Gerald Arpino (January 14, 1923 – October 29, 2008) was an American dancer and choreographer. He was the co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet and succeeded Robert Joffrey as its artistic director in 1988.

Life and career

Born on

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, 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 Regimes, 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 cust ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

. Arpino first met Robert Joffrey at Wells's school. He studied

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes 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 ...

with May O'Donnell 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 Robert Joffrey 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 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 film producer, producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and sat ...

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.

Choreography for The Joffrey Ballet

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

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored d ...

*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 in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, second movement of Piano Concerto in G. Alternate music by Michael Colgrass, 1963 (due to copyright problems with Ravel). *Incubus (1962) Music by

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

*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, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...

*Olympics (1966) Music by Toshiro Mayuzumi *Nightwings (1966) Music by John LaMontaine *Arcs and Angels (1967) Music by William Laws *Cello Concerto (1967) Music by

*Elegy (1967) Music by Andrzej Panufnik *Secret Places (1968) Music by

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

*The Clowns (1968) Music by Hershy Kay *A Light Fantastic (1968) Music by B. Britten *Fanfarita (1968) Music by Ruperto Chapi y Lorente *Animus (1969) Music by Jacob Druckman *The Poppet (1969) Music by Hans Werner Henze *Confetti (1970) Music by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...

*Solarwind (1970) Music by Jacob Druckman *Trinity (1970) Music by Alan Raph and Lee Holdridge *Reflections (1971) Music by

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

*Valentine (1971) Music by Jacob Druckman *Kettentanz (1971) Music by Johann Strauss and Johann Simon Mayr *Chabriesque (1972) Music by Emmanuel Chabrier *Sacred Grove on Mount Tamalpais (1972) Music by Alan Raph *Jackpot (1972) Music by Jacob Druckman *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 as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Folk music, folk music during the Romantic music, Romantic period. He wr ...

*Orpheus Times Light (1976) Music by José Serebrier *Touch Me (1977) Music by Rev. James Cleveland *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 post ...

*Suite Saint-Saëns (1978) Music by

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 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 ...

*Choura (1978) Music by Riccardo Drigo *Epode (1979) Music by Dmitri Shostakovich *Celebration (1980) Music by Dmitri Shostakovich *Diverdissemente (1980) Music by

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

*Light Rain (1981) Music by Douglas Adams and Russ Gauthier *Round of Angels (1983) Music by

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

*Quarter Tones for Mr. B. (1983) Music by Teo Macero *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 Teo Macero *Birthday Variations (1986) Music by

*Anniversary Pas de Deux (1986) Music by Victor Herbert *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

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 ballet choreographers People from Staten Island 1923 births 2008 deaths Musicians from New York City 20th-century American ballet dancers