Jerome Robbins movement style in West Side Story is prevalent in his previous pieces throughout his life, going back to 'Fancy Free (1944)' which was the only straight forward ballet with characters who had a strong representative focus to do with their personal characterisations in dramatic situations. 1944 ballet about three sailors on shore leave in New York City during World War II.
"What Fancy Free did most impressively," writes dance critic Marcia Siegel, "was to integrate classical and colloquial dances within a context of carefully observed characters. . . . Robbins achieved it for the first time in a contemporary ballet. He gave gesture and the acting of real people the same validity on the concert stage that Fred Astaire gave to dancing in the quasi-realistic milieu of movie romances." Did you know that Robbins created over 60 ballets over two periods from 1944-1961 then from 1969-1997, and Fancy Free was Robbins's first collaboration with the amazing composer that is Leonard Bernstein,. Fancy Free was enjoyed so much that it played 160 performances in its opening season, musicals especially like this were a form of escapism, from all the real world problems at the time. The same year, the ballet was transformed into the hit Broadway musical 'On the Town (1944)' and established Robbins and Bernstein's strong relationship which spanned generations.
In 'Fancy Free' you can see that Jerome Robbins has always had a strong focus on 'naturalism' which are natural movements such as walking that effortlessly evolves into dancing, during 'Fancy Free' typic 'Robbins' movements you will see all draw from different genres from Ballet to Contemporary and Latin.
Moves you will see in 'Fancy Free' are:
- Accented hops (jazz)
- Parallel Retire (jazz)
- Elevated Ball change (jazz)
- Drag Runs (jazz)
- Side Kick (jazz)
- Barrel Jump (ballet)
- Technical Arm Lines (ballet)
- Retire (ballet)
- Release (contemporary)
- Suspension (contemporary)
- Hip Rolls (Latin)
- Body Rolls (Latin)
These moves are all present in West Side Story, from the Prologue to the Gym in the big dance scenes. Also with the characterisations, throughout West Side Story and Fancy Free with the humour and comedy aspects, and that every character has a purpose which comes with their own little quirks, and movements. For example 'Bernado' is famous for his hip-rolls and Anita for her Attitude leg. Robbins was creating characters that were 'real' and claimed a sense of humanity. Jerome Robbins made sure that in West Side Story every character had a name,purpose, and allowed them to create individual background information which helped create realistic characters.
"You are not just an abstract figure, you're a real human with real feelings" - Dancer Rebecca Krohn
In West Side Story the moves that form from naturalism are sometimes basic but still are full of dynamics and are very expressive. As mentioned previously Robbins is a huge fan of Naturalism, and it is basically the foundation of most scenes and dancing in West Side Story. For example in 'Afternoon of a Faun and A Suite of Dances' the dancers are exploring how they can move their bodies and their own personal flow to which a dance piece emerges smoothly. For an audience this would seem as if the dancers are moving spontaneously which is what Robbins wanted, to give off the illusion that they were all discovering movement for the very first time, and in groups as they express themselves and interact with each other with little speaking, and all physical communication that is free for interpretation.
Themes:
Jerome Robbins never choreographs without purpose and theme behind it. In West Side Story there are many different themes and underlying sub-themes such as reality,community,and relationships. Contemporary reality and brutality of treatment was very real in West Side Story, from the racism and discrimination that the Puerto Rican's received. For the Puerto Rican's West Side Story really depicts a fight for acceptance and urban space. The main reason why Robbins had this rivalry of gangs in West Side Story, was because of the cultural differences, which is similar to Romeo and Juliet, only they have their differences in terms of class. But what the gangs don't realise is that they both have the same amount of class, which is merely no class, and they are both immigrants; however the Jets think that they are more accepted because they are white. Both gangs are in the same position of not being accepted by society, and living in the Slums of New York City.
Relationships, between characters, society and groups are a huge focus within West Side Story as every character has a connection with one another where its by relation, friendship,counterpart/enemy, or romantically. Jerome Robbins explores who characters interact and come together through the medium of dance. Robbins allows us to see how different relationships from example we see the affection between Maria and Tony as love, Maria and Bernado as Siblings with his protective nature as her brother, and between Tony and Bernado as rivals. As an audience we are able to tell the difference characteristically with behaviour but with the certain moves associated with the relationship. For example with Maria and Tony their moves as lovers are more elongated with a connection compared to Tony and Bernado's moves which are quicker,sharper and are filled with tension and frustration.
Violence brought about by love is another theme that permeates in both stories. In both stories, love is linked to death. As in the case of Tony who died at the end of the story in West Side Story. The same goes to Romeo and Juliet, who met untimely death at the end of the story.Violence is very pronounced in both stories as we are being made painfully aware from the very start that the two protagonists come from feuding clans such as in Romeo and Juliet or feuding culture such as in The West Side Story. We have this unshakable feeling that trouble is brewing as soon as the story commences.
Another theme in the story is the conflict of individual self with society. What the protagonists in both stories Romeo and Juliet wanted were different from what the society expected from them. Romeo and Juliet fought for their private feelings to the end by committing the ultimate act of privacy- suicide. In the same vein, Maria and Tony fought for their private love but they did not really resort to extreme means. Tony’s death is not brought about by suicide although he challenged the villain Chino to come to kill him when he thought Maria was killed. Still, Tony’s death is not self-inflicted or voluntary as in the case of the lovers Romeo and Juliet.
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