Jerome Robbins

Born Jerome Rabinowitz in Weehawken, NJ, his passion for dance began after watching his older sister, Sonya, dance. As a young man, Robbins dropped out of college to study dance full-time, and he became a professional hoofer in 1937. After working three years in various Broadway chorus lines, Robbins joined the newly formed Ballet Theater (later known as the American Ballet Theater); at that time, he was strictly a background dancer and only occasionally obtained small roles in classical ballet. As a choreographer, Robbins collaborated with composer "Leonard Bernstein" to create a more modern ballet sequence about a trio of sailors on leave in New York. The dance, "Fancy Free," was expanded into a full-length show by "Adolph... Full Biography