West Side Story: From the Dark Ages to Perfectionism. A masterpiece by a leading choreographer of the 20th century

After a dark history, he became a perfectionist that everyone around him feared.

West Side Story opens on Broadway in 1957, four years after the testimony at the public hearings, but Robbins' long-term struggle with discrimination against minorities and the pain he experienced during the Red Scare are reflected in the film. There is no doubt that it was projected onto.

In rehearsals for the stage version of ``West Side Story,'' for example, during the gymnasium dance scene, the Jets and Sharks were completely separated, with the choreography done in separate studios. In an effort to immerse the dancers in their roles, he showed the dancers a photo of a boy who lost his life in a fight between gangs of delinquents. The process of hunting down dancers may have been because he quickly forgot his testimony at the Un-American Activities Committee, which became his dark past, and focused only on his life's work of choreographing.

"West Side Story" (C)2014 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC.

This thoroughness was of course the same in the film version, where he co-directed, and Robbins reigned supreme as a ``demon choreographer'' on set. Excessive rehearsal time, detailed choreography that continues endlessly even when a dancer is injured... As a result, Robbins was forced to leave the set during the latter half of filming, but the reason that even now, more than half a century later, the dances in "West Side Story" do not feel dated at all is due to Robbins' perfectionism. I can definitely say it's a thing.

Jerome Robbins passed away in 1998 at the age of 79, leaving behind numerous other choreographic works, including ``Fiddler on the Roof.''

Reference: “ The Death of Jerome Robbins: The Musical and the Red Scare ” by Umetaro Tsuno, Heibonsha

Text: Hiroaki Saito

Became freelance in 1997, contributing movie reviews and interview articles to various media such as movie magazines, theater pamphlets, and movie sites. The column is constantly updated on Yahoo! News. Star Channel's program "GO! Theater" introduces the latest released works.

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