Jerome Robbins was born on the 11th October 1918 in New York and before the family name changed to Robbins, his original surname was Rabinowitz. When he was younger he took dance classes with his sister but wanted to go to university and take a career in chemistry. He pursued the course at New York University but due to economic problems with his fathers business during the Depression, he left after one year. This is when Robbins chose to make a career as a dancer.

In 1940 he joined American Ballet Theatre where he began dancing in exclusive roles such as Petrouchka. Robbins then went onto choreographing his own ballets and musicals and this is what he was known for. He worked with composer Leonard Bernstein to produce ‘Fancy Free’ which features three American sailors leaving New York City during World War II. It was his first dance for a ballet company and made its debut on 22nd April 1944. It had a delightful reception and received 22 curtain calls. Later that year he expanded ‘Fancy Free’ with Adolph Green and Betty Comden into the stage musical On the Town which was very successful. Throughout the late 1940s he went on to choreograph more popular ballets and musicals such as Interplay (1945), Facsimile (1946), Billion Dollar Baby (1946) and High Button Shoes (1947), which he won his first Tony Award for in 1948. In 1954 he adapted, choreographed and directed a musical version of Peter Pan, which also adapted for television and won him an Emmy Award in 1955.

In autumn 1957, ‘West Side Story’ was debuted on Broadway. This was a modern New York musical version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that Robbins choreographed and directed. Whilst working on this musical, Robbins would give his performers tasks to get into the right frame of mind; he wanted them to act and dance the way they perceived their characters. He would also keep the sharks and jets in separate rooms whilst they were practising their lines and scenes so when they came together they didn’t know each others reactions and it seemed more tense and real. These theories that Robbins has used are still used today and he influences many directors. For example, Paul Greengrass the director of 2013 film Captain Phillips used this technique throughout the film to really help the MV Maersk Alabama crew and Pirate crew get into character. In 1961, West Side Story was turned into a movie musical co-directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. “We all thought West Side Story was just a temporary title we’d discard once someone came up with a better one. Yet no one ever did.” Conrad (2010) The production still has an impact on the commercial dance sector today as the famous director Joey McKneely reproduced the show in 2008. Since 1957, it has made millions of dollars and sold millions of seats in theatres.