Robbins, Jerome, 1918–98, American choreographer and dancer, b. New York City as Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz. Robbins began his career dancing in musicals (1937). In 1940 he joined the Ballet Theatre and in 1948 became associate artistic director of the New York City Ballet. The first ballet he choreographed, Fancy Free (1944), was expanded into the musical On the Town. Robbins gained distinction as the exuberantly innovative choreographer of such Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes (1947) and The King and I (1951). Ultimately creating an evolved and organic kind of show that was more a work of art than of entertainment, he choreographed and directed the musicals Peter Pan (1954), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). He also periodically returned to the City Ballet, where he created such works as Interplay (1945), Facsimile (1946), The Cage (1951), Fanfare (1953), The Concert (1956), and Moves (1959). After the enormous success of Fiddler, he rejoined the City Ballet and choreographed such works as Dances at a Gathering (1969), probably his finest ballet; Goldberg Variations (1971); Ives, Songs (1988); and Brandenburg (1997). From 1983 to 1990 Robbins was the City Ballet's co–ballet master in chief with Peter Martins. Many of his more than 60 ballets continue to be performed by the company.
See biographies by G. Lawrence (2001), D. Jowitt (2004), A. Vaill (2006), and W. Lesser (2018); C. Conrad, Jerome Robbins: That Broadway Man, That Ballet Man (2001); R. E. Long, Broadway, The Golden Years (2001).
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