美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Jerome Robbins 100' Is A Centennial Celebration Of Timeless Choreography

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Many people know the choreography of Jerome Robbins from Broadway musicals like "Gypsy" and "Fiddler On The Roof" and "West Side Story."

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "WEST SIDE STORY")

KELLY: Robbins also created dozens of dances for the New York City Ballet, which he co-founded. The dance company is devoting most of this month to a festival of Robbins' work. It's part of a celebration marking a hundred years since his birth. Jeff Lunden has more.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE¹: The year was 1943. And two 25-year-olds, Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein, were about to rock the ballet world.

(SOUNDBITE OF BALLET, "FANCY FREE")

LUNDEN: The dance they collaborated² on was "Fancy Free" about three sailors in a bar trying to pick up girls before they ship out to World War II.

CHRISTINE REDPATH: It was such a wonderful, little, sweet picture of that time - that innocent time.

LUNDEN: Christine Redpath is one of four ballet masters Jerome Robbins chose to stage his work.

REDPATH: It's playful, and they're just fun and innocent. They don't know what's going to happen when they go off to war.

LUNDEN: The ballet was a sensation - contemporary American characters dancing in a way that fused popular dance forms with heightened poetry, just like the music. Leonard Bernstein had already started making a name for himself. But Robbins, born Jerome Rabinowitz in New Jersey³, became a star, too. And for the next 55 years, until his death in 1998, he created dances that expanded the vocabulary of modern ballet. Christine Redpath was present at the creation of many of these from the early 1970s onwards and says Robbins could be cruel.

REDPATH: Honesty is what he was really after. And he sometimes had to really get down the facades⁴ that some people put up.

LUNDEN: Redpath is gentler. On a recent afternoon, she was putting two principal dancers, Emilie Gerrity and Chase Finlay, through their paces on sections of "In The Night," a 1970 ballet choreographed⁵ to the music of Frederic Chopin.

REDPATH: I wanted to see the end of it...

EMILIE GERRITY: Oh, sorry.

REDPATH: ...So that you should just be coming up into arabesque⁶, and he lifts you up.

GERRITY: Sure.

REDPATH: So we get, like, (gasping) how did that happen?

JARED ANGLE: When you're taught a Robbins ballet, they're always very specific.

LUNDEN: New York City Ballet principal dancer Jared Angle lists 15 Jerome Robbins ballets in his biography.

ANGLE: It's sort of like method acting⁷. Like, they really make you examine who you are, what your character is, where you were born, where you live.

LUNDEN: And that kind of character analysis came in handy when Angle danced in "West Side Story Suite⁸." He's been both a Jet and a Shark.

(SOUNDBITE OF BALLET, "WEST SIDE STORY SUITE")

LUNDEN: Robbins created that suite for City Ballet from the work he did on the landmark⁹ 1957 musical. He and Leonard Bernstein, who worked together throughout their lives, discussed the way they created dances at a dramatist guild¹⁰ symposium¹¹ in 1985. Leonard Bernstein...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LEONARD BERNSTEIN: I could feel him standing¹² behind me, saying, just about, like, four more beats there, another part - no, that's too many. You know, that's too many. That's it.

JEROME ROBBINS: Well, it also goes the other way because Lenny would play something, and I'd take off right there in the room he was composing in. I'd say, oh, I can see this kind of movement or that kind of movement.

LUNDEN: Robbins could see movement not just in Bernstein's music but Stravinsky, Philip Glass, Chopin.

(SOUNDBITE OF BALLET, "DANCES AT A GATHERING¹³")

LUNDEN: That's a little music from Robbin's masterpiece "Dances At A Gathering." It was a signature role for retired¹⁴ ballet star Wendy Whelan. She worked with Robbins at the end of his career and says he was painstaking¹⁵ and psychological in his approach, which made her not only a better dancer but a better person.

WENDY WHELAN: So you really have to challenge yourself to know yourself better when you're doing his work because that's where the importance is.

LUNDEN: The Robbins 100 Festival begins at New York City Ballet tonight. And audiences can be challenged and enlightened by 20 of the master's dances over the next three weeks. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

3 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

4 facades   

n.（房屋的）正面( facade的名词复数 )；假象，外观

参考例句：

• Terraces of asphalt are placed by the building's south and west facades. 沥青露台位于建筑的南面和西面。 来自互联网
• Preserving historic buildings or keeping only their facades (or fronts) grew common. 保存历史建筑或是保持它们普通的正面增长。 来自互联网

5 choreographed   

v.设计舞蹈动作( choreograph的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• There was some carefully choreographed flag-waving as the President drove by. 总统的车经过时，人们按精心编排的动作挥舞着旗帜。
• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself. 阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。 来自辞典例句

6 arabesque   

n.阿拉伯式花饰；adj.阿拉伯式图案的

参考例句：

• I like carpets with arabesque patterns.我喜欢带有阿拉伯式花饰的地毯。
• The Arabesque solution is the answer to a designer's desire for uniqueness.阿拉伯风为设计师渴望独一无二给出了答案。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

9 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

10 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

11 symposium   

n.讨论会，专题报告会；专题论文集

参考例句：

• What have you learned from the symposium?你参加了这次科学讨论会有什么体会？
• The specialists and scholars present at the symposium come from all corners of the country.出席研讨会的专家学者们来自全国各地。

12 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

13 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

14 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

15 painstaking   

adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的

参考例句：

• She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
• Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。