Historical Context of Jerome Robbins' Work

VAUDEVILLE - Similar to British Music Hall, featured many variety acts for a working class audience.
1. Mable Whiteman and The Dixie Boys - Flash Dancing.
2. Little Alice - Queen of Taps
3. Picks - Black children who would back white performers
4. In the early 1920s the act of 'Show Dancing' was born onto the Vaudeville stages, dance was often the glue holding the shows together. Juggling & singing were also very popular.
  1. 'Vaudeville was a world where if you could sell it, you could perform it'
5. Acrobatic dance in Vaudeville shows were strong, daring dancers executing shocking acts of flexibility, strength and tricks. This form of dance is evident in West Side Story, particularly in Jet Song and in The Rumble.
Bill Bojangles Robbinson was one of the biggest dance performers on the Vaudeville scene. Many performers went on to star in early musicals and film, E.G. Ray Boulger - The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz [billed as an 'eccentric dancer).
1. GEORGE BALANCHINE took performers from Vaudeville to Musicals and Ballet. Jerome Robbins witnessed this whilst he was working in musicals with Balanchine.
In 1936 Broadway saw the signs of new, glamorous, big production pieces!
AGNES DE MILLE began to blend dance with narratives, such as in Oklahoma! Integration like this hadn't been seen since Showboat in 1927. Dancers were no longer just 'entertainment', they had a purpose.
DEVELOPMENTS IN HOLLYWOOD - The use of moving cameras [preferred by Fred Astaire for his dance sequences], a unified approach to camera/dancers, and a link between the choreographer and the director. All made it possible for Robbins to achieve what he wanted with a musical. 'On The Town' was the first film adaption of his first ever successful ballet, 'Fancy Free'.
1. Charles Walters was the first choreographer/director combined!

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Historical Context of Jerome Robbins' Work

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