Looking at old concert programs is like rummaging through the attic. If you look at Blossom Music Center programs from, say 1979, you’ll find a lot of acts besides the Cleveland Orchestra that have weathered the years well — from Pete Seeger to Joni Mitchell to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. You’ll find others, like Shaun Cassidy, who seem as dated as the cut and color of old clothes.
You’ll also find evidence of other guests long absent from the
Blossom stage, even though their talent and reputation have never gone
out of style. Take the Joffrey Ballet, which last performed with the
Cleveland Orchestra at their summer home in ’79. Three decades later
and 25 years after any major ballet company has performed there, the
Joffrey is returning to Blossom.
As big a deal as that is artistically, it’s at least as remarkable
economically. At a time when — as Clevelanders well know —
ballet companies are buckling under financial pressures, few dance
companies can afford to perform with live music at all. Yet, here’s one
teaming up with one of the world’s greatest orchestras.
But finances weren’t always as tight as they are now, and ballet at
Blossom wasn’t always so unusual. Ever since Blossom’s 1968 opening,
the Cleveland Orchestra invited major international dance companies to
perform during annual “ballet weeks.” The Vienna State Opera Ballet
performed in 1971 as part of its first U.S. tour. The New York City
Ballet, the National Ballet of Washington, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the
San Francisco Ballet and the Houston Ballet all took the stage with the
Cleveland Orchestra in the pit. The tradition ended in 1984, the year
Christoph von Dohnányi became music director.
“It has been some time,” says the orchestra’s general manager Gary
Ginstling. “But that history also shows that these kinds of endeavors
are in the DNA of the institution. As the orchestra has been plotting
its future, we’ve been increasingly looking to things like residencies
in Miami, Vienna and Lucerne, and high-profile projects like producing
staged opera in Severance Hall.”
Performing with ballet companies is another way to expand both its
artistic range and its audience. The orchestra enlisted DanceCleveland
as a partner in the presentation — mostly, says Dance Cleveland
executive director Pam Young, because of the company’s expertise and
relationships with major dance companies.
The Blossom Festival program isn’t planned as far ahead as Severance
Hall’s, but the Joffrey appearance came together with unusual
speed.
Ginstling says the performance was catalyzed by a one-night benefit
performance with the Miami City Ballet during the Orchestra’s Miami
residency this year. The $1,000-a-seat event launched a three-year
partnership between the institutions, including plans to commission new
work and an invitation to the ballet to perform at Blossom. The Blossom
visit didn’t work out this year, though Ginstling says the orchestra
would still like to see that happen. But, on very short notice, they
were able to book the Joffrey. Not a bad fallback.
Launched as a small touring company by Robert Joffrey in 1956, the
Joffrey has been based in New York, Los Angeles and, currently,
Chicago. Ashley Wheater — a former dancer recruited to the
company by Joffrey and choreographer Gerald Arpino — took over
from Arpino as artistic director in 2007.
They’ll bring to Cleveland works that sample a range of the
company’s repertoire. They include Arpino’s “Kettentanz,” with music by
Johann Strauss and Johann Mayer; Tomm Ruud’s “Mobile,” which has music
by Aram Khachaturian; Paul Taylor’s “Cloven Kingdom,” featuring music
by Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Cowell and Malloy Miller; Arpino’s “Round
of Angels,” with music by Gustav Mahler; and Christopher Wheeldon’s
“Carousel (a Dance),” based on the Richard Rodgers musical score. The
orchestra’s assistant conductor Tito Muñoz will conduct.
Ginstling says the orchestra is exploring possibilities for more
such programming in the future.
“We’ve had discussions with a number of companies that are taking
note and are interested, but nothing specific yet,” he says. “We’re
really interested in putting on the kind of season that attracts the
broadest possible audience. We want to bring an audience that has an
affinity for ballet.”
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2009.
I believe you are mistaken when you write :”The New York City Ballet . . . took the stage with the Cleveland Orchestra in the pit.” For many, many years, the New York City Ballet, by contractual obligation, has performed only with the New York City Ballet Orchestra in the pit for all performance in North America.