The Joffrey Ballet

September 5, 2006 – The Joffrey Ballet continues its two-season 50th Anniversary Celebration with the company premiere of Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, widely considered one of the greatest ballets of this timeless fairy tale. With this production, The Joffrey becomes the first American dance company to receive the rights to the Ashton classic. The rags-to-riches story will come to life in a dazzling full-evening ballet set to Sergei Prokofiev’s brilliant score, composed specifically for the work. The Joffrey Ballet will present Cinderella in nine performances only, October 4 – 15, 2006, at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway.

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, Chicago’s largest bank, is the program sponsor for Cinderella.

“Having The Joffrey Ballet present this production of Cinderella was a longtime dream of Robert Joffrey’s, and so we pay tribute to him this season – the second year of our two-year 50th Anniversary Celebration,” said Gerald Arpino, Joffrey Ballet Co-Founder and Artistic Director. “Cinderella is the first brand new, full-length story ballet we have mounted since The Nutcracker premiered in 1987, so this is truly a landmark event.”

The classic story ballet Cinderella, performed in three acts in just over two hours, follows the title character as she grows from a sad, young woman into a beautiful princess with the help of her Fairy Godmother. After receiving gifts from the Fairies of the Four Seasons, she is whisked away in a coach to meet her handsome prince at the ball. With a cast of 50 dancers, over 20 children from local ballet schools, breathtaking costumes and sets with a working “coach” all designed by David Walker and acquired in mint condition from the Dutch National Ballet, this $1 million presentation of Cinderella becomes The Joffrey Ballet’s most sizeable production to date.

Cinderella, Ashton’s first full-length story ballet, premiered at England’s Sadler’s Wells Ballet (now The Royal Ballet) in December 1948. He originally staged the role of Cinderella for famed ballerina Margot Fonteyn, but due to an injury to Fonteyn, it was performed by Moira Shearer, the star of the motion picture, “The Red Shoes.” Ashton went on to create other masterpieces such as Sylvia (1952), Ondine (1958), and The Dream (1964), and is now considered one of the three leading 20th century storytellers in ballet, alongside John Cranko and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Robert Joffrey was so committed to Ashton’s work that at one time The Joffrey Ballet had amassed the largest Ashton repertoire outside of his home company, The Royal Ballet.

Former Joffrey dancers, Gary Chryst and Christian Holder, will return as special guest artists for this production in the roles of Cinderella’s overbearing Ugly Stepsisters. Sir Frederick Ashton created the characters to be danced by men in drag in the style of classic English pantomime and originated one of the roles himself in the very first production.

“Robert Joffrey originally envisioned Gary and Christian for these roles and we are delighted to have them return and help bring his dream to fruition,” said Arpino. “In doing so, we also pay homage to all the dancers of this company – past and present – who have helped to make The Joffrey Ballet great.”

Gary Chryst was a dancer with The Joffrey Ballet from 1968 to 1979, after which he became a distinguished member of Jiri Kylian’s Nederlands Dans Theater 3 (1993-98), and appeared on Broadway in productions such as Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line and as the lead in Bob Fosse’s Dancin. For seven years, he has re-staged the choreography for the revival of the musical, Chicago, around the world. Chryst has also created the choreography for the 2001 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific and staged productions of the Michael Fokine masterpiece, Petrouchka, for American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada in 2006.

Christian Holder enjoyed a successful career as a dancer with The Joffrey Ballet from 1966 to 1979, where he worked with choreographers Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, Kurt Jooss and Leonide Massine. He has since choreographed and designed costumes for The Joffrey, Washington Ballet, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Ballet Théâtre de Bordeaux, Ballet du Capitole, San Francisco Opera, Atlanta Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre, as well as for ballerinas Martine van Hamel and Valentina Kozlova, and the legendary Ann Reinking and Tina Turner.

For the Joffrey production of Cinderella, Ashton’s choreography is being staged by Wendy Ellis Somes, a former dancer with The Royal Ballet and widow of The Royal Ballet’s former Assistant Director (and Cinderella’s original “Prince”) Michael Somes. After retiring from The Royal Ballet in 1990 she worked closely with her husband, staging and producing Ashton’s Symphonic Variations and Cinderella, while also gaining a comprehensive understanding and practical experience of staging ballets in the Ashton style. She now owns the intellectual rights to Symphonic Variations and Cinderella and is regarded as an important link in passing down the Ashton tradition, staging these ballets in Tokyo, Sweden, New York and Amsterdam. Assisting with the staging of the production will be Christopher Carr, Rehearsal Director and Senior Ballet Master for the Royal Ballet Company. Carr recently staged Ashton’s The Dream with Sir Anthony Dowell for The Joffrey in the Fall of 2005.

Performance Schedule and Pricing for Cinderella

The performance schedule for The Joffrey Ballet presentation of Cinderella, October 4 – 15, 2006, is as follows: Wednesday, October 4 at 7:30 p.m., Fridays, October 6 & 13, at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays, October 7 & 14, at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, October 8 & 15, at 2 p.m.

Single tickets, priced from $25 to $130, are currently 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 $20 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 8-27, 2006; Destiny’s Dances: Groundbreaking Ballets from the 20th Century, featuring a trio of masterpieces that revolutionized the dance world, February 14 – February 25, 2007; and Light Rain, a crowd-pleasing, mixed-repertory program featuring six cutting-edge works from The Joffrey’s extensive repertoire, April 25 – May 6, 2007.

Three-program subscriptions, which include Cinderella, Destiny’s Dances, and Light Rain, start at $50, and are available online at www.joffrey.com, by mail (Joffrey Ballet Subscriptions, 70 E. Lake Street, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601); telephone (312) 386-8905, fax (312-739-0119), or email [email protected].

The Joffrey Ballet extends special thanks to its 2006-2007 Season Sponsors, Huron Consulting Group and the Abbott Fund; Cinderella Program Sponsor, Chase; the Production Sponsor for Cinderella, Chicago Community Trust and the NIB Foundation; The Nutcracker Program Sponsor, Exelon, Proud Parent of ComEd; and Light Rain Program Sponsor Sidney L. Port. Live music for the 2006-2007 Season, provided by The Chicago Sinfonietta, is underwritten in part by The Joyce Foundation, the Julius Frankel Foundation, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation, and Burton and Anne Kaplan. The 2006-2007 Season is also supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the CityArts Program of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The Joffrey Ballet is also supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to American Airlines, the Official Airline of The Joffrey Ballet.

For more information on the 50th Anniversary Joffrey Ballet Season please call 312-739-0120 or visit www.joffrey.com.

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