Robert Joffrey

Robert Joffrey (Dec. 24, 1930 -Mar. 25, 1988) was an American dancer, teacher, producer, and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets. Of Afghan parentage, he was born in Seattle, Washington, and originally named Abdulla Jaffa Anver Bey Khan.

Joffrey studied ballet and modern dance in New York City and made his debut in 1949 with the French choreographer Roland Petit and his Ballets de Paris. From 1950 to 1955, he taught at the New York High School for the Performing Arts, where he staged his earliest ballets.

In 1954, he formed his own company, which premiered Le bal masqué (The Masked Ball, 1954; music by French composer Francis Poulenc) and Pierrot Lunaire (1955; music by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg). Joffrey's other works include Gamelan (1962) and Astarte (1967; to rock music with special lighting and motion-picture effects).

The Robert Joffrey Ballet began residence at the New York City Center in 1966. In 1982, it moved its principal activities to Los Angeles, California, and in 1995, it moved to Chicago, Illinois. Noted for its experimental repertoire, the company was called the "Joffrey Ballet of Chicago" after its move, but [has now returned to simply Joffrey Ballet. Besides Joffrey's {{Credit|works, its repertoire includes many works by Gerald Arpino (Joffrey's long-time co-director and now artistic director emeritus), and ballets commissioned by Joffrey from unproven choreographers, as well as works by such respected choreographers as George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp.

He died in 1988 of AIDS [1]

Biography

He began dancing at 9 as a remedy for asthma. I wanted to dance like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and studying ballet was the furthest thing from my mind, Mr. Joffrey told an interviewer in 1966. But after one tap lesson my teacher asked if I'd ever considered ballet. He started studying Russian character dancing, but went on to train with Mary Ann Wells, an influential Seattle teacher whom Mr. Joffrey cited as one of his greatest inspirations.

Early performances by touring companies left a lasting impression - among them a performance he saw at age 7 of The Green Table and, five years later, a performance by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo of Petrouchka, in which he performed as an extra. And he dreamed of directing his own company. I wanted to pick dancers and repertory, he said in 1976. I remember, when I was an 11-year-old ballet student in Seattle, making up a whole cast for 'Sleeping Beauty,' which I had never seen. Fonteyn, Ulanova and Chauvire were all in my cast. Toscanini was going to conduct. Crossed the Country Mr. Joffrey performed locally while still in his teens, presenting a solo recital of his own choreography at 18. That year, in 1948, he left for New York, where he studied at the School of American Ballet, which is affiliated with the City Ballet, and with Alexandra Fedorova.

He attended ballet performances, writing little reviews for himself. And he taught ballet, charging 75 cents a lesson in classes at a Brooklyn synagogue and at the Gramercy School of Music and Dance in Manhattan. In 1949, Mr. Joffrey was chosen to perform solo roles with Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris in New York.

He studied modern dance at the Gertrude Shurr-May O'Donnell studio, and danced as a soloist with Miss O'Donnell's company in 1953. He soon established a reputation as a teacher, serving on the faculties of the American Ballet Theater School and the High School of Performing Arts in the 1950's. Two ballets Mr. Joffrey choreographed for students at Performing Arts formed the nucleus of his first group's repertory. From 1957 to 1962, Mr. Joffrey was resident choreographer for the New York City Opera.

Mr. Joffrey formed his first group, the Robert Joffrey Ballet Concert, in 1954 with a performance at the 92d Street Y in New York City. In 1956, he formed the Robert Joffrey Ballet with Mr. Arpino, its chief choreographer. The company made its first tour that year, traveling in a borrowed car and performing 23 one-night stands in 11 states.

I felt there was a need for a small company to tour around the United States, Mr. Joffrey told an interviewer in 1971, adding that he had also intended to show people what dancing was about. He wanted, he later said, to have a company that happened out of America. Growth of Repertory

The little touring company had a repertory of four ballets by Mr. Joffrey. The ballets were performed by six dancers, drawn for the most part from the Joffrey Ballet School, formerly the American Ballet Center, which Mr. Joffrey founded in 1953 in New York. Today, the Joffrey Ballet has 42 dancers and a current repertory of 28 ballets.

A noted teacher, Mr. Joffrey put particular stress on ports de bras, or the carriage of the upper torso, and on body alignment. But in later years he concentrated on the direction of the company and choreoraphed and taught infrequently. His first major ballet, Persephone, was created in 1952. Two years later, Mr. Joffrey was invited to set that ballet and his 1954 Pas des Deesses, one of his most popular works, for the Ballet Rambert in London. When the English company took the latter ballet on tour, Mr. Joffrey became the first American choreographer whose work was performed in China.

Astarte, a mixed-media rock ballet created in 1967 to music by Crome Syrcus, put the company on the covers of Time and Life magazines. In the ballet, Mr. Joffrey made exotic - and erotic - use of the popular technology of the time, with a film of the ballet's two dancers projected on a billowing screen as the dancers moved sensuously before it.

More characteristic of Mr. Joffrey's style were Pas des Deesses, an evocation of four noted mid-19th-century ballerinas drawn from a ballet of the time by Jules Perrot, and Gamelan, a series of choreographic vignettes inspired by Japanese haiku and set to music by Lou Harrison. At the time of his death, he had created 15 ballets. He had long hoped to produce new versions of Cinderella and The Nutcracker. The latter had its New York premiere on Dec. 30 at City Center. Working Under Fire

Mr. Joffrey was a reserved, polite man with a passion for detail. Perhaps the most intent member of the Joffrey Ballet, he once continued to teach while the building in which he was working was on fire. But he also had a puckish sense of humor and an almost childlike sense of excitement. When a dancer told him the date of her birthday, he observed delightedly that she would be dancing three ballets on that night. An informed dance historian and noted collector of ballet memorabilia, he was first of all a fan. What have you seen lately that's good? he once exclaimed at the start of an interview.

He was an adviser and member of many arts councils and organizations, among them the dance section of the International Theater Institute, where he served as president with Yuri N. Grigorovich, director of the Bolshoi Ballet, from 1975 to his death. He was also a catalyst for the U.S.A. International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss. Mr. Joffrey won many honors, including the Dance Magazine Award, in 1964, the Capezio Award, in 1974, and the Handel Medallion of the City of New York, in 1981.

External Links

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Robert Joffrey  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Robert Joffrey"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.