Jerome Robbins
Photo by Jesse Gerstein
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. Although he began as a modern dancer, his start on Broadway was as a chorus dancer before joining the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre in 1939, where he went on to dance principal roles in the works of Fokine, Tudor, Massine, Balanchine, Lichine, and de Mille. His first ballet, Fancy Free (1944) for ABT, still in many repertoires, celebrated its fiftieth birthday on April 18, 1994. While embarking on his career in the theater, Mr. Robbins simultaneously created ballets for New York City Ballet, which he joined in 1949, and became an Associate Artistic Director with George Balanchine. Mr. Robbins has directed for television and film as well, with his co-direction and choreography of West Side Story winning him two Academy Awards. After his Broadway triumph with Fiddler On the Roof in 1964, Mr. Robbins continued creating ballets for New York City Ballet. He shared the position of Ballet-Master-in-Chief with Peter Martins until 1989. He has created more than 60 ballets, including Afternoon of a Faun (1953), The Concert (1956), Les Noces (1965), Dances At a Gathering (1969), In the Night (1970), In G Major (1975), Other Dances (1976), Glass Pieces (1983) and Ives Songs (1989) which are in the repertories of the New York City Ballet, the Ballet de l’Opera de Paris and major dance companies throughout the world. His most recent ballets include A Suite of Dances with Mikhail Baryshnikov (1994), 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), West Side Story Suite (1995) and Brandenburg (1996) all of which premiered at New York City Ballet.
In addition to his two Academy Awards, Mr. Robbins’s awards and citations include four Tony Awards, five Donaldson Awards, an Emmy Award, the Screen Directors’ Guild Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Mr. Robbins is a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient, was awarded the Commandeur de L’Order des Arts et des Lettres, is an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and was awarded a National Medal of Arts as well as the Governor’s Arts Awards by the New York State Council on the Arts. Some of his Broadway shows include On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam and Fiddler on the Roof. In 1989, Jerome Robbins’s Broadway won six Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director. He was most recently awarded the French Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur. Jerome Robbins passed away in 1998.