About Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering
Freedom, Community, and Joy
Say the words âcommunityâ and âchoreographerâ to a ballet lover and ask what comes to mind: chances are the answer will be âJerome Robbins.â And the answer might include mention of one of his most widely loved ballets, Dances at a Gathering. A series of dances, nothing virtuosic, set to Chopin piano music, this ballet âshould look like a group of friends together, just dancing,â says Robbins Rights Trust stager Jean-Pierre Frohlich. âSimple as that. And thatâs whatâs so beautiful about it.â Robbins said thereâs no story; the dancers are merely being themselvesâbut they are also, as writer Deborah Jowitt put it, âmembers of a community that lives in Chopinâs music.â

What elevates Dances at a Gathering beyond its simple ingredients is âhow it was put together, the simplicity of it, the pure dance form,â says Frohlich. Robbins created this ballet five years after Fiddler on the Roof premiered on Broadway; both reflect his explorations of his Jewish heritage. âHe used to analyze himself: âWhy? How did this come to be?ââ Frohlich says. âI think this ballet in particular meant a lot to him.â Robbins wrote that Dances at a Gathering âis full of the things I loved about dancing and about being Jewish.â
Helgi Tomasson, Patricia McBride, Jean-Pierre Frohlich, & Ellen Sorrin on Robbins
In staging this seasonâs production, Frohlich referred to a video from the balletâs premiere year, 1969, because of âthe sense of movement and wind blowing,â he says. Over the years heâs seen this ballet âslowly get smaller and smaller, and I felt that wasnât the original intent.â He wants todayâs dancers to move like those in 1969, with âa sense of devouring space, abandonment in the movement but without being out of control.â Also important, he says, is giving the dancers information and boundaries, âbut then letting them make it their own. Jerry would do that. Everyone has this impression that Jerry had to do it this wayâsometimes he was like that, but if he trusted you as a dancer he let you have the freedom.â

San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson was one of those trusted people; he danced many of Robbinsâ works at New York City Ballet. âWith Robbins, so often, there is humanity in his ballets,â Tomasson says. With Dances at a Gathering, âeven though thereâs not a story, you feel that thereâs a community, and joys, and loves, and humor. It all comes through.â
Principal Dancer Esteban Hernandez and Soloist Lonnie Weeks on Robbins
Itâs true that community is key in Dances at a Gathering, but so is memory. Memories propel the Man in Brown to move at the balletâs beginning, says Tomasson, who performed that role many times. âIt was like Iâm in deep thought about what was,â he says. âItâs not like I start dancing because the music starts; itâs more that the music is coming from a distance and all of a sudden I remember.â In the poignant ending, âall 10 dancers are gazing at the sky and a storm is passing,â says Tomasson, âand the story has been told, or the memory has taken its course.â In these final moments, the Man in Brown kneels and touches the floor. âWhen I danced it in New York,â says Tomasson, âit was like I felt the floor coming back at me: âThis is mine. This is my career. This has brought me to where I am, and what a wonderful, warm feeling that is.â Yet when I danced it in Poland [Chopinâs birthplace], it changed. It was like an emotional electric charge that went through Robbins to Chopinâa connection, almost like Chopinâs spirit was around.â
What has given Dances at a Gathering longevity is its purity and simplicity, Frohlich says. âIt was really just how Jerry related to the music and what the music meant to him. He used to say, âLet the music make you dance.ââ
by Cheryl A. Ossola
Header Image: San Francisco Ballet in Robbinsâ Dances at a Gathering // © Erik Tomasson