Jerome Robbins Centennial Celebration to Bring Performances, Screenings, Talks and More Across NYC

Jerome Robbins, world renowned for his work as a choreographer and director of ballet and theater, film and television, would have been 100 years old on October 11, 2018. In honor of his life and legacy, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, partnering with other institutions across the country and around the world, will celebrate his centennial year through Spring 2019.

Robbins - recipient of dozens of awards and honors including an Oscar, four Tony awards, and one Emmy Award, among others - choreographed and/or directed many Broadway shows including: On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam, and Fiddler on the Roof. His last Broadway production in 1989, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, won six Tony Awards including best musical and best director.

Among the more than 60 ballets Robbins created are Fancy Free, Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, Dances At a Gathering, In the Night, In G Major, Glass Pieces, NY Export: Opus Jazzand Ives, Songs, which are in the repertories of New York City Ballet and other major dance companies throughout the world. His last ballets include A Suite of Dances, created for Mikhail Baryshnikov (1994), 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), West Side Story Suite (1995), and Brandenburg (1996).

Said the directors of the Foundation, "Jerome Robbins' output was incredibly far-reaching. While his ballet and Broadway work is well known, many forget his work in film and television and almost no one is aware of his visual art - photography, drawings, and paintings - and copious writings on a range of subjects. Our aim is to celebrate Jerry and all his work."

The Jerome Robbins Centennial will be framed / spearheaded by a number of programs by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Divisionand an almost three-week festival of his ballets at New York City Ballet.

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NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: THE Jerome Robbins CENTENNIAL:

Fellows Program & Symposium

As the home of his archive, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division recently awarded six fellowships to dance artists and writers to generate new scholarship on Robbins' legacy. The fellowship period runs through December 2017 and will subsequently culminate in a day-long symposium on Friday, January 26, where fellows Ninotchka Bennahum, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Robert Greskovic, Julie Lemberger, Alastair Macaulay and Hiie Saumaa will present the outcome of their research.

Bruno Walter Auditorium, NYPL for the Performing Arts, 111 Amsterdam Ave., NYC.

26 January 2018. 10am - 5pm.

Exhibition

The identity of Jerome Robbins and New York City are inextricably linked as one defines the swagger and style of the place and the other molds and influences the man. For the exhibition Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York, running September 2018 - March 2019 at the Oenslager Gallery, urban historian and dance writer Julia Foulkes explores Robbins and New York side by side, demonstrating how his artistic output captures the city in particular moments of history and how the unique nature of New York led to the specific genius of Jerome Robbins.

Oenslager Gallery, NYPL for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.

September 2018 - March 2019.

NEW YORK CITY BALLET: ROBBINS 100:

New York City Ballet's 2018 Spring Season will celebrate the centennial of Jerome Robbins' birth with Robbins 100, a tribute to the Co-Founding Choreographer's remarkable contributions to classical dance at large and his indelible impact on the NYCB repertory. The celebration will feature 19 works created by Robbins over the course of 40 years, and will open on Thursday, May 3 with a Spring Gala performance featuring a World Premiere by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Soloist Justin Peck set to a score by Leonard Bernstein in honor of the centennial of both Robbins and Bernstein, and a World Premiere ballet by Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Warren Carlyle that pays tribute to Robbins' legendary Broadway career. The new work will feature 30 NYCB dancers in a showcase of music and choreography from eight landmark Broadway musicals that Robbins was closely associated with during his storied career - On the Town (1944), Billion Dollar Baby (1945), The King and I (1954), Peter Pan (1954), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Funny Girl (1964), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964).

The gala performance will also include Robbins' Circus Polka (1972) and The Four Seasons (1979). Running from May 3 to May 20, the Robbins 100 celebration will also include performances of the ballets Interplay (1945), Fancy Free (1944), The Cage (1951), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), Fanfare (1953), The Concert (1956), West Side Story Suite (1957), Les Noces (1965), Dances at a Gathering (1969), In the Night (1970), The Goldberg Variations (1971), Dybbuk (1974), In G Major (1975), Other Dances (1976), Opus 19/The Dreamer (1979), Glass Pieces (1983), and Antique Epigraphs (1984). In addition to performances in May, NYCB will hold a number of workshops and educational presentations for adults and children.

3 May - 20 May 2018: Institutions across the city, nation, and world will join the centennial celebration with a variety of performances, screenings and events.

PERFORMANCES:

HAMBURG BALLETT

The Concert, Dances at a Gathering: 17 September 2017

MIAMI CITY BALLET

Circus Polka, The Cage, In the Night, Other Dances, West Side Story Suite: 12 January 2018

STUTTGART BALLETT

Dances at a Gathering: 13 January 2018

NEW YORK THEATRE BALLET

Rondo, Septet, Concertino: 16 March 2018

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET

The Cage, Fancy Free, Opus 19, Other Dances: 20 March 2018

PITTSBURGH BALLET

Fancy Free, In the Night, West Side Story Suite: 3 May 2018

THE MUNY

Jerome Robbins' Broadway, 11 - 17 June 2018

LES ÉTÉS DE LA DANSE

Tribute to Jerome Robbins featuring companies from around the globe (TBA): 25 June 2018

BOSTON BALLET

Fancy Free, Glass Pieces, Interplay: 6 Sept 2018

DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET

Dances at a Gathering: 11 Sept 2018

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET

Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, In the Night, Other Dances: 21 Sept 2018

Dances at a Gathering, Interplay, West Side Story Suite: 28 Sept 2018

PARIS OPERA BALLET

Afternoon of a Faun, Fancy Free, Glass Pieces: 28 Sept 2018

BAM / FISHMAN SPACE

Watermill: cast TBA: October 2018

HOUSTON BALLET

The Concert, Glass Pieces, In the Night: 7 March 2019

SCREENINGS:

DANCE ON CAMERA FILM FESTIVAL

Program TBA: 20 July 2018

PALEY CENTER

Jerome Robbins on Television - This program will examine how the ballets and Broadway work of Jerome Robbins have been presented on television. Rare interview and performance footage will be screened and discussed by a panel of dancers and others who worked with Robbins. The discussion will be moderated by Amanda Vail, author of Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins. In addition, the Paley Center will have weekend screenings of Jerome Robbins' television work on select Sundays in October and November. (Dates TBA, Paley Center for Media in New York)

AMERICAN MASTERS' Jerome Robbins: SOMETHING TO DANCE ABOUT

The Definitive Biography of an American Dance Master will air abroad throughout the 2018-2019 season.

EVENTS & EDUCATION:

KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: DEMO BY Damian Woetzel

Jerome Robbins - American Dance Genius: 20 & 21 October 2017

DANCE EDUCATION LAB at the 92nd Street Y

DEL Dances for a Gathering: Jerome Robbins with Ellen Bar, Ann Biddle, Robert La Fosse, and Heather Watts: 4 & 5 November 2018

NYC DEPT OF EDUCATION: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

West Side Story Suite and American Dance: 28 February 2018

NEW YORK City Center STUDIO 5 SERIES

Bernstein & Robbins at 100 with Tyler Angle: 4 June 2018

ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S

OSL will create and premiere an original, multi-disciplinary educational concert that tells the story of Robbins' life through words, music, and dance. This original production will receive six performances at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in November 2018, engaging 4,000 public school children in Robbins' artistry. This production is part of St. Luke's tradition of Free School Concerts, now in its fifth decade of connecting young audiences to the arts through live performance.

PALEY CENTER

Words on Dance: Jerome Robbins and "West Side Story" - Tony-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon will talk with celebrated performers from the 1961 Academy Award-winning film version of West Side Story-including Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn, and Eliot Feld-about Robbins' choreography and their experiences working with him. (11 October 2018, Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles)

The centenary will celebrate Robbins's work not only for the stage but for the page: October 2018 will see the publication by Alfred A. Knopf of a selection from his voluminous journals, autobiographical writings, letters, scenarios, and essays, edited by award-winning Robbins biographer and documentarist Amanda Vaill (Somewhere, Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About). Illustrated with Robbins's own photographs, drawings, and other art work, the book will re-create the choreographer and director's life and work from the inside, as he himself saw it, in his own words and images.

For first time since the original Broadway production, Jerome Robbins' Broadway will return to the stage at The Muny in St. Louis. Running from June 11 through June 17, the newly remounted production will celebrate not only the 100th birthday of Jerome Robbins but will open the epic 100th anniversary season of The Muny itself.

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Follow along with us on Instagram (@jeromerobbinsfoundation) as we countdown to our Centennial Kickoff with 100 days of Robbins, beginning October 11th!

Further updates, additions, and calendar changes can be found on our website, www.jeromerobbins.org, or by following along on Twitter (@JeromeRobbinsFd) and Facebook (facebook.com/TheGeniusOfJeromeRobbins).