In the five years since the Joffrey Ballet left New York to seek better financial fortune in Chicago, its dancers have maintained a world-class reputation despite having to rehearse in a series of rickety and inadequate studios.
Now the troupe finally has a building it can call home in its adopted city.
City officials Wednesday joined the Joffrey in announcing plans for a $24 million renovation of a Loop building as the ballet’s new permanent headquarters.
Boosted by $4 million in city funds and Commonwealth Edison Co.’s donation of the $4 million building, the move cements the company’s already strong relationship with Chicago. It also comes at a time when dance is undergoing something of a renaissance in a city better known for football than for fancy footwork.
“There is undeniably a momentum around dance in Chicago. A lot of things are falling into place for us,” said Bonnie Brooks, chair of the Dance Center of Columbia College. “The new home for the Joffrey is another jewel in the crown.”
For longtime Joffrey dancers and other staffers, the announcement is a welcome payoff for years of hard work in less than stellar conditions. In their current studio on South Wabash Avenue, dancers have trained themselves to avoid pillars set in the floor.
“It will be nice for us to have a permanent space. Our current space has presented quite a few obstacles, in a literal and figurative sense,” said Michael Levine, a Joffrey dancer since 1993.
“Our company has never had anything quite like it,” assistant ballet master Adam Sklute said of the future rehearsal space. “In New York we had some quite nice, adequate spaces, but nothing ever specifically for us. I think our dancers really deserve this.”
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The company’s new home is a five-story structure at the northeast corner of State and Lake Streets that currently houses fast-food restaurants and Govnor’s Pub. Architect Daniel Coffey, responsible for other theater district renovations such as the Cadillac Palace, Oriental and Chicago theaters, is handling the project.
The complex should be complete “by 2002 or 2003,” said Gerald Holdren, president of the Joffrey’s board of directors. Holdren said the company planned to raise $8 million for the headquarters through a capital campaign.
The announcement of the Joffrey project calls attention to what many see as an exciting time for dance in Chicago. Festivals such as Chicago’s NEXT Dance Festival abound year round; the Dance Center of Columbia College is celebrating its inaugural season at a new South Loop complex; and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago founder Lou Conte recently turned over the reins to a promising new artistic director. A music and dance theater also is being planned for Millennium Park.
On a smaller scale, new dance companies have proliferated in recent years and, moreover, are surviving.
Despite such promising signs, it remains to be seen whether the city’s enthusiasm for dance will approach that for opera, classical music, theater or professional sports.
“This is a sports town, and it’s a big opera town, a big music town,” said Frank Fishella, producer of Chicago’s NEXT Dance Festival. “It’s a big arts town, and dance gets the short end of the stick. With ballet, people think `The Nutcracker’ at Christmas time. Hopefully this will change all that.”
The ambitious plans for a permanent headquarters are a hard-won triumph for the Joffrey, which battled severe financial problems in years past. When the company moved to Chicago in 1995, it was forced to cut its budget and the number of dancers in the troupe.
Few would have predicted that after just five years the company, which is performing at the Auditorium Theatre through Sunday, would find a home with a prime State Street address.
“This is big. This is visibility. And it gives the Joffrey roots,” Fishella said. “They’re a recent transplant here and this gives them an anchor. They’re not likely to pull up stakes.”
Others in the dance community also applauded the news.
“It’s terrific and bodes very well for the confidence that the City of Chicago places in the dance world,” said Gail Kalver, executive director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. “They’re making an investment in the Chicago dance scene that is going to benefit all of us.”
Jan Bartoszek, founder of the contemporary Hedwig Dances, said the headquarters’ location will be a boon.
“It centralizes dance in Chicago, which seemed to be more out in the neighborhoods,” Bartoszek said. “Having the Joffrey anchored downtown is a real boost.”
The upswing in Chicago’s dance scene marks a sharp contrast to a decade ago, when the MoMing Dance and Arts Center closed its doors after 16 years, leaving a gaping hole in the city’s experimental dance scene.
But it was also a decade ago that Hubbard Street took a major step in its climb to world-class stature by initiating a three-year collaborative project with legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp.
Lending assistance to the Joffrey “is a huge part of Mayor [Richard] Daley’s efforts to enhance cultural aspects of Chicago,” said Christopher Hill, commissioner of planning and development for the city.
The project is also in line with Daley’s efforts to build a downtown theater district and award subsidies to other businesses to lure them back to State Street.
Unlike other venues in the theater district, however, the Joffrey complex is not a performance space. The building will house retailers on the ground level, Holdren said, with administrative offices, rehearsal studios, and production and wardrobe space above.
The architectural design does indicate plans for a marquee-style sign that will call attention to the Joffrey’s presence.
That presence provides an important boost in the city’s cultural community, Brooks said.
“There is powerful symbolism involved in having your own home,” she said. “And the presence of a major, national dance company is very good for Chicago.”