Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins was born on October 11th 1918 in New York. He was raised in New Jersey where his family owned a corset business. Robbins later attended the New York University as a chemistry major. Due to the economic hardship of the depression, he was forced to dropout of college and return home. His sister, whom was an experienced modern dancer, inspired Jerome to explore the arts. Robbins invested his life into dance and earned admiration as one of the best in theater.

He started as an apprentice at the company where his sister danced. While working he took lessons in Spanish dance with Helene Veola, Asian with Yeichi Nimura, ballet with Ella Daganova, and choreography with Bessie Schönberg (Cross). In 1937, Jerome made his debut on stage in a Yiddish Art Theater production. During the summer Jerome occupied his time by choreographing and performing at the famous Camp Tamiment, a well-known place for aspiring artists. In the Jerome Robbins personal papers its stated that over three summers he learned from Gluck Sandor the importance of relating to the audience.

In 1940, Robbins joined Ballet Theater, now knows as American Ballet Theater. ABT is acknowledged as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. On the American Ballet Theater’s website its acknowledged that he was hired into the corps de ballet and moved up to solo roles such as Hermes in Helen of Troy, the Moor in Petrouchka, and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. Although he had great success at ABT, dance alone did not satisfy Jerome Robbins.

Next, He wanted to express his creativity by creating his own pieces. In 1944 Jerome’s first ballet Fancy Free hit the stage. Fancy Free illustrates the adventures of three sailors on shore leave in New York City competing for the hearts of 2 women. Later that year, Fancy Free was produced into a full musical, On the Town. In critics Nicholas Lewis’ review he states, “Everything about is right…On the Town is a perfect example of a...