Jerome Robbins is an American choreographer, theater and film director. Robbins, who uses classical ballet and Broadway musicals with equal skill, is known for productions such as West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof.
His real name is Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; He was born on October 11, 1918 in New York. In her youth, she studied modern dance, ballet and different dance traditions. He joined Ballet Theater in 1940 and quickly became a soloist. His ballet Fancy Free, about sailors on leave, prepared with music by Leonard Bernstein in 1944, attracted great attention; the same idea soon evolved into the Broadway musical On the Town.
Broadway and ballet
In the following years, he prepared the dance patterns for musicals such as High Button Shoes (1947), The King and I (1951) and Peter Pan (1954). He was the originator, director and choreographer of West Side Story, which was staged in 1957. He consolidated his influence on Broadway with Gypsy (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964).
In 1949, he joined New York City Ballet, became involved in the artistic management of the company, and produced works there until his death; Afternoon of a Faun and Dances at a Gathering are known works of this period. He founded Ballets: U.S.A. in 1958. He went on international tours with his troupe.
He co-directed the 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story with Robert Wise, for which he received both the Oscar for best director and an honorary award for his choreography work in the cinema. He won five Tony Awards during his career; The last came with Jerome Robbins' Broadway (1989), which brought together his earlier work.
He was awarded the Kennedy Center honor in 1981. His testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953 remained a controversial page of his life.
Robbins died in New York on July 29, 1998, at the age of 79. He is considered one of the names that determined the direction of American musical theater and ballet with his works that place dance at the center of the narrative.
