A Glimpse of Robbins's Darker Days
At times there seems something slightly impersonal about "New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World," the exhibit at Lincoln Center's Library for the Performing Arts. Robbins's work in ballet and popular entertainment as dancer, choreographer, and director is faithfully documented. There is some evocation of his "world" here, but we get only an aggregate of bits and pieces about the man himself. Yet "New York Story" certainly gives the visitor more than enough to look at, and when it is illuminating, it is deeply so.
Curated by dance historian Lynn Garafola, the exhibit begins with family photos that establish some of the contradictory impulses and influences that shaped Robbins, who was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in 1918. We see a photo of Robbins's father, Herschel, proudly posing outside of a delicatessen he owned on upper Madison Avenue. Rabinowitz was initially aghast at his teenage son's involvement in theater and dance. Robbins eventually choreographed and directed many of Broadway's greatest hits, including "West Side Story" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Vintage Broadway posters add some gaudy pizzazz and inject the welcome flavor of period graphics. But too many are included here, especially considering the limited treatment of what was probably Robbins's greatest period of choreographic creativity, his first tenure with New York City Ballet, between 1949 and 1956. Not only did Robbins then create masterpieces such as "Afternoon of a Faun" and "The Concert," he also choreographed a number of ballets that did not survive; one would certainly like to know more about them.
The exhibit does not ignore the darker elements in Robbins's personality. Driven by insecurity and discontent, Robbins conducted rehearsal sessions that were notoriously onerous for his performers; a 1958 caricature by Jack Murray shows Robbins brandishing a whip. Greed was also a significant part of his psyche. In what might almost be called the "Rosebud" display case, we're shown a sampling of letters and documents that include a 1946 contract marked "Rejected" by Robbins. The 27-year-old choreographer was negotiating with Ballet Theatre, now American Ballet Theatre, for a new commission. Robbins, a text card shows, wanted more rehearsal time, and higher fees and royalties than commanded by either Agnes de Mille or Antony Tudor, even though both choreographers were older and more established.
A raw item in this same display case is a typed letter from Robbins to ballerina Tanaquil Le Clercq, dated fall 1952, a few months before Le Clercq married NYCB founder and artistic director George Balanchine. Le Clercq was a primary muse of both Robbins and Balanchine at NYCB. It is believed that she and Robbins had also been romantically involved before her marriage. "Your next letter arrived this afternoon," Robbins writes, "and I was afraid to open it as I just couldn't take any more blastings, warranted or not." Le Clercq had apparently upbraided him for devoting time to commercial theater rather than to NYCB; that fall he was to choreograph Bette Davis's foray into Broadway revue. Le Clercq had perhaps compared him unfavorably to Balanchine, which would have been a cruel cut indeed, given Robbins's concomitant insecurity and his veneration for the older choreographer. "If my output is small, you mustn't judge by George who is older, works differently and has other talents and approaches." Stress stokes a neurasthenic temperament: "I felt terrible all day," he writes to Le Clercq, "shaking and nervous."
Four years later Le Clercq contracted polio while on tour in Denmark, and never walked again. Both Robbins and Le Clercq were amateur photographers; the exhibit includes photos that they took of each other, including a chilling photo of a haggard Le Clercq taken by Robbins in April 1957 immediately after she returned to New York after months of hospitalization in Copenhagen. The photo was found in his home after his death. At this point, Robbins returned to Broadway and started his own small company, Ballets: U.S.A. "I was happiest when I had my own company," Robbins said in a 1981 interview. But he returned to NYCB in 1969 and worked there until he died in 1998.
On exhibit here are theatrical appurtenances and souvenirs from a life on the road. There are costumes from his ballets, as well as the stand-up costume trunk that accompanied Robbins on his tours around the world. Also included is a carousel of Robbins repertory performance photos by Costas Cacaroukas from the last 30 years. They are projected on a large screen. On the small screen, or rather screens, something of a summing up is achieved via a bank of television monitors, each showing a video loop pertaining to a different facet of Robbins's career. The visitor is free to select earphones that will provide a soundtrack for the designated footage and thus steep himself in one of Robbins's many theatrical chapters.
Until June 28 (40 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212-592-7730).
