Musical Theatre Monday - Jerome Robbins

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On the set of West Side Story
For a change of pace this Musical Theatre Monday, I wanted to focus on dancing.
Dancing is not really my personal strong point, but it's usually one of the things I enjoy most about any show. I used to find the ballet dream sequence in Oklahoma and Singing in the Rain endlessly boring because I was an annoying teenager, but as I've gotten older and I become less flexible and capable by the second - I marvel at the talent of these people who made their careers off of their ability to dance. I feel like aside from a few notables of this day and age - being a famous dancer isn't really a thing anymore. It's usually that you're a singer who can dance or a dancer who can sing - who becomes famous from singing.

But since we're still focusing on the Golden Age, I thought it would be fun to highlight a choreographer who really defined dancing in musicals as we know it today - Jerome Robbins.
If you've ever seen a local production of Fiddler on the Roof or West Side Story you've seen how pervasive and important his work was to Broadway probably without realizing it. It's the kind of work that has defined certain dances in these shows and the moves live on no matter who is choreographing.

For example, Fiddler's Bottle Dance. I'm sure you've seen most of these moves done in any performance of Fiddler you've seen (I know I have). Granted - it's a little more impressive to see the Bottle Dance done without specially rigged hats that the bottles are glued to, but the idea that Robbins was trying to convey is there even if it's an eighth grader with a glued on beard.


A more subtle example is Peter Pan's Flying. Every production I've seen of Peter Pan has this same sort of set up and similar moves. Simple, but expressive movements done through wire work. Fun ways to pose and play that brings the character to life.


One of my favorite examples of Jerome Robbins' choreography is West Side Story. Again, I haven't seen a production of West Side without at least some of these moves incorporated into the Dance at the Gym number. The circles that they do to mix up who they are dancing with is obviously a convention used as a plot device and is a common group dance (awkward 6th grade dance, anyone?) so that's a constant, but the rest is used frequently as well. Some of my favorite favorite dancing.

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