Born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, Jerome Robbins was a dancer and choreographer. Starting his career as a modern dancer, he began to appreciate the technique involved in ballet, the two which he merged in his choreography, especially in musical theater. In his choreography, he was renowned for injecting personality into each individual dancer's role and integrating dance not only into the storyline but into the everyday movement of the character. His primary interest was in telling American stories through dance. His professional career finished more the modern ballet realm. He was a taskmaster and perfectionist which invoked from those he worked with a mixture of admiration, praise and from some hatred. In both his professional and personal life, he was prone to self-doubt and self-loathing. In the latter half of his career and life, some of this feeling stemmed from his testimony provided to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
American Masters
Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz was born in New York on October 11, 1918 and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey. Deprived of a college education by the Depression, he began his career as a dancer in the experimental troupe of Gluck Sandor.
