how did jerome robbins influence jazz

That same year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with a special Academy Honorary Award for his choreographic achievements on film. Soon after that he choreographed The Guests, a ballet about intolerance. Robbins, though willing to confess to past party membership, resisted naming names of others with similar political connections; he held out for three years until, according to two family members in whom he confided, he was threatened with public exposure of his homosexuality. It was too exposing. When Bernstein told People magazine, The ballet is based on our experience in Jewishness, Robbins corrected him: It isnt.. August 14, 2014. Off-Broadway, he directed the play by Arthur Kopit, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1962). And they each needed success. Legendary dancer, choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909, to an African American father and French-Canadian mother who died when she was young. The photographs on this website depict choreography copyrighted by the individual choreographers. Director-choreographer Bob Fosse forever changed the way audiences around the world viewed dance on the stage and in the film industry in the late 20th century. Were 70 years on in the life of that ballet and it is so alive, says Damian Woetzel, the incoming president of the Juilliard School and a former principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, where he danced Robbinss own role in Fancy Free. He was a director of musicals, plays, movies, and television programs. [3] The family had many show business connections, including vaudeville performers and theater owners. The show starred Zero Mostel as Tevye and ran for 3242 performances, setting the record (since surpassed) for longest-running Broadway show. He also performed uncredited show doctoring on the musicals A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951), Wish You Were Here (1952), Wonderful Town (1953), and choreographed and directed several sketches for The Ford 50th Anniversary Show, starring Mary Martin and Ethel Merman on CBS.[11]. Jazz is so much more than sleek finger snaps, sharp hips, and jazz hands. Stephen Sondheim. Phantom and Grease/Some African-American influence e.g. When their strengths came into alignment it was like the stars aligning. change, the influence of, for example, Ruth St. Denis on Cole, and the legacies of Cole and Mattox and their contribution to the emergent 'theatre dance form' taught in the case study school are explored. Leave it to Jerome Robbins to choreograph a dance of inner conflict that lasts the length of a shutters click. Because book, music, and dance were envisioned as an organic whole, the cast, in a Broadway first, had to be equally skilled as actors, singers, and dancers. The prizes should "lean toward the arts of dance" The first two Jerome Robbins Awards were bestowed in 2003 to New York City Ballet and to lighting designer Jennifer Tipton.[21]. West Side Story did, however, earn Robbins his second Tony Award for choreography. I see Fancy Free as their mighty yawp. Both could make him sweat. Cole worked to create the style of jazz that is still widely received today, on Broadway, in Hollywood movie musicals and in music videos. Robbins re-teamed with Sondheim and Laurents, and the music was by Jule Styne. Serving Denver's small businesses. You have the Each man in his own right was astonishing. The fusion of forms would be as snug as a switchblade, and the musical would move as the crow flies, direct and dark. Privately, Bernstein called it a dreadful experience. The Robbins biographer Amanda Vaill suggests that Robbins may have become just too authoritarian for his On the Town family. What happened when Balanchine died? He received equal acclaim for his work as a director of musicals and plays for Broadway as a director of musicals, as well as a director of movies . Perry Silvey, the longtime technical director of the New York City Ballet, remembers running a rehearsal sometime in the late 80s. Yet his torso twists in another direction, and his arms are held tightly behind his back, hidden as if handcuffed. Robbins had come to a place of peace about being a Jew. CHRISTOPHER WHEELDONChoreographerFormer Soloist, NYCBOne in a series of video interviews with people who were touched by Jerome Robbins' life.Part of the Jer. He just axed it all. Export: Opus Jazz and Moves. The New York premiere was September 26, 1957: Jets and Sharks; Polish-Irish-Italian Americans vs. Puerto Ricans; Tony and Maria. The African people were steeped in rich somatic cultures in which dance was a sacred and a celebratory tradition. Six months later the project was abandoned, no explanations. Yup, says Paul Gemignani. And the excitement was realized. time. personal life . The secondary Education photography by Rosalie O'Connor and event photography by Patricia Burmicky or John Calabrese, unless otherwise noted. When he went over to work with Lenny he headed directly to the studio. When their strengths came into alignment it was like the stars A storyteller in movement, Robbins daily murdered his darlings and those of his colleaguesdance phrases that were too fancy or distracting, music, text, and emotion that were too much. Others say not. Among his numerous stage productions were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King and I, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy, and . Visionary, intense, and. The boy attended a. How did Bob Fosse influence jazz dance? Because Robbins was touring with Ballet Theatre, much of the collaboration on Fancy Frees score took place through the mail. (Gypsy was just around the corner.) The company performed to acclaim in the United States and Europe. I began developing the theme right there in his presence., The one thing about Lennys music which was so tremendously important, Robbins said later, was that there always was a kinetic motorthere was a power in the rhythms of his work, or the change of rhythms in his work and the orchestrationwhich had a need for it to be demonstrated by dance., I remember all my collaborations with Jerry in terms of one tactile bodily feeling, Bernstein said in 1985, which is his hands on my shoulders, composing with his hands on my shoulders. Jerome Robbins received world renown as a choreographer of ballets created for the New York City Ballet, Ballets U.S.A., American Ballet Theatre, and other international companies. That was my contract with life, with God. But he was still uncomfortable in his own skin, hot-tempered with his collaborators, and a slave driver at work, demanding every minute, every second, of time owed him. Bernstein revealed a gift for lyric simplicity, and his shake-a-leg symphonism, which shot between highbrow dissonance and brash Big Band, had the glitter of mica in Big Apple sidewalks. According to Dan Duell, the artistic director of Ballet Chicago, Robbins wanted to capture the rarefied atmosphere that was still alive and breathing there. Known as "Jerry" to those close to him, Robbins was given the middle name Wilson reflecting his parents' patriotic enthusiasm for the then-president, Woodrow Wilson. Early Life of Bob Fosse. Lennys mother, Jennie, doted and adored, while Jerrys mother, Lena, was impossible to please (a favorite gambit: if Jerry misbehaved, she would pretend to call the orphanage with a donationhim). Robbins commissioned the score for the ballet from Leonard Bernstein, who was a relatively unknown composer at the time. As a collaborator Ive had a lot of marriages. Jerry just breathed theater, says the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who worked with both men. ; the year after that he teamed with Irving Berlin to choreograph Miss Liberty. Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz (Robbins) was born on October 11, 1918, in New York City to Harry Rabinowitz and Lena Rips. He directed the Ford 50th Anniversary Show with Mary Martin and Ethel Merman for television in 1953, followed by a 1955 telecast of Peter Pan for which he received an Emmy Award. [13] Robbins named the names of persons he said were Communists, including actors Lloyd Gough and Elliot Sullivan, dance critic Edna Ocko, filmmaker Lionel Berman, playwright Jerome Chodorov, his brother Edward Chodorov, Madeline Lee Gilford and her husband Jack Gilford, who were blacklisted for their perceived political beliefs and had their careers suffer noticeably, to the point Gilford and his wife often had to borrow money from friends to make ends meet. With this musical, Robbins blurred the lines between drama and dance as no one had done before. Although he gave this testimony only after years of pressure, and threats to make public his sexual orientation, his naming names caused resentment among some of his artistic colleagues, including blacklisted actors Jack Gilford[17] and Zero Mostel, who, while working on Fiddler on the Roof "openly disdained Robbins". Lenny conducted, and his buoyant presence, that too was choreographic. The musical helped turn lead Barbra Streisand into a superstar. A mere eight months later, on December 28, 1944, On the Town opened on Broadway, directed by that granddaddy of the stage George Abbott. Following a bicycle accident in 1990 and heart-valve surgery in 1994, in 1996 he began showing signs of a form of Parkinson's disease, and his hearing was quickly deteriorating. West Side Story was originally East Side Story. [1][2], Robbins was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in the Jewish Maternity Hospital at 270 East Broadway on Manhattan's Lower East Side a neighborhood populated by many immigrants. "Bernstein, Leonard." In the summer of 1937 Robbins began dancing and choreographing at Tamiment, a progressive-movement resort in Pennsylvania's Pocono mountains which featured a resident singing-acting-dancing troupe and weekend revues starring emerging talents like Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca, and Carol Channing. how did jerome robbins influence jazz. Jerry flipped. That same year, Robbins won Tony Awards for his direction and choreography in Fiddler on the Roof (1964). Original Moves. His only visible ear, the right, is largeand as centrally positioned in the portrait as middle C. Is this a fin de sicle poet dressed for the theater? He died on Feb. 18 in France. He died at his home in New York on July 29, 1998. I loved it so much, and at the same time, more subconsciously, I was trying to see how those disparate elements came together to make such an incredibly successful evening.. Posted on June 11, 2022 by . What three dancers did Fred Astaire dance with? Jerome Robbins, who died in 1998, was less public, a watcher whose uncompromising vision as a choreographer and directorin ballet and on Broadway, in shows filmed and on televisionplaced the power of dance before Americas baby-boomers and their parents. From here on, so many greats took up jazz dance, each adding their own flair and influencing the others. He changed each of his worlds from . Robbins displayed an early interest in music, dancing, and theatrics whilst at school. He then performed the same tasks for Gypsy (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). They invented the first tap shoes by attaching metal plates to their shoes so that the entire audience, who would sit in a colossal open-air theatre, could hear the dancesteps (1). had an influence on Fosse's choreography. Top, from Nara Archives/Rex/Shutterstock; bottom, by Hank Walker/The Life Images Collection/Getty Images. They had in common a hatred of failure. He's a natural-born choreographer. He established and partially endowed the Jerome Robbins Film Archive of the Dance Collection of the New York City Public Library at Lincoln Center. In 1962, he saved A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), a musical farce starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, David Burns, and John Carradine. mix of styles: in Redhead alone he incorporated elements of the ballet, jazz, march, cancan, gypsy dance, and the traditional English music-hall. 1, Jeremiah, was premiered. To help the young cast grow into their roles, Robbins did not allow those playing members of opposite gangs (Jets and Sharks) to mix during the rehearsal process. In the Middle Ages travelling minstrels and troupes of actors, dancers and singers performed popular songs and slapstick comedy. No choreographer has so epitomized the American scene, or been so prolific in his expenditure of his creative energy. Key words: standing over him. In their relationship, Jerry was the leader, dominant, the overlordeveryone says thisand Lenny was flexible, with quick response time and an inexhaustible archive of musical forms from which to pull. By Ray Stubblebine/A.P. It was also during this time that Matt Mattox, who had been a dancer of the Jack Cole style in many Hollywood musicals, began to develop his own teaching . Jerome Robbins died on July 29, 1998 at the age of 79 after suffering a stroke, leaving behind a monumental legacy that continues to be performed and honored. The harmonies, the way that Bernstein wrote the city, says Paul Gemignani, musical director of Jerome Robbins Broadway, in 1989, it sounded like New York in 1944, as opposed to New York in Gershwins time. Bernstein was blown away by Robbinss acute theatrical instinctsincredible, musically. Yes, Jerrys instincts were already impressive. In 1960, Robbins co-directed, with Robert Wise, the film adaptation of West Side Story. [9] Two years later, Robbins received plaudits for his humorous Mack Sennett ballet, High Button Shoes (1947), and won his first Tony Award for choreography. 21-22 Season photography 2020 Jacob Sutton. Cast members at a party for the 1980 revival of West Side Story. Two years after that, he directed and choreographed Bells are Ringing (1956), followed by the historic, operatic, and balletic West Side Story (1957). Jerome Robbins, original surname Rabinowitz, (born Oct. 11, 1918, New York, N.Y., U.S.died July 29, 1998, New York City), one of the most popular and imaginative American choreographers of the 20th century. To promote authenticity, Robbins kept the cast members for the Jets and the Sharks separated from each other during rehearsals and continuously posted news stories about gang violence on the bulletin board . After inundating company management with over-ambitious ideas for ballets, Robbins finally offered up a timely, simple scenariothree wartime sailors on shore leave in Manhattan. Hamilton' is offering $10 lottery tickets for every D.C. performance. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Black Jerome was Bernsteins nickname. The gritty reality of racism and gang warfare in West Side Story does just that. At their best, they completed each other. After a year of college, he found dance and theater through his sister and a summer arts camp, and he began to perform and to choreograph. His work is characterized by the intensity and compactness of its expression and its wide variety of mood whether it be rhapsodic, introspective, poignant, or hilarious. Bernstein wrote a magnificent scorebrooding, gliding, gleamingly nocturnal. Robbins wanted to choreograph dances that captured the reality of American life, rather than the ideal. Three of his dance trademarks included turned-in knees, sideways shuffling, and rolled shoulders. It told the story of soulmates Chanon and Leah, and the mystical link between them. "Tradition!" JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY features a selection of numbers from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF! His work continued with Two's Company (1952), Pajama Game (again co-directed with Mr. Abbott in 1954), and Peter Pan (1954), which he directed and choreographed. West Side Story created by Lenard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins tell the story of Romeo and Juliet in 1950s New York. Robbins's primacy on Broadway and in ballet was assured; but he did more than reach the top in his two spheres of influence. . Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) received world renown as a choreographer of ballets created for New York City Ballet, Ballets U.S.A., American Ballet Theatre and other international companies. Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. These were true American voices that were addressing what it meant to be American, through dance and music. The first quintessentially American choreographer, he fulfilled the American dream without ever fitting it: a small-town boy who. Jerry determined at a young age that the "confines" of his family's business were too much for him. Why is Bob Fosse's work so influential? It is a chance to rediscover the brilliance, the wit and . He was awarded a fifth Tony Award for it. Exuberance shoots through Lennys updates, letters of magical rapport and full of cocky confidence, just like the sailors in the ballet. In 1962, Robbins directed Arthur Kopit's non-musical play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. And it wasnt metaphorical. His work is characterized by the intensity and compactness of its expression and its wide variety of mood whether it be rhapsodic, introspective, poignant, or hilarious. His influence on all aspects of technique, choreographic style, music, costume, lighting and stage design has been far-reaching. They were probably up in Jerrys officetheres a door from the fourth-floor hallway that goes right into that galleryand they just sneaked in to look down and see what was happening onstage. No matter what the material was, says Guare, if Jerry wanted to do it, people would follow him. And if the material wasnt right? The talented couple toured throughout Chicago theaters as "The Riff Brothers." Although he began as a modern dancer, his start on Broadway was as a chorus dancer before joining the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre in 1939, where he went on to dance principal roles in the works of Fokine, Tudor, Massine, Balanchine, Lichine, and de Mille. Success carried them away from Ansky and straight to On the Town. Published by at February 16, 2022. (When you make your first work with someone, Robbins would say in an interview before Dybbuks premiere, it makes for a certain bond.) And the plays focus on the existential secrets of the Kabbalah had a Promethean subtext, the reaching after cosmicread artisticpower. Digital Library. But when Jerry was coming over and there was a big meeting, he was scared. In the company of geniuses, Jerry was primus inter pares, first among equals. A documentary about Robbins's life and work, Something to Dance About, featuring excerpts from his journals, archival performance and rehearsal footage, and interviews with Robbins and his colleagues, premiered on PBS in 2009 and won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award the same year. When Serge Koussevitzky, one of the several conductors who mentored Lenny, and himself a Jew, suggested he Anglicize his name to Leonard S. Burns, he replied, Ill do it as Bernstein or not at all. (Pronounced Bern-stine, with a long i.). . [16] However, when the film received 10 Academy Awards for the 1961 award year, Robbins won two, one for his Direction and one for "Brilliant Achievements in the Art of Choreography on Film". And both, in defiance of immigrant fathers who scorned the arts as a losing proposition, had their first big successes at the age of 25. At the height of his mastery on Broadway he insisted that his billing include a box around his name, showcasing his contribution, protecting it, arms crossed around it. It was musical theater cracked open, the plot morphologically cascading, evolving itself scene to scene. QUICK FACTS Name: Jerome Robbins. Additionally, The Jerome Robbins Chamber Dance Company completed an acclaimed tour of the People's Republic of China, sponsored in 1981 by the U.S. Communications Agency. And despite his wit and charm after hours, Robbins at work used confrontation and cruelty to get his way. He nevertheless staged Les Noces for City Ballet in 1998, his last project. Last edited on 27 February 2023, at 00:47, House Committee on Un-American Activities, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Live From Studio 8H: An Evening of Jerome Robbins' Ballets, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, "Something to dance about: new Jerome Robbins documentary", "Jerome Robbins, 79, Is Dead; Giant of Ballet and Broadway", "Sister of Jerome Robbins Dies at Fiddler's Opening Night", "Robbins's Sister Dies at 'Fiddler' Opening", "When You're a Shark You're a Shark All the Way", "Madeline Lee Gilford, 84, Actress and Activist - April 18, 2008 - The New York Sun", "Actors recall living in fear of Jerome Robbins yet dying to work with him", "Jerome Robbins Catalog of Work: The Four Seasons", NY Times, Alastair Macaulay, April 27, 2008, Archive footage of ABT (then Ballet Theatre) performing Robbins's ballet, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Robbins&oldid=1141826580, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 00:47. Here's a glimpse at one of the classics you'll see when you. Two months later his Symphony No. Among his outstanding works were The Guests (1949), Age of Anxiety (1951), The Cage (1951), The Pied Piper (1951), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), Fanfare (1953), and The Concert (1956), the latter the most hilarious of all ballets. Sam Bernstein did well in his own beauty-supply business, having grabbed the New England franchise for the Frederics permanent-wave machine, a device used in beauty salons, and Harry Rabinowitz, after moving the family to Weehawken, New Jersey, ran the Comfort Corset Company. In 1954, Robbins collaborated with George Abbott on The Pajama Game (1954), which launched the career of Shirley MacLaine, and created, choreographed, and directed the Mary Martin vehicle, Peter Pan (which he re-staged for an Emmy Award-winning television special in 1955, earning himself a nomination for best choreography). What three combinations of styles did Fred Astaire perform? And certainly never Lenny. Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 - July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.. When they first met, 25 years later, it was the kismet of kindred spirits, their upbringings variations on a theme: middle-class, Russian-Jewish, tough love from difficult fathers who were busy achieving the American Dream. As a kid, Wheeldon spent his summers directing homegrown performances with neighborhood friends. The streak of hits continued with Gypsy (1959), starring Ethel Merman. Born into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants . In 1937 Robbins made the first of many appearances as a dancer at Camp Tamiment, a resort in the Poconos known for its weekly Broadway-style revues; and he began dancing in the choruses of Broadway shows, including Great Lady and Keep Off the Grass, both choreographed by George Balanchine. During this decade, the influence of Latin American music and dance enriched jazz dance as was seen in the landmark Broadway production of West Side Story, choreographed by Jerome Robbins . 1940's-70's Jerome Robbins Jerome : Robbins' style of jazz dance combined with classical ballet, contemporary dance, vernacular dances/ dances from other culture s and everyday: . [20] Robbins was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame 10 years later, in 1989. Get the latest chatter, from Kensington Palace and beyond, straight to your inbox. how to get incineroar hidden ability; At the very least, the letters are full of excitement. How many films did Fred Astaire star in between 1938-1968. It was like dealing with a dead whale in the room. As far as Im concerned, theres West Side Story and then there are musicals. This was the pinnacle of the Bernstein-Robbins enterprise. 2. Dybbuk Dybbuk Dybbuk, Robbins wrote to Bernstein in 1958. In 1988 he took a leave of absence to stage Jerome Robbins' Broadway, which opened in 1989 to resounding critical and popular acclaim, and in 1990 he resigned from the position of Ballet Master in Chief which he shared with Peter Martins to pursue other projects.A partial list of his 54 creations includes: Dances at a Gathering (1969); The Goldberg Variations (1971); Watermill (1972); Requiem Canticles (1972); The Dybbuk Variations (1974); In G Major (1975); Mother Goose (1975); The Four Seasons (1979); Opus 19: The Dreamer (1979); Piano Pieces (1981); Gershwin Concerto (1982); Glass Pieces (1983); I'm Old Fashioned (1983); Antique Epigraphs (1984); Brahms/Handel (with Twyla Tharp, 1984); In Memory Of (1985); Quiet City (1986); Piccolo Balletto (1986); Ives, Songs (1988); 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), and West Side Story Suite (1995). Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies and television. With Jerome in one of the leading roles it opened at . This kiss of fate allowed him, in one afternoon, to loosen forever Europes grip on the conductors baton. Leonard Bernstein never looked more beautiful. Lenny kept saying to Jerry, Why do you need me in this show? He was afraid he was just being used to supply incidental music and he wanted to make a statement that would give it importance. . Backstage and atmospheric photography by Gabriela Celeste or Erin Baiano. One of the greats who made this impact . The work was tailor-made for them. In 1963, Robbins asked Bernstein to help him make a musical of Thornton Wilders apocalyptic The Skin of Our Teeth. Regarding Jerry, Bernsteins view was simple: We have to cater to genius. Robbins, meanwhile, was indeed a colossus with a Broadway hit parade to his name, shows including High Button Shoes, The King and I, Pajama Game, Peter Pan, and Bells Are Ringing. For the movie, Robbins was brought on as a co-director with Robert Wise, taking the helm for the choreographed segments, while Wise covered the narrative scenes. New York City Ballet and the block letter logo are registered trademarks of New York City Ballet, Inc. A look at Jerome Robbins' extraordinary body of work, bridging Broadway and ballet like no other choreographer before or since. He was awarded three honorary doctorates including an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 1980 from the City University of New York and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from New York University in 1985. Jerome Robbins Influence Robbins choreographed shows that combined ballet with soft shoe and broke ground with the start of a new style. He performed in it when it was presented at the Metropolitan Opera as part of the Ballet Theatres 1944 season. He was the influencer behind huge choreographic names such as Bob Fosse, with his work reaching the likes of modern dance greats Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins. But it didnt happen then. He said that one of his inspirations for this ballet had been Paul Cadmus's 1934 painting The Fleet's In!, even though it was lighthearted, which the painting decidedly was not. The subject for this new form, however, came not to Bernstein but to Robbins, in 1947. Theres no explaining why he had this incredible aptitude for rhythm, but it is true that he synthesized what he got out of Hebrew cantillation, and the music and dancing in that world, combined with his getting really obsessed with what were called race records, in his college yearsBillie Holiday and Lead Bellyto say nothing of Stravinsky and Gershwin. The movie, filled with exhilarating dance sequences choreographed by Jerome Robbins and memorable songsincluding "Tonight," "Maria," and "Somewhere"by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), won 10 of the 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including that for best picture. During this extraordinary, prolific career, Mr. Robbins served on the National Council on the Arts from 1974 to 1980, and the New York State Council on the Arts/Dance Panel from 1973 to 1988. Jazz was a big hit in the early 50's and it is still a well loved style of dance all over the world. Robbins himself wrote, We did not want to think of a world after a nuclear war. Adam Greens understanding from his father was that Jerry got restless and walked away, and then Lenny did, too.. Few chose to go home. He graduated in 1935 from Woodrow Wilson High School (since renamed as Weehawken High School). He is seated on drab carpeting draped over a chaise-like shape, vaguely old-world. Shortly after Fancy Frees premiere, Robbins was already pushing the envelope, thinking about a ballet dance play in one scene, combining the forms of dance, music, & spoken word into one theater form. It didnt come to anything at Ballet Theatre, but when Oliver Smith suggested that the situation of Fancy Free might be retooled into a Broadway show, spontaneity and content merged and the result was On the Town.