Announcing

Celebrated Works in the Spotlight
Throughout ’22-23 and ’23-24 Seasons
Culminating September ’23 at Chicago’s
Auditorium Theatre

To honor the 100th birthday of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces a multi-year Centennial Celebration of the late choreographer’s life and works. Ballet companies and university dance programs around the country will perform Arpino’s works during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. The culminating Chicago Centennial Celebration performances take place September 23 and 24 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive.

Arpino was a visionary dancer and choreographer who, along with Robert Joffrey, created a ballet company and a body of work that has made a singular and enduring impact on American ballet. Throughout his 50-year career, Arpino created nearly 50 ballets for The Joffrey Ballet. From landmark works like Trinity and Round of Angels to Suite Saint-Saëns and Light Rain, Arpino was a masterful artist and entertainer whose work brought audiences to their feet time and again.

The Foundation is providing ballet companies nationwide with special licensing agreements to broaden and deepen the celebration at their home performance locations during the coming two seasons. The Foundation will offer lectures and workshops on Arpino’s life and work, in conjunction with some companies and universities. Among those participating to date are:

• Ballet Arkansas (Arkansas)
• Ballet West (Utah)
• Brigham Young University (Utah)
• Complexions Contemporary Ballet (New York)
• Dayton Ballet (Ohio)
• Diablo Ballet (California)
• Eugene Ballet (Oregon)
• Fort Wayne Ballet (Indiana)
• Joffrey Academy of Dance (Illinois
• The Joffrey Ballet (Illinois)
• Kenneth Walker Dance Project (California)
• Madison Ballet (Wisconsin)
• New York Dance Project New York)
• Oklahoma City Ballet (Oklahoma)
• Verb Ballets (Ohio)

Updates will be available on the Foundation’s website, arpinofoundation.org. All programming is subject to change.

Donate

Paypal and The Gerald Arpino Foundation make it easy and convenient to support the works of these extraordinary men. By clicking on the ‘donate’ button, a Paypal window will open up and will allow you to give at your own convenience. Please show your support to The Gerald Arpino Foundation today! Paypal accepts all major credit cards.

Confetti staged during Covid-19

Ballet Ensemble of Texas                                                         Cathy Vanover photography

Our first staging done on Zoom! What a team effort by all.  First ,we thank Ballet Ensemble of Texas artistic directors, Lisa Slagle and Thom Clower for being brave enough to endeavor into the unknown.  Second, a big thank you to repetiteur Charthel Arthur for her patience and determination to stage the ballet via Zoom.  And thirdly to the young and brilliant dancers who took all the information and transformed it into reality!  We’re excited for the ballet to be performed on Jan 17, 2021 at Coppell Arts Center with a limited and socially distanced audience.  It will also be presented at YAGP this spring.

Light Rain by Three Companies

photo credit: Nevada Ballet Theatre dancers in rehearsal

photo credit: St. Louis Ballet dancers in rehearsal

Gerald Arpino’s Light Rain will be performed simultaneously the weekend of Feb 16-17, 2019 with three different dance companies.  St. Louis Ballet and Nevada Ballet Theatre will present the iconic pas de deux in their mixed repertory program.  Butler Ballet/Butler University will present the ballet in its entirety utilizing a cast of fourteen dancers.  Gerald Arpino created this ballet to showcase the new young dancers of the company. “It is my gift to these talented youngsters…I am inspired by their modes and rituals, their passions.”  Middle Eastern rhythms fused together with an unusual combination of banjo, violin, mandolin, bass, drums and bamboo flute give Light Rain its distinctive mesmerizing and hypnotic sound.

Trinity revival at Dayton Ballet

photo credit: Charthel Arthur Estner, repetiteur for the Gerald Arpino Foundation rehearses Dayton Ballet dancers as Dermot Burke, former Artistic Director/former Joffrey Ballet dancer looks on.

photo credit: Dayton Ballet dancers in Trinity

Gerald Arpino’s Trinity makes its revival with Dayton Ballet’s Perspective program on Feb 14-17, 2019.  Considered culturally ahead of its time, Trinity is a ballet choreographed by the late Gerald Arpino, co-founder and former artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet. While the Vietnam War was raging, America’s youth united in protests and celebrations with a new sense of freedom and exhilaration. The word “trinity” in this work represents three sentiments prevalent in the culture of the late ’60’s and early ’70’s: love, power, and peace. Trinity became the most famous of the Arpino pieces called the Berkeley ballets. Created during the Joffrey’s residence at the University of California at Berkeley, Trinity is a joyful tribute to youth, their passions and rituals.