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Jerome Robbins in Balanchine’s Tyl Ulenspiegel, 1951 

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Jerome Robbins stylistic choices are prevalent to the modern musical and inspired the next generation of American jazz choreographers. I see Jerome Robbins influence in current theatre creator Lin Manuel Miranda. In Miranda’s musical In the Heights we see a lot of similarities to Jerome’s West Side story; Both set on the streets of New York and about love and friendships. Robbins stylistic choice that stands out to me is how he seamlessly and thoughtfully uses different styles of dance that often fit with the context of the musical. Jerome Robbins trained in plenty of different styles and was open to always expanding his dance abilities and knowledge. Styles he trained in include:

Contemporary -Mary Wingman

Standford Meisner technique -Mary Wingman

interpretive dance- Alyce Bentley

Spanish dance -Helene Veola

oriental dancing- Yeichi Nimura

classical Ballet -Anna Pavlova/George Balanchine

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photo taken from The academy of Dance of the tree sailors in Fancy Free

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Robbins choreographed for the 1961 musical West side story in the musical number I feel pretty we see Maria dancing to the contextual style of Spanish dance relating to her culture. Maria is seen to use a fan and swish her skirt, stamp her foot and clap her hands. We also see use of contextual styles in the musical number dance at the gym however Peter Gennaro is said to have been a co choreographer in west side story and responsible for the creation of this piece. In dance at the gym the jets show their American culture by doing lindy hop inspired movements (an American jazz style) like throwing each other and flips whilst the sharks of Puerto Rican decent do Spanish inspired movements seen in them swishing their skirts. Jerome Robbins shows his versatility as a choreographer in his first recognised work Fancy free through the movement style reflecting the personalities of the three sailors. The first sailors personality comes across as rowdy and confident reflecting in his movement being expansive through leaps and turns. However, the second sailor seems less confident seen in small intricate balletic footwork like frappes. Lastly, the third sailor seems flirtatious seen in Spanish movement qualities like swivelling the hips and clapping. Previously Jack Cole changed the game for musical theatre in his 1949 musical Gentlemen prefer blondes, in the musical number performed famously by Marylin Monroe we see an array of styles including showgirl, jazz dance and cabaret. This can be seen as Robbins inspiration through his similar use of blending styles together.

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Jerome Robbins rehearsign for West Side Story Photo by Friedman-Abeles, Courtesy DM Archives

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Jerome Robbins is responsible for helping develop American jazz and the modern musical in new innovative ways. We see Realism explored through movement in his works. In which for the time was unheard of as musicals were used to escape reality due the country being in a great depression. Often Jerome Robbins pushed boundaries by making works realistic and relevant to the time. We see Jerome Robbins courage to speak about dark subject matters influence later choreographer Fosse who discovered a darker, seedier realism in his musicals like cabaret exploring exploitation of women in burlesque clubs, a truly taboo subject for the time. Although he pioneered realistic circumstances in musicals he took inspiration from his previous teacher Agnes De Mille who explored reality in dream ballets unlike Jerome who explored it throughout.

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1914-1918 World War one

1918 Jerome Robbins Born in a Jewish maternity hospital in  Manhattan New York on the 11th October one month before the end of world war one.

1924 Robbins starts first grade at Hamilton School in Weehawken, along side school he took Music lessons at the Miss Effa Ellis Perfield Studio.

1929 Just two weeks after Jerome turned 11 the stock market crashes this is a very difficult financial time for the family and their corset business

1935 Jerome Robbins begins to studying at New York University but has to drop out in 1936 for financial reasons

1936 Robbins joins Cluck Sandor’s Dance Centre Company and discovers lots of new dance styles

1938 Robbins is one of the 11 men selected by George Balanchine for the Broadway show Great Lady.

1940 Robbins signs a professional contract with the Ballet Theatre for two months (he stays for 4 years) during this time he worked under choreographers Agnes De Millie, Anthony Tudor, Michel Fokine and Leonine Massine

1929-1941 Great depression, Robbins lived through a lot of tragedy reflected through his works often being on thoughtful topics. However, this was unusual as musicals were used as a form of escapism from reality. The idea of escapism in shown in early American jazz choreographer Busby Burkley as seen in his musical 42nd street, dancers had overly dramatized happy faces.OFFICIAL TRAILER | 42nd Street - Theatre Royal Drury Lane

See attached the trailer for the 2017 remake on the West End

1939-1945 World War Two

1944 Fancy free Robbins first recognised work a neo classical Ballet. It explored a realistic circumstance happening in New York at the time. Sailors returned home from world war two on short term leave and lived as though they wouldn’t have a tomorrow escaping reality by drinking on the streets of Manhattan. He explored this realistic circumstance in a light-hearted way as seen in the sailor’s beckoning girls with hand gestures and realistic movements. (50) Soldiers and Sailors Return to NYC in 1945. Achive film 61262 - YouTube

See attached an archive video of the actual sailors returning home with smiles on their faces

1948 Jerome Robbins joined New York city ballet under the leadership of George Balanchine. Balanchine influenced Robbins greatly with technique music costume lighting stage design. He later became an Associate Artistic Director with George Balanchine.

1939-1949 World War Two

1951 King and I

1955 Robbins directs and choreographs Peter pan in which a year later he wins an Emmy award for the film version

1959 Gypsy opens on Broadway

1961 West Side Story Jerome Robbins won an Oscar for his choreography on this work. The musical explored rivalries between gangs in New York at the time. Rivalries were often between young white men who were born and bred in New York city and often of Polish descent(the jets) and Puerto Rican immigrants to the USA (the sharks).The musical was one of the first American musicals to explore real tragedy through the death of Riff and Bernardo. Robbins explores the harsh reality of gang culture and the dangers of living in and around it. There is no comfort in this musical and the movement shows this through choreographed physical fights seen in the prologue. Jerome makes the musical more life-like through pedestrian movements/activities like basketball, cycling. We see Jerome’s use of pedestrian movement in hands on hips to assert dominance and clicks. He further shows how quickly these gang fights can escalate seen in the light hearted throwing of paint on one another to physical choreographed fights . (50) West Side Story - Prologue - Official Full Number - 50th Anniversary (HD) - YouTube

Look out for everything discussed above in the prologue !

1964 Jerome helped supervise Funny Girl alongside Garson Kanin

1964 Fiddler On The Roof ,His grandmother Ida Ripps was the inspiration for this work as she practised all Jewish rituals and traditions habitually. However Jerome Robbins had a difficult relationship with his own Judaism seen in him changing his last name from Rabinowitz meaning ‘son of a rabbi’ to Robbins. Creating a musical based on Judaism just 10 years after World War two was daring of Robbins as people were still grieving the loss of their loved ones. To create this musical Robbins went to Israel and toured synagogues and visited a Hasidic synagogue. Afterwards he said ‘I am going to make a ballet out of that.’ We can see realism in fiddler in the bottle dance. Jerome attended Orthodox Jewish weddings and festivals where he observed one man entertaining a crowd by joking around with a bottle on his head pretending to be drunk. Robbins took the idea and turned into the famous bottle dance.

1970s and 80s Jerome Robbins creates many ballets for New York City Ballet, over the course of his time there he created more than 60 ballets!

1988 Jerome Robbins Broadway, this piece of theatre created by Robbins was a compilation of 11 musicals Robbins had created

1998 Robbins dies in Manhattan

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OFFICIAL TRAILER | 42nd Street - Theatre Royal Drury Lane

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The Rumble from the 1961 film. Courtesy of United Artists.

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Jerome Robbins made plenty of famous theatre however his musical West Side Story is largely considered his most famous. The film musical grossed around $44 million at the world wide box office making a huge profit on the films budget being around $6 million. West Side Story is a timeless piece that explores subject matter of love friendship and hatred, these ideas are still prevalent in today’s world. Its relevance to today society can be seen in the 2021 remake by Steven Spielberg, the film was added to streaming service Disney plus in which meant people could watch it from their own homes whenever they like.

West Side Story 1966 the film had a well-received reception reflected in the awards won, it won 10 academy awards including best picture, truly proving how influential Robbins is as a choreographer/director. The movie and original Broadway cast albums of West Side Story also earned Gold Record status, with sales of over one million.

Critic Walter Kerr wrote a review of West Side Story for the New York Herald Tribune on September 27th 1957 – “Director, choreographer, and idea-man Jerome Robbins has put together, and then blasted apart, the most savage, restless, electrifying dance patterns we've been exposed to in a dozen seasons.”

Robbins was highly respected in the industry therefore people had high expectations that were sometimes not met an example of this is one of his later shows Jerome Robbins Broadway 1988 wasn’t as much of a success as his earlier productions reflected in Cathy Curtis’ review July 25th 1991 . She goes on to say’ Have you bought tickets to see “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” at the Performing Arts Center? Well, you might give a thought to lingering over dinner and not showing up till Act II starts--about 9:40 p.m. by my watch on Tuesday’

Robbins as a choreographer was often feared however people couldn’t deny his talent reflected in him winning an Academy Award and three Tonys. Tony Mordente, a “West Side Story” cast member, told biographer Greg Lawrence “Jerry not only attacked you, he attacked your family, your background, where you lived, how you lived, who you studied with,” However Vail  who had access to the director’s diaries and papers while writing 2006’s “Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins.” points out the triumph of Robbins as he came from low income unable to afford university to one of the most influential theatre choreographers ever. She also pointed out that Stephen Sondheim said that “Robbins was the only genius he’s ever known”

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Original Broadway Playbill, 1958. Courtesy of the Playbill Vault

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Robbins influence on theatre at the time

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Robbins influence on theatre at the time

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Robbins had a direct influence of choreographer Micheal Bennett Di Figlia best known for his work in A Chorus line and Dreamgirls. Bennet dropped out of school at 16 to join the European tour of West Side Story. Personally Bennet had many similarities to Robbins seen in him similarly dropping his Jewish last name of DiFiglia. Furthermore we see Robbins direct influence on him in A chorus line through contextual characterised choreography and movement advancing the plot. We see this is the prologue of West Side Story, this was the first prologue fully danced in theatre and through movement we are introduced to both gangs and their rivalry. Gang rivalry pic

Jerome Robbins had plenty of links to the industry and can be seen as the catalyst for change in jazz dance by turning down a job. Jerome Robbins was originally supposed to choreograph for pyjama game 1954 and although it is unclear why he left (probably due to creative differences) it meant the work was given to choreographer Bob Fosse propelling his career. A famous musical number from this piece is steam heat in which we see the redirection of jazz dance through classic Fosse styles seen in them wearing hats, inverting knees and flexion of muscles. Robbins created space for Fosse’s work to be accepted in the industry by pushing boundaries and making musicals real and raw. Fosse takes inspiration from Robbins and develops his initial use of realism even further by making musicals on taboo subjects for example Chicago and Cabaret. The musical Cabaret by Fosse shows realism in a dark seedy way seen in movements like hip thrusts and hitting of the thigh. Chicago however is about a women killing which would have been rather shocking and unfeminine for a female to do in a musical. Robbins showed women’s strength in plenty of his musicals, seen in the king and I’s Anna the main character being powerful and Anita in West side story standing up against her boyfriend.

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Jerome Robbins's scene list from West Side Story. This page, with Jerome Robbins' insignia, lists the scenes from one of the early versions of West Side Story. According to Bernstein's log, at this point the show was set "in the slums at the coincidence of Easter-Passover celebrations."

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Robbins influence on the next generation 

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Robbins influence on the next generation 

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Not only did Robbins have a massive effect on choreographers at the time he still does to this day. Many people make connections between Robbins and 21st century theatre creator Lin Manuel Miranda. Both Miranda and Robbins grew up in normal families on the streets of New York and this is reflected in their works. Two of their works I see similarities’ in are West Side Story 1961 and In The Heights in 2008.Similarites are seen in the musicals being set on the streets of New York and exploring concepts of friendship and love. Dance is seen as a form of escapism for the characters as shown in the club number from In the Heights and dance at gym from West Side Story although not choreographed by Jerome Robbins we see in (picture above) he originally had the idea of a street carnival or a dance celebration. In the Heights however is more modern and provocative but the idea of dancing and letting loose is prevalent in both. Both musicals also have dance techniques that relate to their culture as we see Marias solo I feel pretty in West side story she swishes her skirt and claps we also see characters perform these steps in the musical number carnival de barrio from In the heights as everyone slowly gets up and joins in dancing. Further I see similarities in the theme of brotherhood seen in gee officer Krumpe West Side Story the boys are joking around pulling faces joking about how little privilege they have. This is also the theme in 96000 from in the heights the boys dream of winning lots of money and playfully laugh and hug one another. Miranda like many of us grew up with West Side story, in an interview with Playbill Miranda explained “My mother rented the movie so we could watch it together,” “When ‘America’ started and it was about whether to live in Puerto Rico, or live in the U.S. – as a kid who grew up here and was sent there every summer – I was like, “Holy sh*t! West Side Story is about Puerto Ricans?!”. Miranda also played Bernardo in his sixth-grade production of West Side Story and directed a high school version during his senior year.

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Photo by Niko Tavernise of West Side Story 2021

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Jerome Robbins has had a massive impact on me as I watched West Side story for the first time at a very young age. Me and my cousins would sing and dance to the songs and three of us are in creative dance and musical theatre spaces. I think this truly shows not only the lasting impact Jerome Robbins has but the importance of musical theatre on film. Many people at the time of West side story coming out couldn’t afford tickets to the theatre therefore it hitting the big screens meant it could reach a greater audience and people like Miranda and Jerome who grew up with very little were able to experience the world of theatre. We see film musicals still relevant to the modern day with the revival of West Side story as now they often hit streaming services as seen in west side story 2021 being added to Disney plus. Many people believe streaming is causing the loss of cinema and can be seen in the budget for the revival being $100 million and grossing at $77 million. However, recently we have seen a turn-around in film musicals through the recent release of Wicked the musical, the first part of the musical had a gross revenue of around $740 million making huge profit as the budget was $145 million.

As a performer Robbins has greatly inspired me through his versatility, I strive to be open to learn new styles and having a wide rep of movement skills. Versatility and incorporating lots of different styles of movement can be reflected in the students here at London Studio Centre in the M403 skills for versatility. No matter what pathway you are on, there are many opportunities to widen your abilities in any style at London Studio Centre. I think watching West Side Story at such a young age and loving it, has shaped me as a performer now as I enjoy to watch and choreograph dance that incorporates all styles. I love watching a piece of dance and not being able to label the style, a modern day choreographer that does this is Mathew Bourne. I have personally watched his Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet and Edwards scissor hands and although many of his works have origins in ballets and using orchestral classical music, he uses lots of different dance influences like ballet contemporary and jazz.

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 picture of the full female cast curtesy of Pamela Raith (2023)

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Jerome wasn’t afraid to explore dark and real subjects and we see a development of real subject matter through Bob Fosse, whose works were darker and seedy as seen in Cabaret 1966, a musical about girls dancing for the attention of males, a taboo subject matter for the time. We see dark subject matter through the 2019 musical Hadestown through its exploration of sacrifice, fate and love. Further through Jerome’s elevation of the role of the female in theatre is seen in the West End to this day as we now see musicals with a full female cast for example Six the musical written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss about the six wives of Henry the Eighth.

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