As his first dance teacher, Senia Gluck Sandor had a massive influence on Robbins' style. Robbins was 18 when he was introduced to Sandor by his sister, and he was soon taken on as an apprentice at Sandor's company, Dance Centre. Being a contemporary company, it was at this time when such free, imaginative dancing could really impact Robbins. Sandor had a uniquely theatrical, eclectic and expressionist style, an influence you can see clearly in the dances in the West Side Story film, which was both directed and choreographed by Robbins. The dancers' moves are so expressive and not only create a mood over each whole number, but carry emotion in every single step. For example, the wacky head nods featured in Mambo show in an instance cockiness and pride, a prime example of expressionist theatrical style learnt from Sandor. 

Known as the psychological choreographer, Antony Tudor was a more classical inspirational figure with his skillset centred in ballet. He spent many years training under Marie Rambert, the infamous pioneer of modern ballet. Tudor’s specialty was always creating psychological stories in his ballets, and this undoubtedly affected Robbins ability to storytell through dance, as well. It can be said that Tudor was a unique teacher, entirely a law unto himself. He praised very few dancers as true Tudor stylists, and taught that “The movement is the meaning” translating roughly to, do the steps without adornment or interpretive alternation, and they will prove expressive. This of course would be a problem if you didn’t happen to know what the steps or gestures mean, and thus Tudor’s methods proved curious to many. As well as this, many of Tudor’s ballets had exceptionally dark plots and subject matters including sex, rape and violence. This could be seen as inspiration to Robbins pushing him to more challenging subjects, although Robbins delved down a more political focus.

Agnes De Mille, another student of Marie Rambert’s was most famous for her choreography in musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. As this would suggest, she was yet another highly theatrical influence on Robbins. Born to a well connected theatrical family, she loved acting from an early age but was told that she was not pretty enough to pursue it. When she started dancing when she was much older, she found that she was not flexible, nor did she have the body of a dancer. However she used all of this to her advantage and proved to show immensely powerful characters in her dancing. Robbins became involved with De Mille at a pivotal time in his career - in 1941 she gave him his first ever successful role in her ballet, Three Virgins and a Devil. 

Choreographer George Balanchine was perhaps the most influential figure in Robbins’ career, Robbins looking up to and admiring through their many works together. Balanchine was born in St Petersburg, Russia but moved to America to go on and become the foremost choreographer of the twentieth century and the architect of classical ballet in America. His legacy lives on in the New York City Ballet, which he co-founded and he and Robbins were so close that when Balanchine died, Robbins took over as artistic director of the NYCB. It was their work together on The Firebird (1949) and Pulcinella (1972) that was most recognised. Again, Balanchine had a very unique way of doing things, seeing himself as a practical craftsman, and not an artist-genius. His most iconic creations were avant garde and modern, showcasing his neoclassical style, but he also reworked The Nutcracker and Americana. Unlike Tudor, who often presented choreography that went against the music it was paired with, in Balanchine’s ballets music was always primary. He created a total of 29 ballets to Igor Stravinsky’s music, and always used music - no matter the composer - to provide form and framework for the choreography, through the rhythms and structure of the songs. In many of his ballets, the emotion included was never literal, and was heard telling one of his dancers, “Don’t worry about your soul. I want to see your foot”

Another influential figure who couldn’t go without mention is Leonard Bernstein, who unlike the other notable influences was not a dancer or choreographer, but a composer, pianist, lecturer and author. Their work together is evident, most infamously in West Side Story but also in On The Town and Fancy Free. Their partnership was so well matched as they both came from a similar background, and thus were closer in their stylistic and creative thinking. Bernstein was one of the first American born and bred conductors to gain praise internationally, raising him to a level where Robbins and Bernstein were a recognisable partnership, even household names. Not only was he hailed the saviour of American Musical Theatre, but before this was the youngest music director ever engaged by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

In conclusion, these people clearly influenced Robbins in his life and work, and their legacies still remain today. There is of course no end to the amount of people who had in fact left impacts, big or small, on Jerome Robbins, as the ripple effect of life touches us all. This is just a small collection of those who not only left their mark on Robbins, but left their mark on history as well.