PHILLY'S MVP TAKES A FINAL BOW.

JEFFREY GRIBLER SAYS FAREWELL TO TWO DECADES AS THE FACE OF BALLET IN PHILADELPHIA

Stepping out of the spotlight after almost a lifetime onstage can't be easy, but Pennsylvania Ballet principal dancer Jeffrey Gribler is equal to the challenge. Gribler has been enjoying a yearlong performing farewell to his company and the city where his mega-watt smile has been the face of ballet for two decades. He laughs off the age factor: "I'm still hanging strong at 43 years old."

Beginning his dancing career at age 7 and studying for ten years at the Schwartz School of the Dance, he performed for six years with the Dayton Ballet in Ohio. Gribler then trained as an apprentice with Pennsylvania Ballet in 1975, joined the corps de ballet in 1976, and became principal dancer in 1982. During that time he has danced close to 150 roles, from which he has created a gallery of character parts that has left an indelible memory on Philadelphia balletgoers. Critics and audiences adore him there.

As the longstanding MVP of the company, he even stepped in as emergency artistic director during an administrative crisis in the early 1990s. Then last summer, just before touring with Kevin O'Day and fellow PB dancers in Germany and going into the studio to choreograph a new work, Philadelphia's favorite dancing son announced his retirement from dancing. At summer's end, he will stay on as full-time ballet master, a position he has held since 1986.

"A part of me doesn't feel that I'm ready to stop dancing; I'm just ready to stop the everyday demands. I think [Natalia] Makarova said something like, `at the very moment your mind matures enough to be a great dancer, your body is ready to give up.' Bodies are different now. I was looking through my files and found an interview in 1985, and in it I said, `Well, I'll be pretty happy and lucky if I can dance in five years.'"

Gribler's enduring muscular grace and technical abilities have remained in top form, even after three knee surgeries. After landing "rock hard" on the stage of the Academy of Music in performance, he destroyed the cartilage in one of his knees. "My first knee operation was in 1989, the second one in '91, and then the right knee again in '96. But they have been great. My therapy totally worked. My knees are not really a factor; they don't bother me. I never stop anyway if I'm ever in pain, although the little pains take longer now to go away. Of course, my other job keeps me right at the heart of things. I love being ballet master. It's nice to have a built-in place to go. I turn down outside teaching work all the time. Now I can do that more, since I'll be able to get away easier."

Roy Kaiser, PB's artistic director for the last nine years (and a former company member), characterized Gribler's tenure as being "extraordinary; the company and our audiences are extremely fortunate to have been able to enjoy his performances for so many years. He has danced brilliantly for so long and has such a range. He is a true Philadelphia treasure."

Principal dancer Dede Barfield has danced with him since 1984 in such works as Arden Court and Tschaikovsky Suite No. 2. She says, "Jeffrey is so musical always. He gives his partner so much onstage in terms of emotions, performing and giving to an audience. He is also very accurate, but if you have a slip-up, he's right there with you, in the moment."

Early on, Gribler had turned down an offer from the Joffrey Ballet because he feared he would be typecast as "the blond boy who smiles." Not so at Pennsylvania Ballet. The artistic director during the 1980s, Ricky Weiss, started to cast Gribler in roles with more dimension. From Albrecht to Mercutio to the Prodigal Son, to principal roles in Taylor's Company B and Forsythe's Steptext, over the years Gribler has tackled every style.

But he has trouble picking his favorite roles. "Puck, I adore. The Peruvian in Gaite Parisienne. Stepsisters in Cinderella. I think that character roles have been my strong point as a dancer, qualities that I hope are in everything, but especially in character roles. But I have to say [Lar Lubovitch's] Concerto 622 is my favorite in almost twenty-six years. It's a beautiful ballet. The whole thing is fun to dance. The second-movement adagio is a gift to me as a dancer. It speaks to me every time. The entire work is a big, gorgeous, fun piece of choreography. I think Lar is a lot like Mr. Balanchine as far as musicality goes, how it is so intertwined. And wedged in the middle is this pas de deux that in its own way has become a classic. It touches everyone who sees it and it's an honor to be responsible for that."

In February, for PB's Repertory Favorites, Gribler restaged 622 and danced it with David Krensing in every performance of the run, to roaring audience appreciation. Of his dual role, Gribler remarked, "I've learned to dance with one eye in the mirror and one eye on directing."

Longtime fellow principal Krensing said, "Even though I know personally Jeff is ready to retire, it's going to be rough for him and the company. Any time a dancer with that much experience and stage presence bows out, it will be a great loss. Everybody learns from him. Of course, dancing 622 will never be the same for me. Fortunately, he will continue as ballet master, so we get a big upside."

Last fall, choreographer Gribler premiered Songs Without Words, set to the music of the same name by Felix Mendelssohn, for PB's program of modern works. At the dress rehearsal Gribler suffered the butterflies of a creator, not of a performer, and was visibly relieved when he bowed to a standing ovation on its opening night. The work received mixed notices from the critics.

"I don't know how innovative it was for the rest of the world, but it's innovative for me. I never wanted to be a choreographer at all. I fell into it as a lark when we were starting the Shut Up and Dance benefit concerts for MANNA [Metropolitan AIDS Neighborhood Nutritional Alliance].... I never thought about choreographing as a career until recently. Once I did Cricket Dances [well reviewed in its 1998 premiere and 2000 revival], I realized that this was for me. I enjoyed the process enormously." In recent years, Gribler has branched out by dancing and creating works for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Disaster almost struck at the beginning of the season when Gribler was temporarily sidelined with Achilles tendinitis, just before the company was set to perform at the Balanchine Celebration in Washington, D.C. "I danced [at the] Kennedy Center, then it got worse, so I missed some opening programs. I thought I might miss the whole year," he says. But by the time he was preparing, for the eighth time, to direct "my kids," as he calls them, in The Nutcracker, he was back in force. Gribler shepherded the troupe of sixteen pre-pubescents from the Rock School of Ballet (the official school of Pennsylvania Ballet) with an older brother's concern and guidance. "I love doing this," he acknowledges. He was also getting ready to dance principal roles in the company's four remaining programs. In the spring he was ballet master for the company premiere of John Cranko's Taming of the Shrew. "I'm also playing Gremio [one of Bianca's suitors]," he laughs, "so nothing's changed." His last performance will be Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, perhaps his signature character role.

"I have a lot of feelings about retiring and I'm not going to pretend that they are not mixed. I have my sentimental days when all I do is cry about it," he says, throwing his head back in laughter. "Most importantly, I'm very happy about the decision. Roy always said to me, `You'll know when it's time. If you don't know for sure, don't do it.' I almost did it last year for what would have been the wrong reasons.... I was restless and didn't want to do the same old thing, and I was very unhappy; it would have been a terrible time to make that decision. As it turned out, I let that ride and I had a great year. Then I found out what great roles I would have this year; I knew it was the perfect time to leave. And I have my other passions: cooking, gardening, and season tickets to the Philadelphia Phillies."

"I think the company is stronger and better than it has ever been. Sometimes it's hard being on staff [as ballet master] and being a dancer.... They are still my peers and there's no question that, especially with the principals, it can be uncomfortable. I'm not pretending that the switch is going to be all magic, that the first day in the studio not as a dancer is going to be easy. It's going to take a while."

Lewis Whittington writes about dance, theater, media and politics. His articles and poetry have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Stagebill, Voice, Harvard Review Worldwide, and The Advocate.