Giannandrea Poesio

Unsung hero

<strong>New York City Ballet</strong><br /> London Coliseum

issue 22 March 2008

New York City Ballet
London Coliseum

Despite being one of the greatest dance-makers ever, Jerome Robbins remains, outside the United States, an unsung hero of 20th-century ballet. Even newly printed European dance-history manuals relegate him to a lesser place, preferring to give sole credit to Russian-born George Balanchine for the creation of a distinctively American ballet style. But if there is a choreographer who truly contributed to the development of anything identifiable as American ballet, it is Robbins. It is a pity that, bar one or two titles, a large portion of his oeuvre remains unknown to dance-goers from the Old World. A real pity, for ten years after his death his choreography remains stunningly fresh and unique.

Fortunately, there are several of Robbins’s works in New York City Ballet’s brief season at the London Coliseum.

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