Discuss the influence on the choreography and movement content of West Side Story. You should provide clear examples from the choreographed sections of West Side Story to support your discussion.

In 1932 Jerry accompanied his sister into New York and saw her onstage at the Dance Center, Robbins was later invited to join the company after an audition arranged by his sister. The dance centre group comprised of dancers with widely varied backgrounds and individual styles ran by Senia Gluck Sandor and his wife. They were fusing ballet and modern dance in a series of highly theatrical, stylised productions. Attempted to dramatise the political, social and economic struggles of the day. Sandor advised Robbins to study ballet again in which he took the advice and began classes with Ella Daganova. This ballet influence upon Robbins is shown throughout West Side Story remarkably within the Dance at the Gym, the Promenade section. Within the promenade relevé is used precisely in and out of chassés, as well as this, similar to classical ballet, movements are repeated two or three times as Robbins has done with the motif of chassés into the clicking of their fingers followed by the circular knee movement. Furthermore, the way in which Robbins uses non-balletic styled movement such as the knee circles and clicks within the ballet section demonstrates specifically Robbins’ use of Sandor’s training through his use of fussing various styles, jazz and ballet in choreographing West Side Story.

Having first taken classes informally from his sister, Sonia, Jerry went on to study with her teacher, Alyce Bentley, who taught interpretive dance in a small studio at Carnegie Hall. As interpretive modern dance developed in the 1930’s it held sway over ballet and the arts across the board were expected to exhibit a commitment to social struggle and reflect the realities of the times, similar to that of Sandor’s training of dramatizing the struggles of the day.
West Side Story was set in the fifties and based around two opposing gangs in New York. Gangs had existed before the Fifties but teenage gangsters were a new and frightening phenomenon. Many of these fights - like the ones in West Side Story - were between youngsters from different ethnic backgrounds. After the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of young Puerto Ricans and African Americans, from the country's southern states, had poured into New York looking for a brighter future, and ended up competing with each other, and with the white working class, for jobs and homes. Certain areas of the city became almost exclusively black or 'Spanish'. His initial training of interpretive dance therefore has significance impact into the subject matters of West Side Story due to him reflecting the realities of the times.
The political, economical and social state of America made Robbins think about the society and he wanted to show the truth not only through choreography but also through the physical setting. West Side Story presented America just how it was; the set and the costumes enabled us to see that the economical state wasn't so great; there was no money for anything else to be made. The banners that we see suggest to us that the political side of America wasn't that great either and the ruined buildings, washing lines and graffiti on the walls and streets give us the real impression of the place. At the beginning of the film we see different perspectives of Manhattan so that we already create an opinion. Furthermore, in order to see the importance of the physical setting it was enhanced by the incorporation of the choreography with the surroundings. Within the prologue the dance phrases are broken up with intermittent interruptions such as taking an apple, throwing vegetables and spattering paint. These confrontations keep the physical material embedded in the context so that urban cityscape is no mere background.

An influential person on the choreography Robbins created was Antony Tudor, and his use of method acting in which Robbins had previously experienced when dancing for Tudor himself. Tudor’s rehearsals often took on the tense atmosphere of psychodrama, as in his own distinctive fashion he utilised Stanislavski’s acting techniques as well as Freudian analytical insights. Tudor used these tools manipulatively to explore psyches of his dancers as well as emotional lives of the characters that inhibited his ballets. While other choreographers were invested in steps and decorative movement. Tudor was devoted to examining human passions and relationships. In the process of creating his ballets, he exhibited a wit that some characterised as unnecessarily cruel and demeaning. Robbins brought this Method-acting technique into West Side Story where he deliberately tried to encourage hostility and rivarly, between the two opposing gangs, both on stage and off stage. They weren't allowed to eat together. They were not supposed to socialize. He wanted the characters to be themselves therefore he wanted the two gangs to be against each other even in real life so that when they were on stage they could feel the same. He spread rumours about jets to sharks, and sharks to jets, so that both gangs would feel real hatred towards each other. This realistic divide in gangs is particularly shown in the Dance at the Gym – ‘Mambo’.

Tudor was known for combining natural gestures and the idiom of classical ballet, he forged a language of movement remarkable in its meticulous subtlety and expressive power – a lesson in the art of dance and storytelling that served Robbins well in choreographing West Side Story. Jerome Robbins was a perfectionist. Everything had to be the way he pictured it. His pieces always consisted of basic but expressive, dynamic movement. His works included pedestrian movement, which enabled the piece to have store for naturalism and for dancers to be themselves. We see this straight away in the opening section of WSS when the boys are playing basketball. Initially, each member of the gang is revealed beginning with Riff, as they are shown to be clicking their fingers in time with one another as they lean against the court fence in a choreographed fashion. They are then disturbed by a ball coming towards them and hitting the fence, a member of the jets then catches the ball as a boy runs over and halts when he gets to the gang, who have all stopped clicking at this point. Riff then makes a head gesture in order to signify that the ball can be given back to the male as which shows he is the leader of the group and has the authority to tell the gang members what to do. These subtle natural gestures such as the clicks and head gestures incorporated into the choreography and combined with ballet technique such as relevés and pirouettes used whilst travelling and playing basketball demonstrate the use of both ballet and natural gestures previously used by Tudor in order to tell the story of West Side Story – clearly signifying the gang culture and authority in characters.