Jerome Robbins
(1918 - 1998)
Jerome Robbins was born Jerome Rabinowitz, October 11, 1918, son of Jewish immigrants. As a child he studied the piano and violin as well as dance. He studied ballet with Ula Duganova, Eugene Loring, and Anthony Tudor; modern dance with the New Dance League; interpretive dance with Sonya Robbins; Spanish dance with Helene Viola; and Oriental dance with Nimura, and in 1940 he joined American Ballet Theater as a dancer. In 1942 he choreographed his first ballet, Fancy Free , which recounts the adventures of three young sailors on leave. His style combined more popular dance styles with classical ballet in a way that was new at the time. In 1948 Balanchine invited him to join the newly created New York City Ballet, and in 1950 he received a Dance Magazine Award for his interpretation of Balanchine's Prodigal Son.
From 1944 to 1964 he became famous beyond the world of ballet, choreographing for such Broadway musicals as On The Town, Peter Pan, The King and I, West Side Story, and Fiddler on the Roof. It was perhaps with West Side Story , collaborating with Leonard Bernstein, that he reached the pinnacle of his show business career. His dances for the Sharks and the Jets captured the restless spirit and violence of gang warfare.
It was in 1953 that he faced the darkest hour of his career. Fearing blacklisting in the entertainment industry, he testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and denounced former colleagues as members of the Communist party. Because of this he received the unforgiving hostility of some artists and fellow co-workers for many years to come.
Leaving Broadway behind him, he returned to ballet after 1964. In his career with City Ballet he created some 50 ballets that testify to the diversity of his talent and confirm his place as a 20th century ballet master. In Afternoon of a Faun, created in 1953, he demonstrated his command of the neo-classicism with this cool and mysterious reinventing of Nyjinski's ballet. The Concert created in 1956, is a comic spoof of a classical music concert. Many of his ballets like Dances at a Gathering, have become part of the repertory of companies around the world. After the death of Balanchine in 1983, he shared the post of artistic director of The New York City Ballet with Peter Martins until 1990. He was considered by the dancers as an uncompromising taskmaster.
In 1981 he received a Kennedy Center Award. He returned briefly to Broadway in 1989 with an anthology of past hits entitled Jerome Robbin's Broadway. His dedication to dance will live on in his ballets.
On July 29th, 1998, Jerome Robbins died of a stroke in his home in New York City. He was one of the first great American-born ballet masters and also a major Broadway and film choreographer, winning four Tony Awards and two Academy Awards.
Courtesy of:
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