Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins [Hardcover]

Greg Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2001

The first biography of the celebrated choreographer/director of Broadway, ballet, and Hollywood-a man of towering achievement and extraordinary personal demons.

For decades he was one of the most commanding creative forces in America. His work on such shows as On the Town, The King and I, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy, and Jerome Robbins's Broadway earned him five Tony Awards and two Academy Awards. His brilliance with American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet established him as one of America's great ballet masters.

But when Jerome Robbins, né Rabinowitz, died at the age of seventy-nine in 1998, he was a haunted man. All of his life, he had struggled with demons: his bisexuality, his Judaism, his often bitter relationship with his parents, his betrayals of others during the McCarthy hearings, and his perfectionism that bordered on the sadistic. He was loved and hated in equal parts; and only now, in this groundbreaking biography by insider Greg Lawrence, based upon two years of research and dozens of interviews with Robbins's family, friends, and colleagues, can the full measure of both the artist and the man be taken. It is a fascinating portrait of light and dark-like its subject, a work rich in complexity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Choreographic and theatrical genius Jerome Robbins was born in 1918 in New York City into a materially comfortable but emotionally bleak Jewish immigrant family in New York City. Lawrence (who coauthored Gelsey Kirkland's Dancing on My Grave) points to this emotionally bereft childhood and paternal disapproval ("My son's a fag how can I talk to him?" was reportedly his father's attitude), as well as Robbins's struggles with his Jewish heritage, his sexuality and, most famously, his decision to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the 1950s, as the definitive aspects of Robbins's life and creative legacy. The sum total of Robbins's work as reported here is staggering; his decades at the heart of the golden ages of American ballet, musical theater, theater and film, as director or choreographer, often in collaboration with such giants as Leonard Bernstein and George Balanchine, left the American public a cultural gold mine. Lawrence interviewed hundreds of dancers, actors, directors, family members and other contemporaries all, whether they loved or hated him, recognized both Robbins's genius and his clearly tortured soul. Most of the remarks herein tell us far more about the speaker than about the subject, but as such, they form an indelible picture of the various eras during which Robbins worked (he was active almost until his death in 1998). Robbins himself made numerous attempts over the years to write his own autobiography, only to abandon them repeatedly when the emotional cost became too great. In the end, Lawrence's account, though comprehensive and lively, can only give us a solid picture of Robbins's times and contemporaries the man himself remains a mystery. Illus. not seen by PW. (May)Forecast: Readers in New York, the center of the ballet and theater worlds, will grab this much-touted book. First serial in Vanity Fair; forthcoming reviews in the New York Times by Janet Maslin, the New Republic, the Washington Post Book Review and Variety; an interview in New York Blade; and a May 1 spot on NPR's new show, Studio 360, will bring lots of attention.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Lawrence (coauthor with Gelsey Kirkland of Dancing on My Grave) tells the life story of legendary American choreographer Jerome Robbins from many different perspectives. Robbins is known for choreographing major Broadway musicals like West Side Story and The King and I and also many ballets. This biography is dominated by quotes from a variety of sources, including critics, dancers, family, and Robbins himself. Rita Moreno of West Side Story is quoted as saying, "What he did that was so unusual [was] that he choreographed for character. He choreographed the way a writer writes." Robbins's demons of the title include problems with his family, his sexual orientation, and his testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). The most interesting sections of this hefty tome concern his choreography and its creation, his collaboration with Leonard Bernstein and George Balanchine, and the artistic process. This first full-length biography of this important choreographer is recommended for all libraries. (Photos and index not seen.) Conrad's photographic biography is a good companion to Lawrence's work. Conrad, a screenwriter and longtime friend of Robbins, has combined photographs of Robbins's childhood, insider looks at rehearsals, and lovely photos of performances of his choreography with excerpts from his journals and brief biographical narrative. The result is a heartfelt tribute to a man she clearly loved who contributed much to his art. Recommended for public libraries with broad interest in dance. Barbara Kundanis, Batavia P.L., IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 622 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First edition. edition (May 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399146520
• ISBN-13: 978-0399146527
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,436,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Dance > Choreography
  • #66 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Dancers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real page-turner!, June 7, 2001

By 

Adrienne Fischier (New York City, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins (Hardcover)

Jerome Robbins was an extremely complex and difficult man -- and a genius. His choreography was more highly rated than Balanchine's in France, for instance. In this very well written book the reader is able to go inside the worlds of ballet and musical theater through endless but never boring details. "West Side Story" is Robbins's most famous work; he won two Oscars for the movie, but had been fired from the production! Marvelous insights into the personalities and talents of a generation of theatrical wizards in New York, particularly in the '50s. You don't have to be a ballet fan to enjoy this book.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, gossipy, undefinitive -- maybe unnecessary, September 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins (Hardcover)

Despite, or because of, its inclusion of hundreds of interviews, much of Greg Lawrence's biography amounts to uncorroborated hearsay. Given the backbiting and jealous atmosphere of the theatre world, a more rigorous biographer would have carefully weighed and vetted the reliability of the sources. Lawrence apparently was not given access to Robbins' own papers and therefore the man himself is decidedly absent from these pages, as has been pointed out by reviews in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and elsewehere. It's gossipy and full of facts and opinions, but curiously empty.

Another customer reviewer here compares Lawrence's book with Christine Conrad's compendium of photographs and Robbins quotes (Jerome Robbins,That Broadway Man, That Ballet Man), to Lawrence's benefit. Seems to me you get a stronger sense of Robbins the man AND the artist from Conrad's book, even though it doesn't pretend to be a biography.

I've read that two other full-scale biographies are in the works whose authors have been allowed to see Robbins's archives; hopefully they will provide a deeper and more balanced view of the man. If anyone still cares.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, August 12, 2001

By 

Michael Gordon (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins (Hardcover)

This book is an extraordinary oral history covering more than fifty years of American cultural history, with Jerome Robbins at center stage. A vivid portrait of the artist is created by the voices of family, friends, and colleagues. Both loved and hated, Robbins emerges in these pages as an ingenious, tormented bundle of contradictions -- a classic Jekyl-Hyde bipolar personality. Dance With Demons is packed with marvelous anecdotes about all of Robbins' Broadway shows and ballets, as well as the "demons" of his life off-stage (his conflicts over his bisexuality and Jewish heritage, etc). A must-read for anyone interested in theater and dance.