Remembrances

Pas de deux

Kaori Nakamura and Jeffrey Stanton in
Remembrances. Photo © Angela Sterling

Seattle native Robert Joffrey began studying tap dancing but soon turned to ballet and studied with Mary Ann Wells at her Seattle school. Joffrey went on to enjoy international fame as a choreographer and as founder and director of the Joffrey Ballet, now the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. He was known as an innovative choreographer of modern works balanced by his love of ballet history that manifested itself in revivals of many works, particularly repertoire from the Diaghilev era.

Remembrances is a ballet about looking back. As a woman sings her recollections of past love, a woman who remembers remains at her side to watch and reach toward a danced re-enactment of the past. Remembrances was shaped by the death of beloveds. Contained within the work are Joffrey’s impressions from childhood—of his parents and of his relationship to Mary Ann Wells and her husband, A. Forest King—and a reflection on the place of women in his life, both maternal and romantic.

Recommended Listening:
Jane Eaglen - Four Last Songs, Wesendonck-Lieder, Seven Early Songs, London Symphony Orchestra/Donald Runnicles, Sony 61720

Recommended Reading:
The Joffrey Ballet : Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company, By Sasha Anawalt (University of Chicago Press, 1998)

Notes by Doug Fullington.