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REMARKABLE ROBBINS by Sheryl Flatow
Few choreographers have had as much of an impact on 20th century dance as Jerome Robbins, who has enriched both ballet and Broadway with his potent, moving panoramas. 

As Co-Ballet Master in Chief of New York City Ballet, the company with which he has spent some 27 years, he continues to expand his vision. In recent years he has introduced ballet audiences to the music of Philip Glass (Glass Pieces) and Steve Reich (Eight Lines), explored the music of George Gershwin (Gershwin Concerto), Albin Berg (In Memory Of...) and Claude Debussy (Antique Epigraphs), and paid homage to Fred Astaire (I'm Old Fashioned). This season, which runs through June 22, he will unveil two new works: a completely reconceived version of Dumbarton Oaks (a piece he initially choreographed in 1971 for the company's Stravinsky Festival), and a ballet set to a score by Aaron Copland. And returning to the repertory is Dances at a Gathering, arguably the definitive interpretation of Chopin's music.

Although most Robbins ballets are plotless, they tend to evoke moods which suggest different imaged to different people. At the heart of virtually all his works is a fundamental humanity and an emotional resonance. One suspects that the choreographer is something of a romantic, a notion about which he is undecided.

"There are people who follow Apollo and people who follow Dionysus," he says, "and I don't know where I fit in." The one thing I do know is that I'm not just clinical, that I couldn't get involved in a piece of music unless there was something in it that affected me, that touched me. For instance in Glass Pieces I'm very affected by the mass energy of the first piece, the song that's sung in the second piece and the tribal sense in the third piece. In the Stravinsky ballet I'm working on now, I'm moved by the sense of joy of the piece." 

His sensitivity to music and dramatic know-how were evident in his first ballet the exhilarating fancy free, which premiered in April 1944 with Ballet Theatre (and which can be seen this month, along

[[photo caption]] Robbins rehearsing NYCB dancers in Antique Epigraphs choreographed to Debussy music.

[[image: man on stage giving guidance to 4 dancers]]
[[photo credit: MARTHA SWOPE]]
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Choreographer Jerome Robbins has enriched both B'way and NYC Ballet with his powerful and moving dances

with Antique Epigraphs, on "Dance in America on PBS). Set to Leonard Bernstein's invigorating score, Fancy Free tells the story of three sailors on shore leave in New York City. From the moment the first sailor cartwheeled into view, it was evident that a fresh, new choreographic talent was emerging. It was not just the jazz inflections or familiar, everyday gestures incorporated into the choreography that made it special. A dance work portraying contemporary American characters behaving in contemporary American fashion was virtually unheard of at the time, and audiences recognized the people onstage at once.

The ballet proved to be so successful that Robbins and Bernstein decided to expand on the idea and, together with writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green and director George Abbott, created the musical On the Town. For the next two decades Robbins continued to shuttle between ballet and Broadway. He created masterpieces like Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert for NYCB (where he first worked from 1949-1959), and galvanized Broadway with his choreography and direction of such memorable shows as Peter Pan, Gypsy, Fiddler on the roof and, especially, West Side Story.

Despite his distinguished record on Broadway, which includes four Tony Awards, it has been more than 20 years since Robbins last worked in musical theatre. "I don't know if I have enough patience now. You start a show, and you have to deal with a book writer, a lyricist, a composer, designers, the star, the producers - it just goes on and on, and it leads to compromises which we don't have here. You see, I'm a little spoiled and happier in the New York City Ballet. We don't have to collaborate with anyone here. It's just the dancers, the music and myself. And we're not dependent on being a success on opening night. The fact that we are a repertory company is a wonderful relief, and you know that when your ballet goes on, everyone will get a chance to see it for many seasons to come."

Robbin's choreography is in great demand all over the globe, and his ballets are danced by most major companies both here and abroad. He is frequently invited to create new works for troupes everywhere, but his allegiance to NYCP is firm. "I was attracted by the ideals set down by George Balanchine," he relates. "I first came here in 1949 and I immediately learned that this was a laboratory to work upon Dance. The kind of ballets Mr. Balanchine made were so inspiring and of such nobleness that it held the company together with a singular purpose."

It has been three years since Balanchine died, and Robbins admits that the company is "still in a state of transition." But he is confident that NYCB will continue to uphold the standards set by Mr. Balanchine which have made it perhaps the finest dance institution in the world.

"The days when Mr. Balanchine was here choreographing and supervising the repertory and the dancers are gone," Robbins asserts. "That's an enormous loss. But we have the staff and dancers to preserve his legacy to the best of our ability. And now perhaps there will be other periods. We hope new choreographers will develop and come in and add to our repertory. Still, we have an unsurpassable repertory of living masterpieces, and as long as they're danced by our wonderful dancers, I think we will continue to keep our distinction."
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MASTER THEATRE QUIZ -- #8
The original title for a Streetcar Named Desire was (a) The Kindness of Strangers (b) Blanche and Stanley (c) The Poker Night
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