As a kid, Wheeldon spent his summers directing homegrown performances with neighborhood friends. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered on the Atlantic Ocean. When Serge Koussevitzky, one of the several conductors who mentored Lenny, and himself a Jew, suggested he Anglicize his name to Leonard S. Burns, he replied, Ill do it as Bernstein or not at all. (Pronounced Bern-stine, with a long i.). Others say not. But in 1955, with gang violence making headlines, Laurents suggested a shift to rival street gangs. A collaboration as frequent and close as theirs is a marriage, says Sondheim. [2] Categories . Dostoyevsky territory, Guare calls it. Because Robbins, as choreographer, insisted that his chorus reflect the racial diversity of a New York City crowd, On the Town broke the color bar on Broadway for the first time. They were born within two months of each other, one hundred years ago, in 1918Louis Bernstein, called Leonard by his parents, on August 25 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz on October 11 in New York City. West Side Story created by Lenard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins tell the story of Romeo and Juliet in 1950s New York. Off-Broadway, he directed the play by Arthur Kopit, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1962). Broadway, ballet, and Jerome Robbins. Robbins recreated his stage dances for The King and I for the 1956 film version. Jerry flipped. In 1963, Robbins asked Bernstein to help him make a musical of Thornton Wilders apocalyptic The Skin of Our Teeth. He changed each of his worlds from . We went crazy, Lenny recalled. [18] Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents worked with him on West Side Story only a few years after they had been blacklisted."[19]. The sound was spontaneous and streetwise. For the movie, Robbins was brought on as a co-director with Robert Wise, taking the helm for the choreographed segments, while Wise covered the narrative scenes. Robbins suffered a stroke in July 1998, two months after the premiere of his re-staging of Les Noces. West Side Story was originally East Side Story. Mattox created a movement vocabulary that infused a mix of ballet, modern, tap, and flamenco with a propulsive energy. West Side Story (done by Robbins) was co-choreographed by a former Fosse student. Known as "Jerry" to those close to him, Robbins was given the middle name Wilson reflecting his parents' patriotic enthusiasm for the then-president, Woodrow Wilson. His innovative attitude to choreography is still timeless and so are his pieces. I thought, Ive never seen classical music, classical ballet, and a lighthearted zany show all put together and make sense. His work continued with Two's Company (1952), Pajama Game (again co-directed with Mr. Abbott in 1954), and Peter Pan (1954), which he directed and choreographed. Anskys play of love, death, and possession, The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds. That same year, Robbins won Tony Awards for his direction and choreography in Fiddler on the Roof (1964). Although he gave this testimony only after years of pressure, and threats to make public his sexual orientation, his naming names caused resentment among some of his artistic colleagues, including blacklisted actors Jack Gilford[17] and Zero Mostel, who, while working on Fiddler on the Roof "openly disdained Robbins". He took over the direction of two troubled productions during this period and helped turn them into successes. The subject for this new form, however, came not to Bernstein but to Robbins, in 1947. Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Jane Fonda go to the Super Bowl. Robbins became ballet master of the New York City Ballet in 1972 and worked almost exclusively in classical dance throughout the next decade, pausing only to stage revivals of West Side Story (1980) and Fiddler on the Roof (1981). I suddenly felt at the center of a universe I could control. For Jerry, whod been playing violin and piano from the age of three and who began taking dance classes in high school, art seemed like a tunnel to me. Perry Silvey, the longtime technical director of the New York City Ballet, remembers running a rehearsal sometime in the late 80s. He was a telegenic musical menschmagisterial. Ad Choices. What happened when Balanchine died? Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies and television. 2. For Jerry, being Jewish brought shame and fear. How many films did Fred Astaire star in between 1938-1968. Dance Style of Bob Fosse Fosse's unique jazz dance style was stylish, sexy, and easily recognized. It was a big, big deal, Lenny and Jerry working together again, remembers Jean-Pierre Frohlich, who oversees the Robbins repertory at N.Y.C.B. Put them together in collaborationin masterpieces such as the joyous ballet Fancy Free, the breakaway musical On the Town, and the electrifying experiment West Side Storyand you had an ongoing theatrical Manhattan Project, work kinetically detonated, irreducibly true, and oh so American. Robbins had to make his own luck. The movie, filled with exhilarating dance sequences choreographed by Jerome Robbins and memorable songsincluding "Tonight," "Maria," and "Somewhere"by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), won 10 of the 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including that for best picture. Education photography by Rosalie O'Connor and event photography by Patricia Burmicky or John Calabrese, unless otherwise noted. But then Robbins backed away from narrative and into abstraction. He directed the Ford 50th Anniversary Show with Mary Martin and Ethel Merman for television in 1953, followed by a 1955 telecast of Peter Pan for which he received an Emmy Award. He's a natural-born choreographer. He received equal kudos for his work in commercial theater Broadway. Robbins's primacy on Broadway and in ballet was assured; but he did more than reach the top in his two spheres of influence. And you could see that the dancers, even when they came on tired, responded to Mr. Bernstein like hepcats to Harry James. Bernsteins physical brio on the podium would become a signaturethe Lenny dance, he called it. When their strengths came into alignment it was like the stars In the Middle Ages travelling minstrels and troupes of actors, dancers and singers performed popular songs and slapstick comedy. [3] The family had many show business connections, including vaudeville performers and theater owners. 0. how did jerome robbins influence jazz. . Grove Music Online. But despite a bicycle accident in the 1990s and open-heart surgery in 1995, Robbins kept making dance. His feet press against the walls, a stride that suggests the Colossus of Rhodes. It is a confident, demanding presence that hypnotizes audiences and allows them to be their purest self. Among his numerous stage productions were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King and I, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy, and . And finding their foothold at a moment when America, during the war and afterwards, is becoming more and more indispensableas a country and as a force. Unlike previous choreographers, Robbins used the natural movement of the characters as the starting point for his choreography. Here's a glimpse at one of the classics you'll see when you. Though a dazzling mimic and scene-stealer in character roles, he was tired of dancing courtiers and exotics in the corps. Yup, says Paul Gemignani. Both these men were about energypositive, negative, generativeand while they racked up stunning achievements separately, they were elevated when joined. Jerry just breathed theater, says the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who worked with both men. When they first conceived the show in 1949, Robbins, Bernstein and Laurents set their story on the east side of Manhattan, and gave it the working title East Side Story. Finally I walk all the way up onstage and yell, Quiet on the gallery! I look up and theres Jerry and Lenny, side by side, looking over the rail at me. Stephen Sondheim. Matt Mattox: A Dancing Life. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story and a special Academy Honorary Award for his choreographic achievements on film. When their strengths came into alignment it was like the stars aligning. No choreographer has so epitomized the American scene, or been so prolific in his expenditure of his creative energy. He changed each of his worlds from . In 1981, his Chamber Dance Company toured the People's Republic of China. how did jerome robbins influence jazz. In 1960, Robbins co-directed, with Robert Wise, the film adaptation of West Side Story. We were always embarrassed by his dancing, says his older daughter, Jamie Bernstein. Theres no explaining why he had this incredible aptitude for rhythm, but it is true that he synthesized what he got out of Hebrew cantillation, and the music and dancing in that world, combined with his getting really obsessed with what were called race records, in his college yearsBillie Holiday and Lead Bellyto say nothing of Stravinsky and Gershwin. And, man, you couldnt wait to go home and write after you got finished talking to Jerry. Because Robbins was touring with Ballet Theatre, much of the collaboration on Fancy Frees score took place through the mail. By Ray Stubblebine/A.P. Jerome Robbins died on July 29, 1998 at the age of 79 after suffering a stroke, leaving behind a monumental legacy that continues to be performed and honored. Later that year, Robbins conceived and choreographed On the Town (1944), a musical partly inspired by Fancy Free, which effectively launched his Broadway career. They loved to break down the walls between genres, making things more fluid., Obviously, if you break boundaries, says Harold Prince, the producer of West Side Story, you want to break further and larger boundaries. On the evening of his death, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for a moment in tribute. One such dance, later also performed in New York City at the 92nd Street Y, was Strange Fruit, set to the song of the same name sung by Billie Holiday. He contributed a great body of superb work to our dance culture, represented all over the world, and in the continuous performances of musicals during the last 35 years. But when Jerry was coming over and there was a big meeting, he was scared. In the company of geniuses, Jerry was primus inter pares, first among equals. For his own company, Ballets U.S.A. (1958 - 1962), he created N.Y. The material refused to be transformed, says Guare, who was brought in to write the book. April 30, 2013. But there's another, relatively unsung hero, and his name is Andy Blankenbuehler. [14] Because he cooperated with HUAC, Robbins's career did not visibly suffer and he was not blacklisted.[15]. Many say that Fosse continued what Robbins began..Even though they both influenced each other. West Side Story is a contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet, set on the Upper West Side. Robbins wanted to choreograph dances that captured the reality of American life, rather than the ideal. In 1956 Robbins's muse, Tanaquil LeClercq, contracted polio and was paralyzed; for the next decade Robbins largely withdrew from his activities at New York City Ballet, but he established his own small dance company, Ballets USA, which premiered at the inaugural season of Gian Carlo Menotti's Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy in June 1958, toured Europe and the US under the auspices of the State Department, and appeared on television on The Ed Sullivan Show. A genius for me means endlessly inventive, says Sondheim. unhampered by tradition. Paging West Side Story. The following year, Penn took a black-and-white photograph of another young American artist, only here the subject is wedged between two walls forming a tight Va Penn visual trademark. And it wasnt metaphorical. Lenny and Jerry were newly minted princes of the cityNew York City, the postwar capital of the arts. Lennys mother, Jennie, doted and adored, while Jerrys mother, Lena, was impossible to please (a favorite gambit: if Jerry misbehaved, she would pretend to call the orphanage with a donationhim). Today, people are constantly fusing styles to make new forms of dance and this is what Robbins was doing. The harmonies, the way that Bernstein wrote the city, says Paul Gemignani, musical director of Jerome Robbins Broadway, in 1989, it sounded like New York in 1944, as opposed to New York in Gershwins time. Bernstein was blown away by Robbinss acute theatrical instinctsincredible, musically. Yes, Jerrys instincts were already impressive.