New York Public Library’s Joffrey Ballet Exhibit Shows a Company Ahead of Its Time

Amy Brandt, Pointe Magazine

September 30, 2024

Today, the Joffrey Ballet is among the 10 largest and most financially robust companies in the U.S., and very much associated with its home city of Chicago. But many young dancers may not know much about its founder, Robert Joffrey, the company’s long tenure in New York City, or its important and influential role in dance history.

Now through March 1, 2025, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center is hosting “The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S.,” a large-scale exhibit showcasing the 68-year-old company’s archive. Curated by Dr. Julia Foulkes, with assistance from Nicole Duffy, the exhibit offers an enriching, multimedia immersion in The Joffrey Ballet and its place in the American dance landscape.

In 1956, Robert Joffrey and his friend, Gerald Arpino—who would become the company’s resident choreographer and artistic director after Joffrey’s death—co-founded a scrappy touring troupe of six dancers. Their mission: to expand who ballet was for. The exhibition walks us through these early years, with letters, photographs, and videos of early works, like Joffrey’s Pas de Déesses. (Arpino’s battered traveling trunk looms large towards the entrance.)

It also shows how the company, as it grew and then settled in New York City, embraced the 1960s counterculture zeitgeist—of particular note, Joffrey’s groundbreaking, psychedelic rock ballet, Astarte. One room features five videos of the ballet projected onto different walls. This edginess started to define the company’s commissions, from Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe to Arpino’s Light Rain. The Joffrey was also the first American company to stage works by Jiří Kylián and William Forsythe.

At the same time, Robert Joffrey sought to revive lost and rarely seen works—most notably Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 Rite of Spring, a painstaking reconstruction led by historian Millicent Hodson. Her correspondence with Joffrey and rehearsal breakdown line the gallery walls, along with costumes and blown-up images of her typed-out notes and illustrations. Likewise, the exhibit includes the American Manager costume from Leonid Massine’s 1917 Parade, designed by Pablo Picasso, and masks from Kurt Jooss’ 1932 antiwar ballet, The Green Table.

This diverse repertoire meant that Joffrey needed dancers with extraordinary range—something now expected at companies worldwide. Foulkes emphasizes his “all stars, no stars” philosophy to casting, as well as the company’s decades-long struggle to survive financially in New York City before resettling in Chicago. One large gallery shows how they embraced everything to stay afloat, from nonstop touring to a second home in Los Angeles, commercial ventures, and collaborations with pop stars (including the 1993 hit Billboards, with music by Prince).

Through rare films, posters, costumes, and correspondence, “The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S.”offers a treasure trove for dance history buffs. But for those less familiar with The Joffrey Ballet’s impact on American dance, this exhibit illustrates how it was a company ahead of its time.