And the one thing that Jerry did not trust was his instinct. His infernal second-guessingan aesthetic integrity that had him tossing out thrilling ideas in search of even better, truer onescould get maddening, irrational. He wanted to choreograph ballets that were immediately American. He was simultaneously creating ballets for the New York City Ballet, which he joined in 1949 as Associate Artistic Director with George Balanchine. "[12] Although it opened to good reviews, it was overshadowed by Meredith Willson's The Music Man at that year's Tony Awards. Cast members at a party for the 1980 revival of West Side Story. 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. Jerome Robbins directs dancers in rehearsal for the stage production West Side Story (1957) by Martha Swope The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Robbins combined ballet,. [2] Top, Bernstein at work in New York City, 1958; bottom, a scene from Broadways West Side Story in 1957. In 1964, he took on a floundering Funny Girl and devised a show that ran 1348 performances. 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 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance modern jazz dance emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. It is often said that Leonard Bernstein wanted everyone in the world to love him; while still in college he said as much to a close friend. It was a quiet ballet, and there was noise above the stage, coming from the galleries where the fly-floor guys and bridge-spot operators work. His career as a gifted ballet dancer developed with Ballet Theatre where he danced with special distinction the role of Petrouchka, and character roles in the works of Fokine, Tudor, Massine, Lichine and de Mille, and of course his first choreographic sensation: Fancy Free (1944). In 1995, Jerome Robbins instructed the directors of his foundation to establish a prize for "some really greatly outstanding person or art institution. Finally I walk all the way up onstage and yell, Quiet on the gallery! I look up and theres Jerry and Lenny, side by side, looking over the rail at me. Little did they know their partnership would make waves for decades to come. Bernstein was steeped in the classical repertory, and he was a savant when it came to rhythm. Robbins was a five-time Tony Award-winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. how did jerome robbins influence jazz - alwaysforwarddenver.com by Philippe Halsman, 1959; right, director-choreographer Robbins on the set of West Side Story with Chakiris and Verso. It was a show, the critic Louis Biancolli wrote, planned, worked out, and delivered in a ballet key., It was audacious, says the director Harold Prince, who while still in college saw the musical nine times. Phantom and Grease/Some African-American influence e.g. West Side Story (1961 film) Jerome Robbins: Co-Director and Master Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz (Robbins) was born on October 11, 1918, in New York City to Harry Rabinowitz and Lena Rips. Lenny had a really wonderful sense of theater, but he breathed music., Still, there were crucial differences.