Talk:Joffrey Ballet

old talk
Removing urgent attention tag?? I've wikified it, I hope everything is okay. Any feedback on this talk page would be great, thanks!

Sedonaarizona 05:06, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

This article reads like a company publicity piece. It says nothing about the company's various crises (its split from patron Rebekah Harkness, the reasons for its move to Chicago). Some of this was covered in obituaries after Gerald Arpino's death on October 29, 2008. Wbkelley (talk) 05:40, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

The reference link cited in the first section (added on July 18, to http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/NPR2008/10/71767.html ), as a reference to the claim that the company is "one of the foremost ballet companies in the world", is a terrible source to cite. It's some kind of aggregator that eventually and obliquely refers to the NPR obituary by Neda Ulaby that ran in 2008, but is not available on the NPR website. I'd remove it, but I'm hoping that at some point it will serve as a reminder that that obituary exists somewhere and it will eventually become available. In the meantime, I'd like to see if there's any support for the "Foremost" claim elsewhere from a more reliable (web) source. --Byslexic (talk) 20:44, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

The redirect page is somewhat misleading—the Joffrey Ballet School is a dance school in New York City, founded by Robert Joffrey but now a totally distinct entity from the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Joffrey Ballet School should have its own entry. Ahelfant (talk) 16:55, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Would you like to start it? Byslexic (talk) 16:19, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

100.4.64.191 text
The Joffrey Ballet has been hailed as “America’s Company of Firsts.” The Joffrey Ballet’s long list of “firsts” includes being the first dance company to perform at the White House at Jacqueline Kennedy’s invitation, the first to appear on television, the first classical dance company to go multi-media, the first to commission a rock ‘n’ roll ballet, the first and only dance company to appear on the cover of Time magazine, and the first company to have had a major motion picture based on it, Robert Altman’s The Company.

For more than a half-century, The Joffrey Ballet’s commitment to taking world-class, artistically vibrant work to a broad and varied audience has created a solid foundation that continues to support the company’s unprecedented capacity for achieving important “firsts.” Today, the Joffrey, which has been hugely successful in its former residences in New York and Los Angeles, lives permanently in its brilliant new facility, Joffrey Tower, in the heart of America, Chicago, Illinois. The company’s commitment to accessibility is met through an extensive touring schedule, an innovative and highly effective education program including the much lauded Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, and collaborations with myriad other visual and performing arts organizations.

Classically trained to the highest standards, The Joffrey Ballet expresses a unique, inclusive perspective on dance, proudly reflecting the diversity of America with its company and audiences and repertoire which includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces and contemporary works. Founded by visionary teacher Robert Joffrey in 1956, guided by celebrated choreographer Gerald Arpino from 1988 until 2007, The Joffrey Ballet continues to thrive under internationally renowned Artistic Director Ashley Wheater. The Joffrey Ballet has become one of the most revered and recognizable arts organizations in America and one of the top dance companies in the world. -- 21:57, 22 July 2014 100.4.64.191

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Category
Category "1956 establishments in Illinois" could be considered a little strange, since it wasn't founded in Illinois... AnonMoos (talk) 10:18, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

Reorganization
I have a friend (a new editor) who would like to make some changes to this article, and was looking for advice on how to do it. I personally know almost nothing about ballet and (in particular) about the Joffrey Ballet, but I still have opinions. It seems the prose in the "History" section, the "Popular culture" subsection, "Reconstructing The Rite of Spring" subsection, and the "Activities" sections should be merged. The whole article should mostly be a history of the Joffrey Ballet, and should be a bit more chronological, with (roughly) chronologically ordered sections underneath:


 * 1) Early years (perhaps the "Harkness years"; 1956 to 1964)
 * 2) Residency at New York City Center (1965 to 1995)
 * 3) Expansion to and retreat from Los Angeles (1982 to 1995)
 * 4) The Chicago years (1995 to present)

Please don't literally use these titles, since they're awful titles. Hopefully, someone who understands the historical eras of the Joffrey Ballet can help come up with better titles, and perhaps provide some better-informed nuance to my proposed outline. -- RobLa (talk) 06:51, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I would say that as long as they know something about writing and about citing for any new material they bring, they should feel free to take a shot at it, just so long as they won't be offended if some of their changes may either be reverted or further modified. My one concrete suggestion is that if they are removing anything substantive from the article, they should bring that up overtly on the talk page. - Jmabel &#124; Talk 01:05, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

Some intriguing material about summer 1967
As I was going through Wikimedia Commons' archive of the Seattle underground newspaper Helix I ran across an intriguing ad for an August 1967 performance at Seattle's Eagles Auditorium featuring the "City Center Joffrey Experimental Ballet", several rock bands, and a light show. Needless to say, I was at first suspicious, but it was totally real. The Joffrey had a summer residency at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) in Tacoma, Washington, culminating in a series of performances in Seattle and Tacoma. This was the first of the series: a 20-minute piece in which Seattle band Crome Syrcus (who surely deserve an article) performed their own arrangement of the music of Teo Macero ("Opus 65"). The piece was performed at least three more times in a more conventional ballet venue at PLU. This must have been one of the first times that a ballet company collaborated with a rock band, though I don't have any citation for that. There is more than sufficient citation for the residency and for this performance in various issues of the Seattle Times that summer, notably Wayne Johnson, "Opus 65. Joffrey Ballet Swings at Show", Seattle Times, August 3, 1967, p. 35.

I would think something about this probably belongs in the article; I have no idea how much, though, and I'm really focused on the Helix archive right now. If anyone wants to work on this and lacks access to the Seattle Times archive, I can probably arrange to get you access: it's online at the Seattle Public Library, and they are pretty generous about giving access to people with a legitimate research need. - Jmabel &#124; Talk 01:20, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

More on this: this was expanded into a piece called Astarte, which was performed in New York and apparently other places, as described in File:Helix, v.2, no.3, Oct. 17, 1967 - DPLA - 13e713d22d8ae6a464d0cc180ec17617 (page 10).jpg. - Jmabel &#124; Talk 01:04, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

I see we have an article Astarte (ballet), so I'll continue there. I still suspect this should figure in the main article here. - Jmabel &#124; Talk 01:06, 29 January 2024 (UTC)