Stage news and notes

Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino set out to create a different kind of American ballet company when they founded their troupe a half century ago. But while they were hellbent on making something new, they also had a deep appreciation of dance history, with Joffrey particularly fascinated by works that had initially made an artistic splash, but for various reasons had disappeared from the standard repertory.

Joffrey filed away memories of masterpieces he saw when, as a dance-crazed kid growing up in Seattle, he caught performances by the touring companies that came through town. "The Green Table," which he saw for the first time in 1940 -- danced by Kurt Jooss' own company -- was a prime example.

It was Arpino who, in 1992, finally managed to bring Leonide Massine's massive ballet, "Les Presages," back to life -- a work that hadn't been seen since the 1940s. This nearly hourlong allegorical piece -- initially created in 1933 for Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo -- features a large ensemble in which such characters as "Action," "Temptation," "Passion" and "Frivolity" intersect with the movement of history and the power of Fate. Legendary for its use of a symphonic score (to be played live by the Chicago Sinfonietta), it also features remarkable costumes designed by Andre Masson, the French surrealist artist.

It was only in 2004 that Arpino added Balanchine's "Apollo" to the Joffrey repertory. A 1928 work of true genius and still-dazzling modernity, "Apollo" draws on Greek myth for its homage to the birth of the artist and the devotion of his muses.