The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago returns to perform in Los Angeles, it's previous home, with the choreography of it's cofounder Gerald Arpino.
Ballet started in Italy in
the Renaissance. In the 15th century, Italians wanted "dinner ballets"
so the original ballet was made longer and more lavish to last through
the feasting. In these ballets, there would be interludes called "entries"(hence
"entrée). These dances were so closely linked with the banquet, they represented
the dishes being served.
More on the History of Ballet
at end.
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DANCE
JOFFREY
BALLET: HIS LIFE IS NOT HIS NAMESAKE
Gerald
Arpino and his dance company, formed in 1956 with the late Robert Joffrey,
are happy and thriving in Chicago.
Los
Angeles Times
By
Diane Haithman
Times
Staff Writer
June
22, 2003
Gerald Arpino, artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, smiles when asked to compare his highly theatrical style of choreography— and, indeed, of being —to that of the late Robert Joffrey, who died in 1988.
"He was the classical one. I was the revolutionary," muses Arpino, 75, as though recalling the family dynamics of two close siblings instead of the intense creative and personal partnership that led to the founding of the Joffrey Ballet in 1956.
Joffrey did not live to see two revolutionary changes in the life of the company that bears his name. One was its painful ouster in 1991, due to financial difficulties, as the resident company of the Los Angeles Music Center, ending the New York troupe's enviable bicoastal status. The second was the Joffrey Ballet's reinvention in 1995 as the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago...
The Joffrey will return for four days' worth of performances, beginning Thursday, with an all-Arpino program, including the choreographer's new ballet about capital punishment, "I/DNA," and another program of ballets created for the early 20th century impresario Sergei Diaghilev, among them the reconstruction of "Le Sacre du Printemps"...The original ballet caused a riot when it premiered in Paris in 1913.
(The Joffrey).. is the "company" in the coming Robert Altman film "The Company," an inside look at the ballet world starring Neve Campbell as a dancer on the verge of becoming a star. James Franco portrays Campbell's non-dancer boyfriend, and Malcolm McDowell plays the Arpino character.
Embraced by the Windy City
The Joffrey has other reasons to be in good spirits. Despite what Arpino describes as some initial fears on the part of Chicago's dance companies that it would present competition in the funding arena, Gail Kalver, executive director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, says the Joffrey has instead raised the bar on donations to dance....
...the Chicago arts climate allowed the Joffrey to put down roots in a way that always seemed to elude the company in Los Angeles. "Chicago is a tighter community, focusing on the arts, not just entertainment," ... "We don't have the movie industry. And this is a big testing ground for Broadway, a big preview town. It's fertile ground to set up shop."...
Arpino borrowed the subject matter for his "I/DNA" from his new surroundings — specifically, Illinois Gov. George Ryan's Jan. 11 decision, just three days before he left office, to commute the sentences of all 167 people on death row, most to life imprisonment. The ballet premiered in Chicago in April...
The blend of strictness and compassion in the rehearsal room seems a microcosm of the dichotomy that is Gerald Arpino — a survivor of 47 years of extreme highs and painful lows for the dance company that has routinely been mentioned third on the list of American ballet's Big Three, after New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
The highs have included becoming the American ballet company of the tumultuous 1960s with its productions of Kurt Jooss' 1932 antiwar ballet, "The Green Table"; Arpino's antinuclear ballet, "The Clowns" (1968); his rock ballet "Trinity" (1970); and Joffrey's 1967 multimedia "Astarte," a pop left turn for the choreographer that propelled the company onto the cover of Time.
"I look at many dance companies now, and so many of them are doing Joffrey-type programming, those kinds of re-creations and new works," observes Carole Valleskey, a Joffrey dancer from 1976 to 1991. She stayed in L.A. after the company lost its residency and is now director of the in-school education program California Dance Institute. "Almost every choreographer from Twyla Tharp to Mark Morris to Billy Forsythe did their first ballet pieces for the Joffrey, and now they are kind of accepted as ballet's great choreographers."
Transition and fund-raising
The company's lows included not only the death of Joffrey but an internal creative power struggle that led Arpino to briefly resign as artistic director in 1990, taking his ballets with him, and the loss of the residency in Los Angeles,... before the Joffrey finally found its new base.
Now housed in cramped temporary digs where passing El trains rattle the teeth, the 34-dancer troupe is launching a $50-million capital campaign...
In a conversation rattled by those El trains the day after the Tony Awards ceremony in New York, Arpino expresses consternation at having watched choreographer Twyla Tharp win a Tony for the Broadway musical "Movin' Out," a dance extravaganza set to the music of Billy Joel.
He points out that his 1993 production "Billboards," to the music of Prince, had a similar concept and that discussions once took place about taking it to Broadway.
"That was really my Tony," he says gently.
Then, in virtually the same breath, he declares that there is no room for resentment in ballet — or, in fact, the world. Whether it's losing a Tony, or a residency in Los Angeles, he is determined to see the positive.
He still considers himself a "flower child," rooted in the values of the 1960s."The '60s were the most lush, creative time, when we took over the world with art," he reminisces dreamily.
After Joffrey's death, Arpino never wanted to rename the company the Arpino Ballet. "We had good stock, and you hold on to the blue chips, honey!" he says....
Having made the successful move to Chicago, Arpino also accepts that the company will eventually need to embark on another new beginning — with a different artistic director. But on one condition: A new leader must preserve what was put in place by Joffrey and Arpino.
"I think the legacy will be that there will be a top person, but much more of a director than a choreographer," he says. "The person must have a knowledge of the repertory and come in wanting to preserve the company's style for what it is — that is, all styles and no style."
Someone with aspirations to become a signature choreographer, Arpino warns, "would ruin the Joffrey." Then he adds, with the inscrutable mix of humor and seriousness that is Mr. A: "There will never be another me."
*
Joffrey
Ballet of Chicago at Los Angeles, June 26-29
When:
Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; next Sunday, 2 and
7:30 p.m.
Joffrey
Ballet: His life if not his namesake
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/printedition/calendar/la-ca-haithman22jun22,1,4224449.story?coll=la-headlines-calendar
====================================================
Ballet
and Modern Dance
The Beginning of Ballet
Ballet is thought to have started in Italy in the Renaissance. Dancing played a huge part in the rivalry of families. Every noble man and woman was a skilled dancer and if they were not, the other family would be more powerful. As dance progressed, music was added and lavish floats and decorations were made to enhance the set. By the 1400’s, dancing masters were publishing books about the ever growing art. The earliest known of these books is by Domenico de Piacenza and is called "De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi" (The Art of Dancing and Conducting Dances). In it, he describes the basic elements of dance and the dances he arranged. In the brief history of dance in his book, he made the first distinction between a danza and a ballo. It was not a difference in technique or step but in music. A danza held a uniform rhythm throughout while a ballo had varied rhythms. By this time, courtiers were also involved in the dance and the danse á deux or pas de deux was very popular.
In the 15th century, Italians wanted "dinner ballets" so the original ballet was made longer and more lavish to last through the feasting. In these ballets, there would be interludes called "entries". These dances were so closely linked with the banquet, they represented the dishes being served. To this day, the word entrée represents a dish being served between the fish and the meat that was when the interludes were danced. Soon after dinner ballets were popular in Italy, France and other European courts discovered them as well. Travel, although not as fast as today, was widespread and travelers’ tales were always exciting. The Italians led the way through the beginning of dance but also through the theater. Entertainment of any kind was important to the royalty but also to everyone as a large part of their lives. Before the spotlight was shifted from Italy to France, two more important books were written. They were Il Ballerino (1581) by Fabritio Caroso and Nuove Inventioni be Balli (1604) by Cesare Negri. In these books are records of further advances in technique and more complicated use of rhythms and music.
This
period in time marks the start of romantic ballet and provided the basis
for many other types of dance such as modern, jazz, social and swing
Ballet
and Modern Dance
http://www.expage.com/danceessay