Remembering Robert Joffrey (& Company)

<p> The Ballet Russes inspired Robert Joffrey, but by the time he founded the Joffrey Ballet with Gerald Arpino in 1956, he was determined to infuse an American vocabulary into the grammar of classic Russian dance. Arpino, whom he introduced to ballet, became his lover as well as his dancer, his most prolific choreographer and his successor as artistic director after his death from AIDS in 1988. </p> <p>Writer-director Bob Hercules' documentary <em>Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance</em> (out on DVD) is a lovingly detailed account of a remarkable life. The son of an Afghan immigrant, Joffrey towered over the New York art world from the '50s through the '80s and was a Johnny Appleseed who sowed modern dance across the U.S. on early tours by station wagon and over the world on State Department sponsorship. Joffrey and Arpino embraced productions that were exuberant and extraordinary, and if Arpino ventured into thin if crowd pleasing material in the '80s, for Joffrey it was axiomatic that “classical ballet should be the center, not the circumference,” of his work. </p> <p><em>Mavericks</em> is compiled from contemporary and vintage interviews as well as archival footage of concerts and rehearsals. </p>