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A T R I B U T E TO
JEROME ROBBINS
Study Guide
ANGEL CORELLA, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
2014–2015 SEASON
A TRIBUTE TO JEROME ROBBINS
STUDY GUIDE
Jerome Robbins, Choreographer (1918 - 1998)
Jerome Robbins 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. 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 and television
programs.
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). This ballet, followed by Interplay (1945) and Facsimile
(1946), was performed by Ballet Theatre (later to be renamed American Ballet Theatre),
after which he embarked on an enormously successful career as a choreographer, and
later as a director of Broadway musicals and plays. His first musical, On the Town (1945),
was followed by Billion Dollar Baby (1946), High Button Shoes (1947), Look Ma, I’m
Dancing (which he co-directed with George Abbott in 1948), Miss Liberty (1949), Call Me
Madame (1950), and the ballet The Small House of Uncle Thomas in The King and I (1951). His work continued with Two’s
Company (1952), Pajama Game (again co-directed with Abbott in 1954), and Peter Pan (1954), which he directed and
choreographed. In the same year, he also directed the opera The Tender Land by Aaron Copland. Two years after that he
directed and choreographed Bells Are Ringing (1956), followed by the historic West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), and
Fiddler on the Roof (1964). In 1949, he joined New York City Ballet as Associate Artistic Director with George Balanchine.
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). For his own company, Ballets U.S.A. (1958-1962), he
created N. Y. Export: Opus Jazz (1958), Moves (1959), and Events (1961). For American Ballet Theatre’s 25th Anniversary in
1965, he staged Stravinsky’s dance cantata-- Les Noces-- a work of shattering and immense impact.
After the triumph of Fiddler on the Roof, Robbins dedicated his energies to creating ballets for New York City Ballet.
In 1988 he took a leave of absence to stage Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, 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), In G
Major (1975), Mother Goose (1975), The Four Seasons (1975), Opus 19/The Dreamer (1975), Glass Pieces (1983), I’m Old
Fashioned (1983), Antique Epigraphs (1984), Brahms/Handel (with Twyla Tharp in 1984), In Memory Of… (1985), Ives Songs
(1988), 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), West Side Story Suite (1995), Brandenburg (1997), and the NYCB premiere of Les
Noces (1998).
During this extraordinary career, 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. He established and partially endowed the Jerome Robbins
film archive, the Dance Division collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. His numerous awards and
academic honors included the Handel Medallion of the City of New York (1976), the Kennedy Center Honors (1981),
three Honorary Doctorates, an honorary membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1985),
and in 1988 he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts. Over the last five decades, Robbins brought joy, emotional
involvement, and humorous pleasure to millions of people-- not only in the United States, but throughout the entire
world.
(Source: American Ballet Theatre)
Leonard Bernstein, Composer, Fancy Free (1918 - 1990)
Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and
Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward
Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939,
he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to the film
The Birds, and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock.
Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella
Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson.
Inspired by his Jewish heritage, Bernstein completed his first large-scale work,
Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah (1943). The piece was first performed with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra in 1944, conducted by the composer, and received the New
York Music Critics’ Award. Koussevitzky premiered Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2: The
Age of Anxiety with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein as piano soloist.
His Symphony No. 3: Kaddish, composed in 1963, was premiered by the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra. Kaddish is dedicated “To the Beloved Memory of John F.
Kennedy.”
Bernstein always rejoiced in opportunities to teach young musicians; his master classes at Tanglewood were famous, he
was instrumental in founding the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute in 1982, and helped create a world class training
orchestra at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival. Bernstein also founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan,
modeled after Tanglewood; this international festival was the first of its kind in Asia, and continues to this day.
In 1990, Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize created in 1988 by the Japan Arts Association
and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education
through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc., before his death on October 14, 1990.
(Source: LeonardBernstein.com)
Frederic Chopin, Composer, The Concert (1810 - 1849)
Frédéric Chopin was born into a middle-class family in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, on March 1, 1810. He published his first
composition at age 7, and began performing one year later. By 1818, Chopin was performing in elegant salons and writing
his own compositions, including the Polonaise in G Minor. By 1826, he had
composed several piano pieces in different styles, and his parents enrolled
him in the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, where he studied for three years
under Polish composer Josef Elsner.
In 1832, he moved to Paris, socialized with high society, and was known as
an excellent piano teacher. His piano compositions were also considered
highly influential. Though Chopin had youthful love affairs and was at one
time engaged, none of his early relationships lasted more than a year. In
1838 he began a love affair with French novelist Amantine-Lucile-Aurore
Dupin, popularly known as George Sand. The couple spent a harsh winter
on the island of Majorca, in the south of France, where Chopin became ill. In
March 1839, Sand realized that Chopin needed medical attention and took
him to Marseille, where he was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis).
There, a skilled physician helped him recover from that episode of illness.
By the mid-1840s, both Chopin’s health and his relationship with George
Sand were deteriorating. His behavior had become erratic, possibly due to
an undiagnosed form of epilepsy. The affair ended in 1848 after, among other things, Sand’s unflattering portrayal of their
relationship in her 1846 novel Lucrezia Floriani. At the end, both parties were too proud to reconcile, and Chopin’s spirit
and health were broken. He made an extended tour to the British Isles, where he struggled under an exhausting schedule,
making his last public appearance on November 16, 1848. He then returned to Paris, where he died on October 17, 1849,
at age 38. His body was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery, but his heart was interred at a church in Warsaw, near the place
of his birth.
(Source: Biography.com)
Maurice Ravel, Composer, In G Major
(1875 - 1937)
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was born in France near the Spanish border, to Swiss and Basque parents. His father’s engineering
work soon brought the family to Paris, and the young man
entered the Paris Conservatory at age 14. He enrolled
as a pianist, but switched to composition under Gabriel
Fauré and André Gedalge. Ravel refused to be bound by
the school’s composition rules. His failure to win prizes
did not endear him to his masters, even though he wrote
successful pieces early on, including his Violin Sonata
(1897) and Shéhérazade (1898). Given those successes,
his failure to win the Prix de Rome in 1905 led to a public
scandal and a change in the Conservatory directorship.
Soon after that debacle, Ravel entered a period of great
productivity, producing works like L’Heure Espagñole and
Rapsodie Espagñole (1907), Valse Nobles et Sentimentales
(1911), several major piano pieces, and Daphnis et Chloé
for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1912. Around this time, he met Igor Stravinsky and joined a group of radical
composers known as Les Apaches. In 1906, he started but did not finish Wien, an orchestral homage to Johann Strauss.
Wien would turn into La Valse fourteen years later. In the interim, World War I brought his composing to a near halt. Ravel
tried to enlist but was turned down for physical reasons and ended up a military transport driver. In 1916 he started to feel
the urgings to compose when dysentery sent him to Paris to recover. Soon after, his mother died; Ravel’s mother was the
closest human contact Ravel had – he never married – and with her loss came devastation and more musical inactivity. He
wrote little during this period: most notably, Trois Poemes de Mallarmé (1913), Trois Chansons (1915), and Le Tombeau de
Couperin (1917).
It was when Diaghilev asked him for another ballet after the war that Ravel’s compositional juices returned. He completed
Wien, called it a “choreographic poem,” and changed the title to La Valse. Diaghilev called the result a “masterpiece”
but added that, “it’s not a ballet…it’s the portrait of a ballet….” He thought it undanceable and refused to stage it—the
two men never spoke again. The ballet was not performed until Ida Rubenstein staged it in 1929 at the Paris Opera. After
La Valse came L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (1925), a concert tour of the United States in 1928, and in the same year, Bolero.
The Piano Concerto in G Major and The Piano Concerto for Left Hand came out in 1930 and 1931, respectively. Ravel’s last
years were slowed by Pick’s Disease, which may have been exacerbated by an automobile accident in 1932 (though he
complained of memory problems and insomnia years earlier). He started some projects but produced only a few works.
Brain surgery in 1937 was unsuccessful, and he died a year later.
(Source: Classical.net)
History and Synopsis of Fancy Free
Fancy Free is a one act ballet which premiered April 18, 1944 by Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New
York City. This seminal all-American ballet portrays three sailors on leave in New York, who meet two girls on a hot summer
night. It was Robbins’ first ballet, and an instant hit. With its cast of brash and lively modern characters, its mix of classical
and vernacular dance, it influenced not only American ballet but also theatre and cinema and was turned into the musical
On the Town, and later a film of the same title in 1949. Robbins revived the ballet for New York City Ballet in 1980, and it
was also staged for Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1985.
(Source: Oxford Dictionary of Dance JeromeRobbins.org)
History and Synopsis, The Concert
The Concert (Or, the Perils of Everybody) is a one act ballet which premiered March 6, 1956 by New York City Ballet at
the City Center of Music and Drama in New York City. An outrageously funny ballet, filled with sight gags and slapstick, it
features a group of concert-goers who enact fantasies inspired by listening to a pianist playing Chopin. Its subtitle, The
Perils of Everybody, echoes the famous Perils of Pauline serials of the silent films era.
(Source: Oxford Dictionary of Dance JeromeRobbins.org)
History and Synopsis, In G Major
In G Major (aka “En Sol”) is a one act ballet which premiered May 15, 1975 by New York City Ballet at the New York State
Theater. This ballet is whimsical and serene with aquatic-inspired sets and costumes with an exquisite central pas de deux.
Maurice Ravel, at the peak of fame and popularity, had just returned from a triumphant tour of the United States when he
began Piano Concerto in G Major. Ravel wrote that the work was a concerto in the strict sense, written in spirit of Mozart
and Saint-Saens, he had intended to call this concerto a ‘Divertissement’, then it occurred to him that there was no need
to do so because they very title ‘Concerto’ should be sufficiently clear. Ravel uses certain effects borrowed from jazz, but
only in moderation.
(Source: JeromeRobbins.org)
Suggested Curriculum
Recommended for grades 5-8
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan #1
In this lesson plan, students will engage in research of various projects that have taken on different mediums. This
relates to the transition of Fancy Free from a ballet into a film.
• Conduct research on various forms of expression that originated in one form of medium and have been adapted into
another. Students can find many examples of novels adapted to film both recently and historically. Another example
would be plays or musicals that have been adapted to the big screen. Encourage students to find a story or character that
they can connect to on a personal level.
• Students will give a brief summary of the story in its original context and then how it was changed when adapted into
another form of expression. Why did you choose this story? How do you relate to the characters in the narrative? If you
could adapt this story into a new form, what would you change? Why? Can you think of other examples of a similar
storyline? How would you adapt that into a film, dance, or script?
• Create your own short story about a life experience. Who are your main characters? How do they act as an individual
and with other people? When and where does your story take place? How do you fit into this story? If you could produce
your narrative in any medium, what would you choose? Why?
• Create a small version of your full production. You can include drawings, videos, pictures, and movement. How can you
make your story come to life?
Lesson Plan #2
In this lesson plan, students will recall their family rituals and history. This relates to the comedic expression of
attending a musical concert that is shown in the ballet The Concert.
• Each student will think about a family ritual that has either been passed down from various generations, or is a new
ritual within the family. What is the event? How do people act when this ritualistic routine is performed? How do you feel
when you are a part of the experience? Have you been an ‘outsider’ to the experience? How did that make you feel? Any
emotions that arise from thinking about the experience are useful.
• In small groups, share your ritual with one another. Tell them the story and how you are affected by the experience. Take
note of similar ideas and emotions that are being discussed by members of your group.
• As a group, think about the similarities and differences that were shared with one another. Within the similarities that
are discussed, create a form of expression to highlight these ideas. Each group will now have a new ritual. This could
be through a movement, drawing, writing, etc. Challenge the students to work together as a group and have everyone
contribute to the final product that is created.
• Each student will evaluate their experience within the small group. Was your individual ritual evident in the group
presentation? How was your original ritual changed? How did it make you feel to have to compromise with the group? Did
you like your group ritual? Why or why not?
Lesson Plan #3
In this lesson plan, students will engage with research around various elements that are found within environmental
science. Focus the research around what is already being discussed in their science classes. This relates to the
aquatic scene that is created in the ballet In G Major.
• Students will brainstorm ideas of various environments they particularly like. This could include anything from a
geographical location, a season, a time period, anything that has a large effect on the way in which the student engages
with their surroundings.
• Pick one environment that you are interested in researching. Include as much information as possible as to what is
included in your environment. What kind of life exists in this place? What’s the temperature? How large in the space? Is
it found everywhere or only in one part of the world? Do you interact with this environment? If you don’t, why not? What
type of effect have humans had on this environment? Is it dangerous? Is it safe? Can anyone interact with it? Etc.
• After conducting research, brainstorm possible dances you could create in this environment. How would the dancers
move? Why? What set would you design? Why? What type of costume would the dancers have? What’s the emotional
expression that would be appropriate for this place? Why? Create your own dance that is influenced by your favorite
environment.