Immediately, the Joffrey Ballet is amongst the ten largest and most financially sturdy firms within the U.S., and really a lot related to its dwelling metropolis of Chicago. However many younger dancers might not know a lot about its founder, Robert Joffrey, the corporate’s lengthy tenure in New York Metropolis, or its vital and influential position in dance historical past.
Now by March 1, 2025, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division on the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Middle is internet hosting “The Joffrey + Ballet within the U.S.,” a large-scale exhibit showcasing the 68-year-old firm’s archive. Curated by Dr. Julia Foulkes, with help from Nicole Duffy, the exhibit provides an enriching, multimedia immersion in The Joffrey Ballet and its place within the American dance panorama.
In 1956, Robert Joffrey and his good friend, Gerald Arpino—who would turn out to be the corporate’s resident choreographer and inventive director after Joffrey’s dying—co-founded a scrappy touring troupe of six dancers. Their mission: to increase who ballet was for. The exhibition walks us by these early years, with letters, pictures, and movies of early works, like Joffrey’s Pas de Déesses. (Arpino’s battered touring trunk looms massive in the direction of the doorway.)
It additionally reveals how the corporate, because it grew after which settled in New York Metropolis, embraced the Sixties counterculture zeitgeist—of specific be aware, Joffrey’s groundbreaking, psychedelic rock ballet, Astarte. One room options 5 movies of the ballet projected onto completely different partitions. This edginess began to outline the corporate’s commissions, from Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe to Arpino’s Mild Rain. The Joffrey was additionally the primary American firm to stage works by Jiří Kylián and William Forsythe.
On the similar time, Robert Joffrey sought to revive misplaced and infrequently seen works—most notably Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 Ceremony of Spring, a painstaking reconstruction led by historians Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer. Her correspondence with Joffrey and rehearsal breakdown line the gallery partitions, together with costumes and blown-up pictures of her typed-out notes and illustrations. Likewise, the exhibit contains the American Supervisor costume from Leonid Massine’s 1917 Parade, designed by Pablo Picasso, and masks from Kurt Jooss’ 1932 antiwar ballet, The Inexperienced Desk.
This various repertoire meant that Joffrey wanted dancers with extraordinary vary—one thing now anticipated at firms worldwide. Foulkes emphasizes his “all stars, no stars” philosophy to casting, in addition to the corporate’s decades-long wrestle to outlive financially in New York Metropolis earlier than resettling in Chicago. One massive gallery reveals how they embraced every thing to remain afloat, from nonstop touring to a second dwelling in Los Angeles, business ventures, and collaborations with pop stars (together with the 1993 hit Billboards, with music by Prince).
By means of uncommon movies, posters, costumes, and correspondence, “The Joffrey + Ballet within the U.S.”provides a treasure trove for dance historical past buffs. However for these much less acquainted with The Joffrey Ballet’s impression on American dance, this exhibit illustrates the way it was an organization forward of its time.
