15 Facts About Joffrey Ballet

1. Joffrey Ballet launched its first Chicago capital campaign on March 7, 2007.

2. Robert Joffrey Ballet passed away in 1988 leaving Gerald Arpino to carry on the legacy of the company.

3. Joffrey Ballet opens with a prologue at the train station in St Petersburg.

4. Robert Joffrey Ballet died in 1988 and, after severe financial crises in New York, the company reorganized and under Arpino's direction made its permanent home in Chicago in 1995.

5. Joffrey Ballet created Rememberances in 1973, Beautiful Dreamer in 1975, and Postcards in 1980.

6. Joffrey Ballet performed Pas des Deesses and Persephone while exhibiting there.

7. Joffrey Ballet had attracted enough media and dance world attention to become the first American choreographer invited to stage his works for the prestigious Ballet Lambert in England.

8. Joffrey Ballet accomplished all this besides his already heavy teaching load.

9. Joffrey Ballet used his skills as a teacher to produce his first ballet.

10. At the age of 12, Joffrey Ballet began serious study of dance under the auspices of Mary Ann Wells.

11. Joffrey Ballet performed as a soloist in the troupe, Miss O'Donnell's, during the 1953 season of "American Dance" at the Alvin Theater in New York.

12. The Joffrey Ballet is committed to providing arts education and accessible dance training through its Joffrey Academy of Dance and Community Engagement programs.

13. In fall 1987 the Joffrey Ballet premiered a reconstructed version of Igor Stravinsky's seminal ballet The Rite of Spring in the city of Los Angeles.

14. Joffrey Ballet appeared in the motion picture Save the Last Dance, when the two protagonists of the story saw the company perform Sea Shadow and Les Presages in Chicago.

15. Joffrey Ballet started again, building up a new company that made its debut in 1965 as the Joffrey Ballet.