- Person
- Jerome Robbins
- Lived
- 1918–1998
- Field
- Choreography
- From
- American
The story
Jerome Robbins, born Jerome Rabinowitz on New York's Lower East Side in 1918, began as a dancer with Ballet Theatre, the company now called American Ballet Theatre. He went on to create more than fifty ballets, and New York City Ballet has said that no choreographer so epitomised the American scene.
His first triumph came on 18 April 1944 at the old Metropolitan Opera House, when Ballet Theatre premiered Fancy Free, with music by the young Leonard Bernstein. Instead of princes and swans, it showed three sailors on shore leave in wartime New York, chasing girls in and around a bar, competing in dance solos and ending up in a scuffle. It was hailed as a smash hit, had been performed more than 160 times by 1945, and inspired the Broadway musical On the Town. New York City Ballet later added it to its own repertory.
In 1958 Robbins founded his own small company, Ballets: U.S.A. It premiered at the Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in June 1958, then toured Europe and the United States, under the auspices of the US State Department, and even appeared on television on The Ed Sullivan Show, bringing ballet to viewers at home.
For the company Robbins created N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, a jazz ballet set to music by Robert Prince, along with Moves and Events. Between 1958 and 1961 the company performed new and existing works at European arts festivals, and scholars note that most of that repertory is still danced more than six decades later. Opus Jazz has since been staged by American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet.
By mixing classical training with jazz rhythms, street-level characters and humour, Robbins helped show that ballet could speak about ordinary modern life, and he widened the audience for dance in America and abroad.
Why it matters
Robbins's ballets remain in the repertory of major companies, and his blend of classical and popular styles continues to draw new audiences to dance.
About Jerome Robbins
Choreographer and director of West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, born Jerome Rabinowitz to Jewish immigrant parents, who fused ballet with Broadway and American life.
More about Jerome Robbins
Sources
- Fancy Free (ballet) Wikipedia
- Jerome Robbins New York City Ballet
- Taking America's Story to the World: Touring Jerome Robbins's Ballets: U.S.A. during the Cold War Dance Research Journal (Cambridge University Press)
- Jerome Robbins Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.