Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins
- By Amanda Vaill


Robbins (1918–1998) was the choreographic genius behind the 1957 Broadway hit "West Side Story" and other musical classics, in addition to such great ballets as "Fancy Free" and "Dances at a Gathering". Vaill ("Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story") was given unprecedented access to Robbins's personal papers after his death, and the result is a critically sophisticated biography that's as compulsively readable as a novel. As she traverses Robbins's growth as an artist, his ambivalence about his Jewish heritage, his bisexuality and his relationships with other artists from Balanchine, to Bernstein to Baryshnikov, she writes with both passion and compassion. More than Deborah Jowitt in her recent Robbins bio, Vaill delves into Robbins's personal life, quoting frequently from his diary and letters. But the result isn't salacious; rather, it allows a more vibrant and vital rendering of the man. Known for being very harsh on dancers, Robbins was called everything from "genius and difficult to tyrant and sadist," says Vaill, "yet the work... was marked by an ineffable sweetness and tenderness." In her balanced, sensitive portrait of an American theatrical genius, Vaill captures these contradictions elegantly. The book is essential reading for lovers of theater and dance. (Nov. 21)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
- Publishers Weekly

Published by: Broadway, Nov, 2006
ISBN: 978-0767904209
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Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance
- By Deborah Jowitt


Jerome Robbins's story is as distinctively American as his choreography. Born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Robbins (1918–1998) became a Broadway chorus boy in 1938 before joining Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, ultimately dancing lead roles. Robbins also became one of the 20th century's most highly regarded choreographers, including for the 1957 Broadway hit "West Side Story". Other Broadway successes include "On the Town", "The King and I" and "Peter Pan", and significant ballets such as "Fancy Free", "The Cage" and "Dances at a Gathering". With precision, lucidity and insight, Village Voice dance critic Jowitt ("Time and the Dancing Image") chronicles Robbins's extensive career, as well as his struggle with bisexuality, ambivalence about his Jewish heritage, and his decision to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1950s. Given unrestricted access to Robbins's personal and professional papers, Jowitt adds a new vulnerability and humanity to the legend: Robbins was infamous for his perfectionism, insecurity and temper. "I... still have terrible pangs of terror when I feel my career, work, veneer of accomplishments would be taken away," wrote the man who worked alongside Bernstein and Balanchine, "that I panicked & crumbled & returned to that primitive state of terror —- the facade of Jerry Robbins would be cracked open, and everyone would finally see Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz." Both critically sophisticated and compulsively readable, this is a must for theater and dance devotees.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Publishers Weekly

Published by: Simon & Schuster, Aug, 2004
ISBN: 978-0684869865
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JEROME ROBBINS: That Broadway Man, That Ballet Man
- By Christine Conrad


This first-ever book on the director and choreographer, Jerome Robbins – written by a close friend of thirty years – takes the reader on a magical tour of a genius at work. Using hundreds of never-before-seen images, Christine Conrad has put together a stunning pictorial biography of the renowned director and choreographer of such major theater works as West Side Story, Peter Pan, Fiddler on the Roof, and a principal choreographer for over forty years at New York City Ballet.

Family snapshots, rare photographs of Robbins as a young actor and dancer, backstage and rehearsal pictures, production photographs, old clippings – all these important artifacts documenting the life of this unique artist are given context by Conrad’s interlinking text and the use of Robbins own words culled from interviews over fifty years. In Conrad’s introduction, readers will get for the first time a rare look into the personal life of this very private man who actively discouraged any books about himself during his lifetime.

Christine Conrad’s close friendship with Robbins began in the mid-Sixties and lasted until his death. One of their most frequent ongoing conversations was the struggle to do good work. Conrad’s combined visual and textual narrative emphasizes the important threads running through Robbins’ creative work: his influences, working methods, perfectionism, fight for recognition and credit, and collaboration with key figures such as Leonard Bernstein, George Balanchine, and George Abbott.

In addition, Conrad has been granted rights to include select materials from highly personal journals that Robbins kept from 1972 to 1984 which are under restricted access according to the terms of Robbins’ will. The journals – written on Japanese rice paper notebooks – represent an extraordinary document of Robbins’ inner and outer life and are frequently remarkable candid.

Even those familiar with Robbins’ ballet, theater and film work will be astonished by the range of imagination displayed in these pages which provide a rich, visual illustration of why Robbins is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th Century. In a style that is at once accessible, visceral, and pictorial, the book celebrates Robbins’ extraordinary contribution to art and entertainment – providing a view of him that is a delight to the mind, the eye, and the soul.

Published by: Booth-Clibborn Editions, Oct, 2000
ISBN: 1-86154-173-2
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