Tribute to Jerome Robbins

One of the most important choreographers of the 20th century, Jerome Robbins set himself apart with a style that combined classical and folklore, jazz and musical theatre. Gaining fame on Broadway at an early age, he would draw inspiration from that experience for his early ballets. Fancy Free, which is now entering the Paris Opera Ballet’s repertoire, is a perfect example. This first work, hailed by critics and audiences alike, also marked Robbins’ initial collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein, ushering in an artistic relationship that would ultimately lead to Hollywood… 

When Jerome Robbins created Fancy Free, he was a mere twenty-five-year-old studying at the American Ballet Theatre (currently the New York City Ballet). A few years earlier, in 1944, he met Leonard Bernstein who at the time was still a young and unknown composer. The two men quickly became friends, developing a common appreciation for jazz and Broadway musicals. Back then, they had but one idea in mind: to produce a show. Long before the legendary West Side Story or its cinematographic adaptation by Robert Wise, Robbins and Bernstein wanted to create a work firmly anchored in its times.

During the Second World War, in the summer of 1944, three American sailors on 24-hour shore leave enjoy a drink and wander the streets of New York in search of female company. It was a simple pitch to show off Jerome Robbins’ choreography and Fancy Free, a quintessential narrative ballet was born. All the nascent elements of his style were already at work in the piece: dance emerging from a walk (as in the opening scene of West Side Story), the technique of fusing ballet with modern jazz and, last but not least, broken rhythms working in synergy with the music of Leonard Bernstein.

The ballet’s premiere performance at the Metropolitan Opera on April 19, 1944 was such a hit that it received 22 curtain calls. As a result of its huge success, the work inspired the musical On the Town, which ran for 462 performances on Broadway. Adapted by Robbins himself, the work retained several elements from his original choreography, however, he transformed it into a style that was pure “Broadway”. Whereas in Fancy Free, the sound of Billy Holliday’s voice in the bar fades out when the sailors arrive—as the latter launch into a co-ordinated pas de trois lasting almost five minutes, with Bernstein’s lively music translating their joy at being on leave—in On the Town, the choreography lends itself to the original score. The different steps simply express what the sailors are recounting in the song “New York, New York”, composed by Adolph Green and Leonard Bernstein.
The outline was again different in Stanley Donen’s 1950 screen adaptation. Although the script itself barely changes, Gene Kelly, who was also the co-director, reworked the choreography of On the Town to make dance the focal point of the film and pay greater tribute to Fancy Free. As such, Kelly’s various steps clearly evoke the style of Jerome Robbins (who had been side-lined from the film by the producer). As for Bernstein, the film’s score only included six of his compositions (three songs, and two pieces for the ballet). Even so, the two artists as original creators of Fancy Free were not overly concerned. They already had another project in mind: a version of Romeo and Juliet set in modern times. 

In 1957, with the help of a young lyricist by the name of Stephen Sondheim and with a libretto by Arthur Laurents, the Bernstein/Robbins duo premiered West Side Story at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre. Once again, New York served as the inspirational backdrop for an ill-fated story of love between two protagonists from rival gangs divided by their ethnic origins. Success was immediate. The songs and the choreography became all but idolised. In 1961, director Robert Wise was eager to adapt the musical to the big screen. This time, Robbins took control, co-directed the film and oversaw all the dance scenes in accordance with his own style. The spirit of Fancy Free is omnipresent in several sequences, most notably, the opening passage in the basketball court, but also the dance scene (which echoes the dance sequence with the three sailors and their conquests). The film won ten Oscars, including Oscar for Best Director.
Until the early 1970s, many of the musicals he choreographed for Broadway were adapted for the cinema (including Fiddler on the Roof, which in 1971 became the second and last feature he himself would direct). After that, the choreographer moved away from musicals. His ballets, among them In the Night (1970), The Goldberg Variations (1971) and Other Dances (1980), would express a more classical, less narrative language. However, thanks to works like Fancy Free and West Side Story, Jerome Robbins is still considered “the king of Broadway” to this day. 

As celebrations for the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Jerome Robbins in 2018 get underway, the Directors of the Paris Opera Ballet have conceived a programme to pay tribute to a man who regarded the Paris Opera as his second home after the New York City Ballet. There are currently eighteen of his works in the Ballet’s repertoire bearing witness to this privileged connection. Eighteen opprtunities to leave an impression on the dancers who had the chance to work with the Broadway “showman”. Octave went to meet them. 

Étoile dancer and Director of the Paris Opera Ballet School

I discovered Jerome Robbins with En Sol. Suzanne Farrell was in the cast. The choreographer’s own musicality was already showing through in Maurice Ravel’s score. That discovery was an exciting moment for me: what I was seeing on stage corresponded exactly to the idea and image I had of ballet. At the time, Suzanne Farrell was the dancer I wanted to become and with whom I was starting to identify. And then Violette Verdy arrived in Dances at a Gathering. It was a shock. From that point on, I wanted to perform all his ballets… In the Night was the consecration. I was among the six dancers chosen for the first cast. The studio work was extremely long. It was as if Robbins were recreating the ballet for us. His perfectionism was at its peak. He made us work on a simple touch to make it match Chopin’s music and be in perfect symbiosis with his vision of the score. Rehearsing with the choreographer has taught me to be critical of my own performances. We became almost more meticulous than him! Above all, Robbins had a way of identifying with the dancers and of helping them to reveal their true selves: Even in the second cast, we were never looked upon as a second choice.  

Étoile dancer and a teacher at the Paris Opera Ballet School

My encounter with Jerome Robbins was a true revelation in my career as a dancer. I discovered an approach to dance which combined a simplicity in terms of movement and presentation and a high degree of technical precision in the studio that matched me perfectly. I immediately felt an affinity with his dance. It required no particular effort on my part, everything he communicated to me seemed natural. I would describe Jerome Robbins as an outstanding musician and a man of great humanity. Certainly, his talent was born of a degree of strictness but above all it was due to a perfectionism and a demand for the highest standards rarely encountered elsewhere. I immediately liked the man and the choreographer. In the studio, he urged us to focus on movement in its purest state without adulteration or embellishment. It had to have meaning. It had to be precise and natural. I had the impression that I was releasing my soul, that I was finally allowing my true self to show through in terms of gesture and dance. There are several ballets that I like to perform: En Sol with Laurent Hilaire, Other Dances with Manuel Legris of course—having chosen that piece for my stage farewell—and also The Concert, a ballet which manages to be amusing, almost burlesque, whilst retaining its sophistication. A partner is a crucial element in Robbins’s ballets. He requires us to be generous in our pas de deux by stressing the high degree of complicity that two dancers need to communicate on stage. Indeed, that is what I often say to dancers who are discovering his repertoire for the first time: you have to be able to give. Robbins is life, Robbins is joy!

Étoile dancer and a teacher at the Paris Opera Ballet School

I met Jerome Robbins after I was picked for the second cast of In the Night with Marie-Claude Pietragalla. For me, that ballet remains one of the great masterpieces of dance, a gem of perfection. The piece brings together everything that made Jerome Robbins a true master: his incredible musicality, his perfectionism, precision, and attention to detail. That month of rehearsals with him remains a memorable experience in my dance career. I’ve not performed a pas de deux in the same way since. The way we work our gaze for example is highly revealing of the importance Robbins gave to details: He could spend several hours on a simple gesture. A few years later, I was also cast in Glass Pieces, a ballet tbeing revived this autumn as part of the tribute to him. I like the piece's modernity, as much for its musical language as its choreography. What I like most about Robbins is the wealth and diversity of his ballets. He was able to be so modern when he created Glass Pieces and so amusing when he devised The Concert. Influences of Jazz, character dance and Broadway musicals mingle with his more classically inspired gestures. To interact with a man of such high standards certainly made me more mature. The poetry he radiated in the studio continues to live on in me today, especially now when I’m teaching.

Premier Danseur and ballet master of the Paris Opera Ballet

I was still a dancer in the Corps de Ballet when I discovered the world of Jerome Robbins for the first time. In memory of is a piece of incredible finesse. I admit that its spirituality at first escaped me, because I was probably too young at the time to appreciate its asceticism. However, I was already fascinated by the choreographer and his ballets and I dreamed of being cast as a soloist in one of his works. I observed the dancers who had already worked with him, and the effect it had on their technique, their stage presence, and their performance in the studio. Robbins transforms you, it’s a fact. Working with him required patience, the ability to listen and a great deal of attentiveness. We could pass several hours at the back of a studio whilst he focused on the rehearsal of a lead role… Watching him communicate was a dance lesson in itself! Jerome Robbins had this gift of knowing exactly where he wanted to lead his dancers without giving them too many explanations. By magic, at a key moment, things clicked into place. Precision, detail and perfectionism were always expected but were accompanied by a credo as Anglo-Saxon as it was his own: “Easy!” he would like to say through his white beard. Robbins’ ballets are the ones that taught me the most about working and progressing because he had this unique way of moulding and shaping his dancers. Robbins had a way of changing the point of view, playing with his alphabet to better entertain and trick his audience. Today, as ballet master of the programme paying tribute to him, I have to communicate that elusive side to a new generation. You need a very open attitude when performing Robbins. You have to let yourself believe in the suddenness of the action as if it was happening on stage for the first time. I will never forget our exchanges in the studio, his self-control and his generosity Those are precious memories for me.