Chicagoans gathered at the Wrightwood 659 art gallery, 659 W. Wrightwood Ave., on Dec. 4 for a World AIDS Day remembrance of, among others, choreographer Robert Joffrey; his protégé, choreographer Edward Stierle; and other creative professionals who have been lost to HIV/AIDS.
The gallery this fall has been been hosting an exhibition, The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S., celebrating the legacy of Joffrey and the Chicago-based company that bears his name. The exhibition runs through Saturday, Dec. 20.
At the Dec. 4 event, Joffrey Ballet President and CEO Gregory Cameron called arts professionals “first responders” during tumultuous times, especially during the AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Numerous performers and others in arts communities lost their lives battling the disease.
Cameron recalled reading a Chicago Tribune article about Joffrey when the choreographer died in March 1988. Joffrey passed away in New York City, where the company was then based, but his dancers were coincidentally performing at the Civic Opera House that month. Cannon noted that the Tribune piece, penned by arts writer Richard Christiansen, listed the ailments causing Joffrey’s death, but did not mention that those ailments were due to Joffrey having AIDS.
People at the time, Cameron noted, did not know how to talk about the disease. “We didn’t know what we needed to do,” he said. “What we needed to do was lead, and we needed to lead with courage.”
Cameron has led Joffrey for the past 12 years. The company moved to Chicago in the mid-‘90s just as it was on the verge of financial ruin in New York City. He admitted that running the company can be an “up-and-down” exercise, adding, “Ballet is often at the bottom of the food chain in several cities.”
But he expressed confidence in the Windy City’s civic commitment to his organization: “Chicago is a city that believes in the arts. … We’ve had 30 years to figure out how to get things right.”
Following Cameron’s remarks, the audience watched video presentations of two historical performances from Joffrey’s repertoire. The first, 1988’s Lacrymosa, was choreographed by Stierle and dedicated to Joffrey’s memory. The second, 1991’s Empyrean Dances, was also choreographed by Stierle and premiered just three days before his death from AIDS at age 23. Members of Stierle’s family were present at the Dec. 4 event.
Following the videos, audience members shared reflections of loved ones and friends they had lost to AIDS.
Cameron was introduced by Alphawood Foundation Executive Director Chirag Badlani, who called the remembrance “both a tribute and a charged act,” noting the financial disruptions to HIV/AIDS funding at the federal level, and how those imperil efforts to both stem new transmissions and provide effective treatment for people living with HIV. Those disruptions, Badlani warned, come “not just from inaction, but malice, [that] we are seeing from Washington.”