Classical Dance for Broadway Lovers
New York City Ballet pays tribute to Jerome Robbins in honor of his 100th birthday
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New York City Ballet’s month-long fall season kicked off this week, and the eclectic lineup includes pieces by founder George Balanchine, new works by emerging choreographers and a farewell performance by retiring principal dancer Joaquin De Luz. But for fans who adore musicals as much as classical dance, the culmination of company’s centennial tribute to the late Jerome Robbins is particularly exciting.
For the next half century until his death in 1998, Robbins continued to thrive in commercial theatre (The King and I, Gypsy, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof) while simultaneously creating dozens of enduring works for leading ballet companies.
Robbins actually started out at Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre) at age 21, where he premiered Fancy Free and several other pieces. But on October 11, 1948 (which just happened to be his 30th birthday), he attended the now-legendary debut performance of New York City Ballet. He knew immediately that he wanted to be part of Balanchine’s new troupe. Not long after, he joined NYCB as both a dancer and a choreographer, and was promoted to associate artistic director the next year. Robbins’ creations have been an integral part of the company’s repertory ever since.
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Christine Redpath, a former NYCB soloist, worked closely with Robbins. As a dancer, she experienced his notoriously tortuous creative process firsthand in the ’70s, and later assisted him as he choreographed. Since 1984, she has been responsible for overseeing his NYCB legacy, helping dancers learn his work.
“His ballets, despite the process sometimes being long and arduous, felt good to dance,” she says. She recalls Robbins’ frequent comment, “easy, baby” as he encouraged the dancers to be their natural selves on stage. “He wanted you to dance with your partner, and the other people on stage, and to be relaxed — to dance without worrying about technique so much,” she says.
When Redpath teaches Robbins’ choreography to dancers today, she tries to communicate that to the performers. “The steps they can pretty much manage — they’ve been schooled very well,” she says. “But they’re still performing, which he didn’t want. He wanted you to just dance.”
If you want even more Robbins, head to Lincoln Center where you can see American Ballet Theatre perform Fancy Free and in October, and peruse the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ exhibit Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York, which opens on September 26.
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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for select NYCB fall programs. Go here to browse our current offers.
Susan Reiter regularly covers dance for TDF Stages.
Top image: Tiler Peck and Joseph Gordon in NYCB’s Fancy Free. Photos by Paul Kolnik.
Susan Reiter covers dance for TDF Stages.