Passage V

Choreographing Stories

[1] Choreographer Jerome Robbins significantly affected the development of Broadway with shows such as On the Town and West Side Story which he helped elevate the status of dance in musical theater. [2] In variety shows like the Ziegfeld Follies, for example, the showgirls’ costumes thoroughly captured the audience’s attention. [3] In the early days of Broadway, dance was situated by the elaborate costumes. [4] As a result, the Ziegfeld Girls’ dancing seemed almost incidental. [5] But by the 1930s, Broadway musicals had begun to tell stories with greater complexity, while lavish costumes gave way to other theatrical elements. [6] Jerome Robbins, along with other choreographers, began using dance to tell the story. [7] However, actors gained a new method of conveying the characters’ emotions. (64)

The first Broadway musical Robbins choreographed, On the Town, (1944), depicted three sailors on leave in New York. Despite the fact that dramatic scenes in musical theater were usually interrupted in order to feature dancers. Robbins, by contrast, arranged for the actors, himself to perform the dances. His choreography allowed the actors to express the sailors’ joy for freedom while continuing the storyline of the show. (69) Offering authentic emotions to which the audience could relate, conveyed through the medium of dance.

But it was Robbins’s choreography in the 1957 musical West Side Story—a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with two New York street gangs in place of Shakespeare’s rival families—in which the story and dancing were most dramatically intertwined. From the gang members’ vying for control of the streets to the courtship of the ill-fated young lovers: Robbins melded modern jazz dance with classical ballet to convey the tragic tale.

Nowadays dance—like songs and dialogue—plays a role integrating in musical theater today. Where the spectacle of lavish variety shows had once relegated dance to a minor role, Robbins has won numerous awards, including an Oscar for West Side Story.