet

September 6, 2005. The Joffrey Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Season will open with a “dreamy” 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 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; 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; and an exciting re-staging of Joffrey Ballet co-Founder and Artistic Director Gerald Arpino’s Celebration, described as “folk dancing gone mad,” which will serve as the piece d’occasion. The Joffrey Ballet will present A Midsummer Night’s Dream in nine performances only, October 19 – 30, 2005, at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway.

For the third season, live orchestral accompaniment will be provided by the Chicago Sinfonietta (the official orchestra of The Joffrey Ballet), under the baton of The Joffrey’s Music Director and Principal Conductor, Dr. Leslie B. Dunner. Chase, the consumer and commercial banking business of JPMorgan Chase, is the sponsor of the Fall Program.

“To commemorate the opening of The Joffrey’s 50th Anniversary Season, I have selected the following ballets as they highlight aspects of the unique vision of The Joffrey repertoire,” said Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Gerald Arpino. “The Fall Program is a diverse evening of theatre, ranging in choreographic styles from the classical wit of England’s Sir Frederick Ashton to the contemporary qualities of Jiri Kylian. As a tribute to the season, I am reviving my ballet Celebration for the first time in 25 years.”

The Dream is Ashton’s Victorian-era rendering of the complete Shakespeare tale of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a comedy of love and mischief set in the magical woods of Victorian England to a spell-binding score by Felix Mendelssohn. The Dream tells the story of a quarrel between Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of Fairyland, the sprite Puck, and the bewildered mortals who wander into the forest and fall victim to a myriad of spells gone awry.

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Ashton, considered one of the three leading 20th century storytellers in ballet, alongside John Cranko and Sir Kenneth MacMillman, created this comic masterpiece in 1964 for two of his stars from The Royal Ballet: Antoinette Sibley and Sir Anthony Dowell. In 1973, The Joffrey Ballet became the first other company to perform The Dream and had the honor of having Sir Anthony dance his role with the company. The Dream was a turning point for The Joffrey as it was the most grand scale “classical” work the company had done to date. The Joffrey Ballet now boasts the largest repertoire of Ashton’s ballets in America and one of the largest outside of England. For this revival of The Dream, Sir Anthony will travel to Chicago to coach the company.

Of note, this presentation of The Dream will also serve as a tribute to the company’s co-Founder, Robert Joffrey, as the last time The Joffrey performed this glorious work was on the day of his passing in Chicago in 1988.

The second piece to be featured in the fall program, Czechoslovakian choreographer Jiri Kylian’s Return to a Strange Land, is set to four haunting pieces for solo piano by Leos Janacek and is a poetic mixture of ballet, modern dance and dream-like acrobatics. Return to a Strange Land was first created in 1975 as a tribute to Kylian’s mentor, the great choreographer and director of The Stuttgart Ballet, John Cranko, who had passed away suddenly during a company flight back to Germany from the United States. Kylian, then a dancer and budding choreographer with The Stuttgart, likened the company’s return home without Cranko to a “return to a strange land.” In 1980, with this performance, The Joffrey Ballet became the first American company to present the works of Kylian.

The Joffrey Ballet will close this program with a revival of Arpino’s rousing ballet, Celebration, originally created to commemorate the 25th Anniversary in 1981, and not seen since then. The work, which premiered in Chicago, is a delightful mix of classical ballet, Russian folk-dance and Arpino’s own dazzling, high-energy style. Dressed in Russian peasant inspired costumes by the famed designer Santo Loquasto, Celebration is set to a score by Dmitri Shostakovitch that has been specially arranged and orchestrated by Elliot Kaplan. Labeled “a folk-dance gone wild,” Celebration is joyful, exuberant and exciting dance as only Gerald Arpino can do.

The performance schedule for The Joffrey Ballet presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, October 19 – 30, 2005, is as follows: Wednesday, October 19, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 22, at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, October 23, at 2 p.m.; Friday, October 28, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 29, at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, October 30, at 2 p.m.

Tickets, priced from $15 to $125, are now on sale at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University box office, all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers, by telephone at (312) 902-1500, or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Groups of 10 or more should call (312) 386-8899. There will be special $15 college and graduate student “rush” tickets available an hour before curtain for any remaining tickets. Students will need to show a current ID.

The 50th Anniversary Season will continue with Chicagoland’s most popular family holiday entertainment, Robert Joffrey’s production of The Nutcracker, December 14 – 28, 2005; John Cranko’s spell-binding staging of Romeo and Juliet, February 15 – February 26, 2006; and Cool Vibrations, showcasing three exciting works set to contemporary music: Deuce Coupe (1973) featuring choreography by Twyla Tharp with music by The Beach Boys, the World Premiere of a new work by Donald Byrd set to Motown hits, and crowd favorite, Laura Dean’s Sometimes It Snows in April, from The Joffrey’s Billboards (1993), its full evening of ballet set to the music of Prince, April 26 – May 7, 2006.

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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.

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.

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