Robbins the Romantic

By John T. Elson

Jerome Robbins is currently considered the man most likely to succeed George Balanchine as artistic guru of the New York City Ballet. Thus every new ballet by Robbins is scrutinized with particular care, to see how his choreographic talents blend with the performing skills of a company that was created by the immortal Mr. B.

To judge by his latest work, Robbins --who is reputed to be a demanding taskmaster--has a gift for drawing out the abilities of the company's dancers in a dramatic and visually effective way.

An Evening's Waltzes, which was given its premiere by the City Ballet last month, looks fiendishly difficult in its physical demands. Yet it is being performed with such brio that the ballet has become an instant hit of the company's spring season at Lincoln Center.

No wonder. Based on a Prokofiev suite, Waltzes is perhaps Robbins' most sensuous and romantic ballet and, at the same time, an intellectually ingenious treatment of the possibilities inherent in this dance form. In the first four sections of the work, Robbins uses the waltz almost as a leitmotiv. In the midst of a complex variation, for instance, the corps will suddenly pace off a basic waltz step. At the finale, the stage is filled with swirling bodies, suggesting the Dionysian impulses of a dance once considered impolitely erotic.

There is a glowering intensity to the Prokofiev waltzes, as if clouds were looming over an imperial palace where a ball is being held. Ever a man of the theater, Robbins has matched the mood of this music in a work of mystery and delight.

qedJohn T. EIson

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