Longstanding friends in a time of need...
In 1974, two years after Hancher Auditorium opened its doors, the Joffrey Ballet took to the Hancher stage for the first time. The world-class ballet company with a distinctly American aesthetic thrilled the dance lovers who filled the still new auditorium. Two years later, with support from the Iowa Friends of the Joffrey, the company was back for another acclaimed performance.
But it was a 1978 snowstorm that truly forged the bond between Hancher and the Joffrey Ballet. With five trailers full of costumes and sets stranded on the Ohio Turnpike, the company turned to the community for costuming help as the dancers prepared to perform the popular Rodeo.
“It was incredible,” Gerald Arpino, the late co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet, once said. “The theater department came, strangers from farms came, people brought old calico dresses—it became an Iowa affair.”
Over the summers of 1982, 1983, and 1985, the Joffrey II Dancers—the company’s “farm team”—visited communities both large and small around Iowa, sharing the joy of dance and forging connections that are still treasured today by Iowans from all walks of life. The project was a collaborative effort involving several University of Iowa departments, and each of the Iowa Dance Residencies concluded with a performance at Hancher.
In 1985, Hancher undertook its first commissioning project, a move that would lay the foundation for the auditorium’s national and international reputation as an essential commissioning institution. On February 25, 1986, the Joffrey Ballet premiered James Kudelka’s The Heart of the Matter, a work hailed by both the Hancher audience and the dance critic for the New York Times.
Hancher’s most famous commission, however, is the Joffrey’s manifestly American rendition of The Nutcracker. The final work of Robert Joffrey’s life, 1987’s The Nutcracker delighted audiences—as it has continued to do each year in Chicago, in cities across the country, and each time it returns to Hancher—and created indelible memories for a group of 44 Iowa children who not only performed with the Joffrey at Hancher, but also in performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Since that first corps of children, approximately 300 young Iowa dancers have performed with the Joffrey in The Nutcracker at Hancher.
Amazingly, at the same time the company was in Iowa City rehearsing for the world premiere of The Nutcracker, the dancers were also engaged in the landmark reconstruction of Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). The first full run-through of the piece occurred on the Hancher stage and the work was later performed at Hancher, as well.
In the early 1990s, Hancher commissioned another new work for the Joffrey Ballet. The original plan called for a new version of Cinderella, but a problem with the rights stalled the project. In a bold move, the planned fairy tale became a full-length rock ballet featuring the music of Prince. Billboards, which premiered on the Hancher stage in 1993, was a smash hit with audiences and critics around the world and was broadcast on PBS and later released on video.
Major commissions like The Nutcracker and Billboards were more than artistic successes. They proved to be the financial lifeblood of the Joffrey Ballet.
“But just think, if we hadn’t been at Hancher, would there have been a Nutcracker, a Sacre, a Billboards? I don’t think so,” Arpino said. “And I don’t think there would be a Joffrey without these great works. These productions reflect the whole, rich value of the relationship between the Joffrey and Hancher.”
Given the strength of the connection between Hancher and the Joffrey Ballet, it was almost inevitable that the ballet company would be at the center of the auditorium’s 35th anniversary celebration during the summer of 2007—which happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Joffrey itself.
The river-to-river tour across Iowa was an unprecedented artistic endeavor designed to share the joy and beauty of dance with as many Iowans as possible. It celebrated not just the unique relationship between a dance ensemble and an auditorium, but the role the arts can play in the lives of all Iowans and Hancher’s role in bringing the world’s best artists to the state.
All told, more than 30,000 people were treated to spectacular dancing during free outdoor events in Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, and, of course, on the Hancher Green in Iowa City.
During that celebration, no one could have known that almost exactly one year later flood waters would rush over the Hancher Green and into the auditorium itself. With 18 inches of water on the stage and water out to row O in the seating area, the facility was devastated.
The Hancher spirit, however, was not so easily quashed. Neither was the friendship between Hancher and the Joffrey Ballet.
Christopher Conway and Ashley Wheater, the executive and artistic directors of the Joffrey Ballet, were quick to offer the company’s help. To that end, the company will dance in two fundraising events, one at the new Joffrey Tower in Chicago on September 3, 2009 and a second at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines on September 11, 2009.
“We are so gratified by the Joffrey’s generous offer to help us during this challenging time,” said Hancher Executive Director Chuck Swanson. “Even in these circumstances, any event involving Hancher and the Joffrey Ballet is a celebration. We look forward to celebrating this important step toward our return home and to enjoying two evenings of wonderful dancing with Hancher’s many friends in Chicago and Des Moines.”