Gerald Arpino (January 14, 1923 – October 29, 2008) was an American dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

. He was co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet and succeeded

Robert Joffrey Robert Joffrey (December 24, 1930 – March 25, 1988) was an American dancer, teacher, producer, choreographer, and co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets. He was born Anver Bey Abdullah Jaffa Khan in Se ...

as its artistic director in 1988.

Life and career

Born on

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

, Gerald Arpino studied

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

with Mary Ann Wells, while stationed with the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. Arpino first met

at Wells's school. He studied

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

with

May O'Donnell May O'Donnell (May 1, 1906 – February 1, 2004) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Born in Sacramento, California, May O'Donnell studied dance in San Francisco with Estelle Reed and performed in Reed's company before moving to New ...

in whose company he appeared in the 1950s. In 1956, Arpino was a founding member of the Robert Joffrey Theatre Ballet with Robert Joffrey. He served as co-director of the company's school, the American Ballet Center, and was the leading dancer until an injury forced him to stop in 1963. By 1965 he had choreographed five works for the company, and became the Joffrey's co-director and resident choreographer. In the first twenty-five years of the company's existence, Arpino had created more than a third of all its commissioned ballets. After the death of

in 1988, Arpino became the Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet and in 1995 moved the company to Chicago. In July 2007, he was named "Artistic Director Emeritus" as a search for a successor began. Arpino suffered from prostate cancer for seven months and eventually died on October 29, 2008.

Malcolm McDowell Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised in ...

plays a character loosely based on Arpino in the

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...

film ''The Company'', which had the participation of the Joffrey Ballet. In 2014 Arpino was inducted into the

Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame (formerly Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame) is an institution founded in 1991 to honor persons and entities who have made significant contributions to the quality of life or well-being of the LGBT community in Chic ...

Choreography for The Joffrey Ballet

*Partita for 4 (1961) Music by Vittorio Reiti *Ropes (1961) Music by

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*Sea Shadow (1961) Music by

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, second movement of Piano Concerto in G. Alternate music by

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, 1963 (due to copyright problems with Ravel). *Incubus (1962) Music by

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

*The Palace (1963) Music by Rebekah Harkness *Viva Vivaldi! (1965) Music by

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...

*Olympics (1966) Music by

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*Nightwings (1966) Music by John LaMontaine *Arcs and Angels (1967) Music by

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*Cello Concerto (1967) Music by

*Elegy (1967) Music by

Andrzej Panufnik Sir Andrzej Panufnik (24 September 1914 – 27 October 1991) was a Poles, Polish composer and conductor. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw ...

*Secret Places (1968) Music by

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*The Clowns (1968) Music by

Hershy Kay Hershy Kay (November 17, 1919 – December 2, 1981) was an American composer, arranger, and orchestrator. He is most noteworthy for the orchestrations of several Broadway shows, and for the ballets he arranged for George Balanchine's New York City ...

*A Light Fantastic (1968) Music by B. Britten *Fanfarita (1968) Music by

Ruperto Chapi y Lorente Ruperto is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * José Ruperto Monagas (1831–1880), elected President of Venezuela 1869–1870 * Ruperto Alaura, Cebuano writer * Ruperto Biete (1906–1929), Spanish boxer *Ruperto Chap� ...

*Animus (1969) Music by

Jacob Druckman Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1 ...

*The Poppet (1969) Music by

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as t ...

*Confetti (1970) Music by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

*Solarwind (1970) Music by

*Trinity (1970) Music by

Alan Raph Alan Raph (born July 3, 1933, in New York City ) is a bass trombonist, composer, arranger, and conductor who founded and conducts the Danbury Brass Band. He has recorded with many popular musicians and for television, movies, and ballet. He was ...

and

Lee Holdridge Lee Elwood Holdridge (born March 3, 1944) is a Haitian-born American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. A 18-time Emmy Award nominee, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and one ...

*Reflections (1971) Music by

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

*Valentine (1971) Music by

*Kettentanz (1971) Music by

Johann Strauss Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ove ...

and

Johann Simon Mayr Johann(es) Simon Mayr (also spelled Majer, Mayer, Maier), also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr (14 June 1763 – 2 December 1845), was a German composer. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the ...

*Chabriesque (1972) Music by

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*Sacred Grove on Mount Tamalpais (1972) Music by

*Jackpot (1972) Music by

*The Relativity of Icarus (1974) Music by Gerhard Samuel *Drums, Dreams and Banjos (1975) Music by

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

*Orpheus Times Light (1976) Music by

José Serebrier José Serebrier (born 3 December 1938) is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He is one of the most recorded conductors of his generation. Early life Serebrier was born in Montevideo to Russian and Polish parents of Jewish extraction. He fi ...

*Touch Me (1977) Music by Rev.

James Cleveland James Edward Cleveland (December 5, 1931 – February 9, 1991) was an American gospel singer, musician, and composer. Known as the King of Gospel, Cleveland was a driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound by incorporating trad ...

*L'Air D'Esprit (1978) Music by

Adolphe Adam Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and '' Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas ''Le pos ...

*Suite Saint-Saëns (1978) Music by

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

*Choura (1978) Music by

Riccardo Drigo Riccardo Eugenio Drigo ( ru. Риккардо Эудженьо Дриго) (30 June 18461 October 1930) was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian opera, a theatrical conductor, and a pianist. Drigo is most noted for his long career ...

*Epode (1979) Music by

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*Celebration (1980) Music by

*Diverdissemente (1980) Music by

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*Light Rain (1981) Music by

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and Russ Gauthier *Round of Angels (1983) Music by

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*Quarter Tones for Mr. B. (1983) Music by

Teo Macero Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' ''Bitches Brew'', and Dave ...

*Italian Suite (1983) Music by

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Ermanno Wolf) (January 12, 1876 – January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as '' Il segreto di Susanna'' (1909). A number of his works were based on plays by ...

*Jamboree (1984) Music by

*Birthday Variations (1986) Music by

*Anniversary Pas de Deux (1986) Music by

Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is be ...

*Waltz of the Flowers (The Nutcracker) (1987) Music by

*The Land of Snow (The Nutcracker) (1987) Music by

*The Pantages and the Palace Present "Two-A-Day" (1989) Music by Rebekah Harkness and E. Kaplan *I/DNA (2003) Music by

*Ruth: Ricordi Per Due (2004) Music by

Tomaso Albinoni Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas. While famous in his day as an opera comp ...

References

*Chujoy, Anatole. ''The Dance Encyclopedia''. (Simon and Schuster, 1967) *Doeser, Linda. ''Ballet and Dance: The World's Major Companies,'' 1977. *Whitney, Mary. ''Joffrey Ballet XXV: Celebrating 25 Years of the Joffrey Ballet from A to Z'' (Steelograph Co. Inc., 1981). 64 pages. *

Notes

External links

The Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey Foundation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arpino, Gerald American male ballet dancers American choreographers Ballet choreographers People from Staten Island 1923 births 2008 deaths Musicians from New York City 20th-century American ballet dancers