[Excerpt]

Molly: Given your deep ties with the Joffrey Ballet, how would you describe your place in its history? 

Suzanne: I think everyone who’s been involved in the Joffrey Ballet is a part of its history. Although I’ve had some longevity that maybe others have not, I don’t know that I get to claim a part of its history any more than anyone else does. It’s been such a huge part of my life and still continues to be a huge part of my life. It’s my home away from home.  

I love looking at things like this exhibition or talking to some of my former teachers who were mentors to me growing up. It means a lot to hear their stories then and now, to look at retrospectives like this show, and to see these stories unfold for the public. It’s so great that things that felt very personal to me are now available for everyone to see. It’s interesting to see that what I thought was my history is really, all of our history to share, and I’m so proud to be a part of that history, whether it was on stage, behind the scenes, or now, directing the Academy. The Joffrey is important to me, so I’m glad that it’s important to other people. I also love that I get to be a part of developing not just what the history is, but what the future will be, too. 

M: As you were going through the exhibit, was there anything that surprised you, or something new you learned?  

S: It’s funny you asked. I went to the opening in New York and then went to this opening. I still need to go again to have a moment to myself. I kind of went into it thinking, “I know everything that’s going to be in this,” but I didn’t live through everything. I wasn’t alive in 1956 when the company started, but I feel like I’ve heard so many stories. Certainly, I know all the people, who are currently still with us and are attached to the Joffrey. I worked with so many of them that I thought that if someone was going to know what’s going on, it was going to be me, but there were definitely things I learned. This may be a silly example, but I remember seeing a picture of Astarte in Playboy magazine and thought, “What! How did that happen? What’s going on?” But it was such an avant-garde moment, and Joffrey was always cutting edge. So, while that was unsurprising, I was more surprised that I didn’t know it had happened.  

There are so many treasures in that collection. I’m just so, so happy somebody took the time to go through all of those things. I look forward to diving into it even more, and that’s coming from someone whose whole life has been at the Joffrey. So, I hope that someone going in who doesn’t know about the Joffrey will also find it fascinating, even if they get one-tenth of what’s there…

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Bios

Suzanne Lopez was born and raised in Summit, New Jersey, to Cuban parents. She first began training at the Garden State Ballet School under Fred Danieli and later studied at the New Jersey School of Ballet. Her introduction to the Joffrey Ballet started at age 12 when she attended her first summer intensive audition taught by Robert Joffrey. From that moment on, her training was steeped in his founding traditions and methodology taught to her by Robert Joffrey himself and his team of former Joffrey dancers, who became his protégés and her mentors.

After starting her professional career for a year and a half with the Joffrey II Dancers, Lopez joined The Joffrey as a Company Artist in 1991 and moved to Chicago with the company in 1995. During her nineteen-year career, Lopez danced principal roles in ballets by such choreographers as Robert Joffrey, Gerald Arpino, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alonzo King, John Cranko, José Limón, Antony Tudor, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, and Sir Frederick Ashton. She was featured on the cover of Pointe magazine as the Sugarplum Fairy in Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker. In addition to dancing, Lopez assisted Gerald Arpino in rehearsals for his ballets. She taught classes for the Arpino Apprentice Program and was one of the first instructors to begin teaching at the inception of the Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet.

After retiring from dancing in 2010, Lopez continued teaching and coaching at the Grainger Academy, among other Chicago-area schools. In 2016, she was thrilled to return to The Joffrey as a Rehearsal Director, where she worked on a diverse repertoire, including new creations with John Neumeier, Yuri Possokhov, and Christopher Wheeldon. She has also been a guest teacher, répétiteur, and coach at schools and companies worldwide. As the Abbott Academy Director, Lopez embraces all her experiences as a student, dancer, educator, and rehearsal director and imbues Robert Joffrey’s vision into every facet of the Grainger Academy’s specialized curriculum. With her unique lineage and perspective, Lopez sets a firm foundation for the next generations of dancers.

Molly Fulop (they/she) is an Educational Psychology doctoral student at UIC and a Graduate Research Assistant for The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. Their work explores LGBTQ+ intergenerational collaborative artmaking and Florida art museums’ role in combating LGBTQ+ censorship. They received an MA in Art Education from SAIC in 2023.