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dance-world · 2 days

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Giove Taioli - photo by Lee Wood

#Giove Taioli #Lee Wood #dancer #model #dance #ballet #ballerino #danseur #bailarín #tänzer

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camera-language · 2 days

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#rainbow #writing resources #fitspiration #fka twigs #pmmm #deftones #ballet #retro anime #jonmartin #the vampire diaries #wilmon

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dozydawn · 2 days

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#diana vishneva #lady of the camelias #irina tuminene #ballet #la dame aux camélias

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newyorkthegoldenage · 1 day

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Above: Jerome Robbins, John Kriza, Harold Lang, Janet Reed, and Muriel Bentley in the original production of Robbins's Fancy Free. Photo: Maurice Seymour via Newsweek

On April 18, 1944, Jerome Robbins's first ballet, Fancy Free, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House.

From the moment the action begins, with the sound of a juke box wailing behind the curtain, the ballet is strictly young wartime America, 1944. The curtain rises on a street corner with a lamp post, a side street bar, and New York skyscrapers pricked out with the crazy pattern of lights, making a dizzying backdrop. Three sailors explode onto the stage. They are on 24-hour shore leave in the city and on the prowl for girls. The tale of how they meet first one, then a second girl, and how they fight over them, lose them, and in the end take off after still a third, is the story of the ballet.

That synopsis was written by Leonard Bernstein, the composer of the ballet's score. He was 25 at the time (the same age as Robbins) and an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Just a few months earlier, he had made a splash as a last-minute substitution for Bruno Walter at a Philharmonic concert, jump-starting his career.

Above: photo from Haglund's Heel

The ballet featured John Kriza, Harold Lang and Jerome Robbins himself as the three sailors, Muriel Bentley, Janet Reed, and Shirley Ecki as the girls, and Rex Cooper as the seen-it-all bartender. The great critic Edwin Denby observed that the ballet:

was so big a hit that the young participants all looked a little dazed as they took their bows. But besides being a smash hit, Fancy Free is a very remarkable comedy piece. ... Its pantomime and its dances are witty, exuberant, and at every moment they feel natural.

Above: Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, John Kriza, and Shirley Eckl performing the ballet in London Photo: Baron via MPR News

Over the years, Fancy Free has entered the repertory of countless ballet companies in the U.S. and abroad. It was so popular that Robbins and Bernstein were persuaded to turn it into a Broadway musical: On the Town. It debuted on December 28 of the same year, which seems astonishing considering how long it takes to create contemporary musicals. Bernstein wrote the music, Betty Comden and Adolph Green the book and lyrics, and Robbins choreographed it—the first in a long line of musical theater triumphs for him. Confidence in the show was so high that MGM bought the film rights before it opened, a common practice now, but not then. It was the first film set in the city to be actually filmed there (in part) instead of on a Hollywood soundstage.

#vintage New York #1940s #Fancy Free #Jerome Robbins #ballet #Leonard Bernstein #American ballet #John Kriza #Harold Lang #Muriel Bentley #Janet Reed #Shirley Eckl

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thinkinginfiguresof8 · 2 days

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17/04/24