Robbins, Jerome (1918–1998)

US dancer and choreographer. He was co-director of the New York City Ballet 1969–83 (with George Balanchine). His ballets were internationally renowned and he was considered the greatest US-born ballet choreographer. He also choreographed the musicals The King and I (1951), West Side Story (1957), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964).

First a chorus boy on Broadway, then a soloist with the newly formed American Ballet Theater 1941–46, Robbins was associate director of the New York City Ballet 1949–59. His first ballet, Fancy Free (1944), was a great success (and was adapted with Leonard Bernstein into the musical On the Town 1944). Other Robbins ballets include Dancers at a Gathering (1969), The Goldberg Variations (1971), and Glass Pieces (1983; based on W H Auden's poem).