Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as wells as for his work as choreographer and director in theater, movies and television.

He started his career in 1939 when joining the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre. Soon, he was casted for principal roles in the works of Fokine, Tudor, Massine, Lichine, and de Milles. In 1944, Robbins created his first ballet, Fancy Free, which premiered with ABT. More than 60 ballets followed, for example Afternoon of a Faun (1953), The Concert (1956), Les Noces (1965), Dances at a Gathering (1969), In the Night (1970), The Goldberg Variations (1971), In G Major (1975), Other Dances (1976), Glass Pieces (1983) und Ives Songs (1989) which are in the repertoires of major dance companies throughout the world. He has worked closely with New York City Ballet. In 1949, he was given the position of Associate Artistic Director and, several years later, the position of Ballet-Master-in-Chief which he shared with Peter Martins.

Simultaneously, Robbins worked as a choreographer and director for numerous Broadway musicals and plays. Among them are On the Town (1945), Billion Dollar Baby (1946), High Button Shoes (1947), Miss Liberty (1949), Call me Madame (1950), The King and I (1951), Peter Pan (1954), West Side Story (1957), for which he received two Academy Awards, Gypsy (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). His last musical Jerome Robbins’ Broadway of 1989 won him six Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director.

Other awards and citations include five Donaldson Awards, an Emmy Award, the Screen Directors' Guild Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. He is a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient and was awarded the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur.

Jerome Robbins passed away in 1998 at the age of 80 years.