The Joffrey comes home: Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.

On January 22, 1957, the Robert Joffrey Theatre Dancers, which had trundled into Chicago in a station wagon and U-Haul, presented four ballets by Joffrey, making its local debut in the tradition-drenched Eighth Street Theater where Tamara Karsavina and Adolph Bolm had danced. In the audience that night was the twenty-six-year-old Joffrey, seeing for the first time the company that he had been supporting by teaching in New York City. The group of dancers was on a tour of twenty-three one-night stands that started in Frostburg, Maryland, on October 2, 1956. Chicago was the first big city the company had appeared in. The engagement in the 2,400-seat theater, a benefit for a medical organization, had been arranged by a Chicagoan whose daughter, Dianne Consoer, was in the group. The leading dancer in three of the four ballets was Gerald Arpino, Joffrey's partner in the enterprise.

During the next four decades the company--personnel, repertoire, and scale of presentation--grew to the size of a major ballet company. Its name eventually simplified to Joffrey Ballet, the company toured all over America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Offices were in New York City; home was the road.

It was in Chicago, after a 1964 performance at Arie Crown Theater, that Joffrey broke the news to his company that it had to disband. He had just returned from New York City where his patroness, Rebekah Harkness, had insisted that the company be called the Harkness Ballet. Joffrey had refused to do so, and because many of the dancers and a large part of the repertoire were contracted to the Harkness organization, he and Arpino could no longer direct them. It was typical of Joffrey that he not only paid the dancers' transportation costs to a party given after the performance but also did not break the bad news to them until the following day.

Sans dancers, sans much of the repertoire, and sans the patron, Joffrey and Arpino spent the next year rebuilding. A few of their dancers, such as Paul Sutherland and Lisa Bradley, were available and loyal. Recruited from their New York City school was a talented group that included Trinette Singleton, Luis Fuente, and Robert Blankshine. New ballets, especially by Arpino, who was turning them out as needed, were created and rehearsed. There was a trial preview in Central Park in the summer of 1965, but the official premiere of the Joffrey Ballet, with new repertoire and personnel, was a one-week engagement in November 1965 at Chicago's Harper Theater. That rehabbed vaudeville house was the scene of a six-week dance festival dreamed up by Bruce and Judy Sagan, chiefly out of a concern for the economics of American dance. (Bruce Sagan's interest in the Joffrey has continued through the years; he was active in the negotiations that led to the 1995 move to Chicago, and he is vice president of the current board of directors.)

At the Harper Theater Festival the virtually new company unveiled an exciting repertoire--Contrasts by Norman Walker; Incubus, Viva Vivaldi, and Sea Shadow by Arpino; and Joffrey's own classic, Pas des Deesses. Viva Vivaldi, a stylish piece with a competition between the virtuosi Fuente and Blankshine for its finale, became the company's signature ballet. Also prominent in the roster of thirty dancers were Charthel Arthur, Lisa Bradley, Zelma Bustillo, Susan Magno, Noel Mason, Marjorie Mussman, Margo Sappington, Michael Uthoff, Nels Jorgensen, Ian Horvath, and Richard Gain. There was such national interest in the reconstituted Joffrey Ballet that Clive Barnes came to Chicago to cover it for The New York Times. He praised it, and many bookings followed.

In the following years the Joffrey Ballet danced all over the world, building a unique two-lane repertoire that reflected Joffrey's interest in past glories and Arpino's sympathies with contemporary youth. On one track there were meticulous revivals of twentieth-century masterpieces--Petrouchka, Le Beau Danube, Le Tricorne, Parade, and Le Sacre du Printemps. On the other track were Arpino's choreographic proclivities--Trinity, Clowns, Kettentanz, Light Rain. The Joffrey also acquired ballets by Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Anna Sokolow, Frederick Ashton, and John Cranko. Initiating what later became standard for all ballet companies, there was the crossover to modern dance choreography with Jooss's The Green Table in 1967. Paul Taylor's Arden Court and commissioned works by Twyla Tharp and Laura Dean would follow.

All along Arpino kept creating--Olympics, Suite Saint-Saens, Italian Suite, Reflections, Secret Places, Round of Angels. Joffrey scored a major success with his multimedia Astarte (1967). Talented dancers were developed: Rebecca Wright, Francesca Corkle, Ann Marie DeAngelo, Patricia Miller, Denise Jackson, Christian Holder, Gary Chryst, Russell Sultzbach, Dermot Burke, Kevin McKenzie, and Dennis Wayne, among so many others.

The Joffrey was recognized as a major American arts manifestation, and, while it danced all over the world, its Chicago connections increased. Joffrey met noted teacher Edna McRae there; when she gave up her school, she became teacher and coach to the Joffrey Ballet. From 1968 there were annual two-week engagements in the 3,600-seat Auditorium Theater, where an extensive repertoire that included important premieres was presented. Beginning in 1972, in addition to the winter season in the auditorium, the company danced annually for one week at Ravinia Park in suburban Chicago, scene of the prestigious summer music festival.

During those years Joffrey and Chicago enjoyed further relationships. There were educational outreach events as well as varied social events, from posh postperformance dinners at expensive hotels to a benefit party initiated by the theater's coatroom ladies and attended by the entire company. One fabulous party in a North Side bakery climaxed with the invitation to "raid the bakery." After Arpino was reported to have described the Confetti costumes as worn out, a committee was formed to raise funds for new ones.

The feeling grew that the company belonged in the auditorium, belonged at Ravinia. The directors were referred to as "Bob" and "Jerry," and they could be seen in many parts of town attending exhibits and performances in storefront theaters. They were approachable, and they showed real interest in arts events of every kind.

Several Chicagoans were on the Joffrey board of directors, notably Ruth Levy, who with her husband, Charles, commissioned several Arpino ballets, including Celebration, Italian Suite, and Drums, Dreams and Banjos. Barbara Kipper, their daughter, joined the Joffrey board upon her parents' death; her husband, Dr. David Kipper, is president of the current board.

When the auditorium was not available for several years, the Joffrey Ballet danced in the Civic Opera House under the auspices of the Civic Performing Arts, an organization founded and administered by the late arts-oriented Dino D'Angelo. His wife, Becky, a civic-minded mover and shaker on her own, commissioned Arpino to create a ballet as a birthday present for her husband. The resultant Birthday Variations to Verdi remains a charming item in the repertoire.

From the beginnings of their careers, Joffrey and Arpino worked in tandem. The partnership of Joffrey from Seattle and Arpino from Staten Island came about because their mothers were girlhood friends in Italy. Arpino had joined the Coast Guard after graduation from high school, and when his unit was in Seattle, he followed his mother's instructions to look up her friend there who had married a man from Afghanistan named Joffrey. Their son, Robert, who spent most of his time in a dance studio, enticed Arpino to take lessons, and soon Arpino was hooked on dance. He resigned from the Coast Guard to put all his time and energy into classes with Seattle's well-known teacher, Mary Ann Wells.

In due time Joffrey and Arpino went to New York City. They studied some more and danced in the modern dance group of May O'Donnell. Subsequently Joffrey spent some months in Europe as the first American member of Roland Petit's company. Arpino continued to study ballet and modern dance intensively and appeared in musicals.

About his career Arpino says, "It was not planned. It just happened. I didn't dream of being a dancer, but when I found myself taking classes, I couldn't dance enough. I was absorbed in being a dancer. When we founded the company, however, as the company needed new works, I began to choreograph, and it was so interesting I stopped performing and made ballet after ballet. As associate director of the company, I was happy to let Bob take care of the administrative affairs while I made ballets."

After Joffrey's death in 1988, Arpino found himself sole artistic director and with many problems. He took up the reins, and after a rocky beginning, he is successfully leading the company, virtually leading it to Chicago."Artistically the move was no great wrench," Arpino admits, "but there are regrets when leaving behind years of personal living in my apartment on New York's MacDougal Street. However, there are compensations. I am in awe of the physical Chicago--the lake, the architecture, the many arts facilities."

When asked what pleases him most in Chicago, he answers with a beaming smile: "Maggie Daley and Lois Weisberg."

Maggie Daley, the charming wife of Mayor Richard M. Daley, is very much involved in the Chicago arts scene. She has voiced her welcome of Arpino and the Joffrey to the city and has attended several events in their honor. Lois Weisberg, the Chicago Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, has given official recognition to the presence of the Joffrey and has created occasions for appearances of Joffrey dancers in the beautiful Chicago Cultural Center.

Commenting on his position in the company and his future plans, Arpino says, "I may be somewhat new as the sole artistic director, but after all, I've been with the company and very much in communication with Bob since the company began, so it's not like a person coming to the company from the outside. Of course, I will continue our main policies, including revivals of twentieth-century masterpieces. I undertook the successful revival of Massine's Les Presages, and at some future date I'd like to present a revival of his Choreartium, to Brahms's Fourth Symphony. However, I am also aware that to be alive means constant changes, and the Joffrey will continue to be in the forefront with new ideas."

The Joffrey dancers were welcomed to Chicago at a number of festive events and were initiated into the city's cultural offerings. There was the official reception at the opening of the new quarters. An informal welcome to the new town was the party hosted by the Kippers, who took over a popular restaurant and its menu for a friendly evening. One morning the Art Institute of Chicago opened its doors before regular hours to give the company a conducted tour of the popular and oversold Monet exhibit, to which none but reserved ticket holders had access. The dancers were also presented with season passes to the Museum of Contemporary Art. An enjoyable excursion was an architectural tour of famous landmarks, followed by a boat ride to view the Chicago skyline from the shores of Lake Michigan. The entire company met board members and longtime Joffrey friends at a buffet supper hosted by board member Patricia Gerber at her estate in suburban Lake Forest.

Homer Bryant, former soloist with Dance Theatre of Harlem, now teaching in Chicago and directing his Rap Ballet, hosted a welcome party at the historic Three Arts Club with representatives of the dance community, including the Chicago Dance Coalition, in attendance bringing welcoming messages.

The Joffrey made no formal stage appearances until its big hit, Billboards, which had been premiered at nearby Iowa City in 1993, played for eight highly successful performances in February in the new Rosemont Theatre on the outskirts of town. The dancers' arrival in early October was not unheralded, however; the hotel in which a number of them were temporarily staying greeted them with an electric sign, "Welcome Joffrey Ballet." The daily press noted and photographed Joffrey dancers teaching students at local schools. Principals of the company performed excerpts of the company's Nutcracker for a standing-room crowd that braved a blizzard to see them at the Chicago Cultural Center. And in January a large audience attending the Ruth Page Dance Series at Northeastern Illinois University cheered a couple of Joffrey apprentices in the Black Swan Pas de Deux.

The local dance community with its gestures of hospitality is taking the presence of Joffrey Ballet of Chicago in its stride, but to the general public and officialdom it is the awesome reaction, "Hey, we've got something special in our midst." In a summary of the old year, a New Year's Day article in the Chicago Tribune named Arpino one of the twenty leaders who had most affected the cultural life of the city in 1995. He was an honoree at the prestigious annual gala of the Chicago Academy for the Arts and cited specifically for his contribution to dance.

Harriet Ross, long active in Chicago dance projects, is in charge of an innovative outreach program the Joffrey is conducting in Chicago schools. She explains the plan: "The program offers dance classes for middle-school youngsters, classes designed not to train the youngsters as dancers, but to make them cognizant and appreciative of the act of dancing, so that in the future they will feel familiar with dance. This program is based on the rationale behind the popularity of sports. Most sports fans played baseball, football, or basketball. They understand the games and buy tickets to see experts play. Our dance classes, hopefully, will produce audiences similar to those at sports. They will want to see expert dance because they understand and appreciate what is onstage."

The official debut season of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago is scheduled for the Shubert Theatre, from May 22 to June 2, part of the city's Spring Festival of Dance. At this writing the schedules were incomplete, but Arpino offered hints: "I am now putting together four different mixed programs. Among the ballets there will be the premiere of a piece by Mehmet Sander, a young choreographer of Turkish background, currently based in California. He is creating Inner Space, a work concerned with spatial patterns and danced without music. Another new work is White Widow by Cynthia Quinn and Moses Pendleton. Chicagoan Randy Duncan, whose TriFling was a success last season, will contribute his Initiations. In rehearsal are La Vivandiere, Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, and Nuestros Valses, Vicente Nebrada's popular piece; also my Round of Angels, Light Rain, Suite Saint-Saens. Jooss's The Green Table and my Kettentanz are slated for next season."

Among yesterday's star dancers now important in the new setup are associate director Ann Marie DeAngelo, ballet mistress Cameron Basden, and ballet master Luis Fuente. The Joffrey's current contingent of thirty dancers includes a number who are remembered for their excellence--Beatriz Rodriguez, Deborah Dawn, Julie Janus, Kim Sagami, Tyler Walters, Adam Sklute, Pierre Lockett, David Paul Kierce, and Calvin Kitten.

The roster includes eight newcomers, all with distinguished backgrounds. There is Meridith Benson, former principal with Ballet Chicago, literally Chicago's prima ballerina. Cuban-trained competition medalist Lorena Feijoo was recently a principal with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, and Diane Garcia-Daganzo was a soloist with Fuente's Spanish company and later a member of Joffrey II.

Tomi Paasonen of Finland was a soloist with John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet; Guoping Wang was a principal with Shanghai Ballet and recently a principal with Ballet Chicago. Steve Beirens, lately a demisoloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, has danced with companies in Zurich and Leipzig. Guillermo Leyva and Roberto Machado were principals with Fernando Alonso's excellent Ballet de Camaguey.

Former stars Tom Mossbrucker, Daniel Baudendistel, Jodie Gates, and Meg Gurin will join the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago for special engagements throughout the coming season.