Jerome Robbins (1918-1998). American dancer, choreographer and director

Jerome Robbins was an immensely prolific and influential choreographer and director, who worked in many fields, including classical ballet, the commercial stage, film and television. Born in New York in 1918, he studied modern dance in high school but did not begin his career as a dancer until 1936, after one year at New York University. He first danced in the chorus of a number of musical comedies and joined American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in its second season in 1940. He performed a number of important roles, including Petrushka and Mercutio in Antony Tudor’s Romeo and Juliet. In 1944 ABT presented Fancy Free, Robbins’ first ballet and a great success. Later the same year the musical On the Town, based on Fancy Free also received its première.

Thereafter, Robbins’ time was divided between Broadway and the ballet world. He continued to dance occasionally for ABT, including in ballets of his own, at the same time as choreographing for many highly esteemed and successful musicals. In 1949 he joined New York City Ballet (NYCB), becoming associate artistic director from 1950 until 1959. During this period he danced the title roles in George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son and Tyl Eulenspiegel, as well as creating nine ballets himself, including The Cage, Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert. He also ran his own company, Ballets USA, which played several seasons in Britain. Musicals continued to occupy him, including most notably West Side Story in 1957, which also became a landmark film.

In the 1960s Robbins directed plays before working on the highly popular musical comedy Fiddler on the Roof in 1964. In 1965 he staged Les Noces for ABT, before spending two years on a government funded project investigating various theatrical forms. None of this work was ever shown to the public. Robbins then returned to NYCB as a choreographer and ballet master. Dances at a Gathering appeared in 1969, followed by such works as Goldberg Variations (1972), Dybbuk Variations (1974) and In G Major for the Ravel Festival in 1975. During this period, his many musical and stage successes behind him, Robbins concentrated on classical ballet. He worked frequently on television in the 1980s. In the 1990s, following a cycling accident and heart problems, his health deteriorated, but he nevertheless re-staged his Les Noces for NYCB in 1998. Two months later he died at his home in New York. On the evening of his death the lights on Broadway were momentarily dimmed.