By now you think I am totally obsessed with the Joffrey and guess what you would be correct. My love for them began when they made their first visit to Chicago when they were still new and based in New York. I was lucky to tag along with my BFF, Barbara Varro, who at the time was fashion editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and was given the assignment to see a performance and interview Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino backstage after the performance! What a thrill!! I have loved ballet since I was a little girl sitting on my father’s lap watching all the wonder of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo…wow, I am really dating myself. Fast forward to me at Saks when I had the opportunity to work with the Joffreyfor many special events benefiting the organization. Mr. Arpino graciously always attended and I was able to chat with him about his incredible productions…again What A Thrill! Fast forward even further when I became fast friends with the current outstanding team that is the Joffrey today, Ashley Wheater, Greg Cameron and Brian Smith… as well as another bestie, a Joffrey alum, Michael Anderson, again lucky me! It is, therefore, my privilege to share the advanced information on the Gerald Arpino Centennial Celebration on September 23 and 24 at the Auditorium Theater. Tickets go on sale in March….mark your calendar now, this is obviously a once in a lifetime opportunity to see so many outstanding Arpino ballets performed by so many diverse companies…who knows this might be the catalyst to end my seclusion!
ARPINO FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES BALLET COMPANIES FROM ACROSS THE U.S. FOR CHICAGO CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION SEPT. 23–24 AT THE AUDITORIUM THEATRE
The Arpino Chicago Centennial Celebration takes place September 23 and 24, 2023 at the historic Auditorium Theatre. Video courtesy of HMS.
January 14, 2023 marked the 100th birthday of Gerald Arpino, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. As the culminating event in a multiyear salute to this extraordinary choreographer and co-founder/director of The Joffrey Ballet, The Gerald Arpino Foundationannounces the Chicago Centennial Celebration featuring ballet companies from around the country performing the choreographer’s work on one stage. Performances take place September 23 and 24, 2023 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago. Tickets go on sale in March 2023 at auditoriumtheatre.org.
The participating companies and the works they are performing are as follows:
Updates will be available on the Foundation’s website, arpinofoundation.org. All programming is subject to change.
Gerald Arpino (1923–2008) was a visionary choreographer who, along with Robert Joffrey, created a ballet company and a body of work that has made a singular and enduring impact on American ballet. Throughout his 50-year career, Arpino created nearly 50 ballets for The Joffrey Ballet. From landmark works like Trinity and Round of Angels to Suite Saint-Saëns and Light Rain, Arpino was a masterful artist and entertainer whose work brought audiences to their feet time and again.
The Gerald Arpino Foundation is committed to preserving and promoting the choreographic works of Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey while maintaining the integrity of their works through the highest level of artistic excellence. The Foundation allows qualified organizations the right to license Arpino’s and Joffrey’s choreographic works and offers repertory workshops, lectures, and master classes to teach a new generation of dancers the choreography and style of Joffrey and Arpino.
Still photos top to bottom: The Joffrey Ballet in Suite Saint-Saëns, photo by Cheryl Mann Former Ballet West artists Arolyn Williams and Christopher Ruud in RUTH, Ricordi per Due, photo by Beau Pearson Gerald Arpino, photo by Herbert Migdoll
The Costume Council of The Chicago History Museum and nenasnotes The Fashion Book Club invite you and your guests to attend a special virtual program featuring:
STARSTRUCK: How I Magically Transformed Chicago into Hollywood for More Than Fifty Years with author Michael Kutza in Conversation with Nena Ivon of nenasnotes, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m. via Zoom Conference( link to follow), tickets are $45.00 per person.
Please register online by clicking the button below:Purchase Tickets
Long before there was SUNDANCE, TRIBECA, and TORONTO, there was CHICAGO and a young kid from Chicago’s West Side named Michael Kutza. He decided that his city needed to see what it was missing around the world in international cinema and the glamor of Hollywood. So he founded the Chicago International Film Festival in 1964, with the help of silent screen star Colleen Moore and legendary film director King Vidor.
Join the Costume Council and nenasnotes The Fashion Book Club for a special virtual event featuring Michael Kutza in conversation with Nena Ivon. We’ll hear about a roller-coaster ride that lasted for better than half a century, with Kutza presiding over a gathering that throughout the decades hosted a veritable Who’s Who of the film world – from Harold Lloyd to Clint Eastwood, Bette Davis to Viola Davis, Steven Spielberg to Spike Lee, Guillermo del Toro to Jodie Foster, Lauren Bacall to Al Pacino.
Starstruck: How I Magically Transformed Chicago into Hollywood for More Than Fifty Years is Kutza’s rollicking, provocative, racy, colorful, irreverent show business memoir culled from his decades rubbing elbows with the giants of film at both the Chicago Festival and numerous other festivals around the globe.
Michael Kutza is a graphic designer, filmmaker, film critic and podcast co-host who founded the Chicago International Film Festival in the mid-1960s. He ran the festival and served as its artistic director until stepping down in 2018.Kutza remains CEO Emeritus of Cinema/Chicago and the Chicago International Film Festival.
Zoom link will be sent prior to program. If you have already registered through nenasnotes Fashion Book Club, no need to re-register; you will be sent the Zoom link.
A portion of my fashion library in my reading nook!!!!
Have you resolved to learn more about subjects that interest you….My resolution is to make the nenasnotes The Fashion Book and Film Clubs as well as nenasnotes The Fashion Master Class open to more attendees. The following is what I have prepared. I know many of you already attend the monthly events but many of you don’t…if not interested, perhaps you know someone who might enjoy our conversations.
Here we go…….As we begin a new year it’s time to learn new things and since the subject of fashion is interesting to so many and has so much diversity why not think about monthly get- togethers to learn more about this fascinating world of FASHION! You can do exactly that by joining nenasnotes fashion series of events.
A bit about me….Nena Ivon, upon retirement from a 50+ year career at Saks Fifth Avenue as Fashion and Public Relations Director in the Chicago store, began a new career as a lifestyle blogger with her nenasnotes blog, and also does freelance writing, and hosts monthly nenasnotes The Fashion Book Club where she is in conversation with the authors of fashion and lifestyle books and The Fashion Film Club as well as a monthly The Fashion Master Class where she discusses the history of the fashion industry. She also writes two monthly posts for the Randolph Street Market blog. (My regular readers know these details!!)
That is a very brief paragraph of my past and what I am doing now….here is more detailed information on the events I host.
nenasnotes The Fashion Book Club…Meets the Fourth Tuesday of each month from 5:30 to 7:00 Central Time via zoom. The fee $25.00 per month payable via PayPal. I’m usually in conversation with the authors of fashion and lifestyle books for the first hour allowing a half an hour for Q & A. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO READ THE BOOK…IT IS NOT A PREREQUISITE! YOU WILL GATHER INFORMATION FROM THE CONVERSATION WITH THE AUTHORS. I ALWAYS RECOMMEND USING MY INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER OF CHOICE THE BOOK STALL. https://www.thebookstall.com
We will start year six of The Book Club in June and have done over 50 books from fashion monographs, to lifestyle books, to novels, to anthologies….and even a bit of Proust!!
With Stephanie Lake discussing her superb monograph on the extraordinary Bonnie Cashin. This was one of my first Book Club events.With the brilliant designer and author, Jeffrey Banks, who has not only been in conversation with two of his books, NORELL and TARTAN (he will join me in conversation in June when we chat about his book PERRY ELLIS!) but he is a regular attendee of both Clubs! He is a super raconteur.
nenasnotes The Fashion Film Club meets the second Tuesday of each month from 5:30 to 7:00 Central Time via zoom. Fee $25.00 per month via PayPal. The films coordinate with the month’s book selection. Attendees discuss how the actors costuming is relevant to the storyline of the film AGAIN, NOT A PREREQUISITE TO VIEW THE FILM, ENOUGH DO SO YOU CAN LEARN JUST BY ATTENDING!
One of our first films and one of the best, in my opinion, identifying the characters through their garments ADRIAN is at the top of his form….we start year four in March….lots and lots of documentaries, trend setting fashion films, during the past three years and lots more to discover and uncover!!
nenasnotes The Fashion Master Class Series 6 meets the third Wednesday of each month from 5:30 to 7:00 Central Time via zoom. Fee $50.00 per month payable via PayPal. Each month’s presentation deals with a fashion topic with PowerPoint presentation and offers insight into my personal stories of working in the fashion industry. Topics in 2023 will include: Fashion Editors as Style Arbiters from the 1800’s to today; The Story of Pearls; The History of The Little Black Dress; Late 20th Century and early 21st Century Designers such as Adolfo, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors; Couture Millinery; Bespoke Men’s Wear; Couture in Dance, Opera, Theater; Flowers in Couture Fashion; etc. This is probably my favorite of the presentations….I get to, in many instances, delve into my experiences with some of the over 200 fashion designers and other creators that I have worked with over the years
I hope I’ve stirred your thoughts of fashion and you will consider joining my journey into the fascinating world of style!!!!! For further details please contact me at nenasnotes1@gmail.com.
The Costume Council of The Chicago History Museum and
