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

Of Afghan parentage, Joffrey was born in Seattle, Washington, and originally named Abdulla Jaffa Anver Bey Khan. He was the only child of a loveless marriage between a Pakhtun Afghani father and an Italian mother. His parents owned a restaurant.

Joffrey began dancing at 9 as a remedy for asthma. As Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire were the rave of the day, young Joffrey believed that tap dancing would be his road to fame. Yet, after one tap lesson his teacher asked if he'd ever considered ballet. So, after a spell in Russian character dancing, he went on to train in ballet with Mary Ann Wells, an influential Seattle teacher who would become on of Joffrey's greatest inspirations.

As a small, sickly child, with bowed legs and turned in feet, Joffrey had to wear casts on his feet to strengthen his frame while training in ballet. Yet, his shortcomings never hindered him from his dreams of directing his own company. “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,” he said in a New York Times article.

When he was sixteen, Joffrey met twenty-two-year-old Gerald Arpino, then serving in the Coast Guard. Arpino moved into the Joffrey home. From then on, the two were inseparable. They were best friends, artistic collaborators and much more.

In 1948, Joffrey left for New York, where he studied at the School of American Ballet and with Alexandra Fedorova, ??? It was in New York that he began teaching ballet, charging 75 cents a lesson in classes at a Brooklyn synagogue and at the Gramercy School of Music and Dance in Manhattan. He made his solo debut in 1949 with the French choreographer Roland Petit and his Ballets de Paris.

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 the School 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.

His first major ballet, Persephone, was created in 1952.

Two years later, he formed his own company with Arpino, naming him chief choreographer. The company premiered Le bal masqué (The Masked Ball, 1954; music by French composer Francis Poulenc) and Pierrot Lunaire (1955; music by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg). In 1954, Joffrey was invited to set Persephone 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, Joffrey became the first American choreographer whose work was performed in China.

Joffrey's other notable works include Gamelan (1962) and Astarte (1967)— ballets performed to rock music with special lighting and motion-picture effects. This was a novel movement, as most ballets were choreographed to classical scores. He wanted, he later said, to have a company that happened out of America.

A noted teacher, Joffrey put particular stress on ports de bras, or the carriage of the upper torso, and on body alignment. But, wanting to concentrate on the direction of the company, he decreasingly choreoraphed and taught less and less in the later years.

Mr. Joffrey was a reserved, polite man with a passion for detail. At the time of his death, he had created 15 ballets.

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. he 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.

The Joffrey Ballet Company became popular throughout the United States and abroad. Sometimes criticized for its commercialism, the company made ballet accessible to a large and diverse audience, including people who were not already devotees of the form. The Joffrey's repertoire contained no overt homosexuality, but there was a great deal of covert homoeroticismhomoeroticism as a retinue of gorgeous, bare-chested, late adolescent dancers unfailingly delighted the gay male audience. Although Arpino has repeatedly denied the presence of homoeroticism in his work, his 1966 all-male ballet, Olympics, a tribute to athletics, featured a suggestive pas de deux. During one curious phase, the men's costumes featured a distracting athletic cup, shaped rather like half a large grapefruit. The cup effectively covered the natural shape of the genitals—previously clearly seen, especially under white or light colored tights—but gave the impression of a giant tumor. Joffrey produced less choreography as he devoted himself to shaping his company. Arpino became the house choreographer, while Joffrey synthesized his own creative aesthetic with the Diaghilev legacy of nurturing the talents of others. Joffrey was sexually promiscuous but discreet. His pattern was to have Arpino at home for domestic stability, one principal romantic attachment, and numerous one-night stands.

He died in 1988 of AIDS [1]

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