The Joffrey Ballet has been hailed as "America's Company of Firsts," with a long list of pioneering accomplishments and accolades includes being the first dance company to perform at the White House at Jacqueline Kennedy's invitation, the first to appear on television, the first American company to visit Russia, the first classical dance company to go multimedia, the first to commission a rock 'n' roll ballet, the first and only dance company to appear on the cover of Time magazine, and the first company to have had a major motion picture based on it, Robert Altman's The Company.

For more than a half-century, the Joffrey Ballet's commitment to taking world-class, artistically vibrant work to a broad and varied audience has created a solid foundation that continues to support the company's unprecedented capacity for achieving important "firsts." Today, the Joffrey, which has been hugely successful in its former residences in New York and Los Angeles, lives permanently in its brilliant new facility, Joffrey Tower, in the heart of America, Chicago, Illinois.

The company's commitment to accessibility is met through the most extensive touring schedule of any dance company in history, an innovative and highly effective education program including the much lauded Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of the Joffrey Ballet, and collaborations with myriad other visual and performing arts organizations. The company's Berkeley program features Edwaard Liang's Age of Innocence, a tale of women in history and their strength despite social repression, and Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain, which contemplates the push and pull of a passionate relationship, set to a chiming, meditative score by Arvo Pärt ("A heartstoppingly beautiful creation," says the Chicago Tribune). Also on the program, Kurt Jooss's epic antiwar masterpiece The Green Table.

The Joffrey Ballet
Saturday-Sunday, 8 p.m. and 3 p.m. $24-$98
Zellerbach Hall