Editing Jerome Robbins (section)

==Early life==
Robbins was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in the Jewish Maternity Hospital at 270 East Broadway on Manhattan's [[Lower East Side]] – a neighborhood populated by many immigrants.<ref name=kisselgoff>{{cite news| first=Anna| last=Kisselgoff| title=Jerome Robbins, 79, Is Dead; Giant of Ballet and Broadway| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED81538F933A05754C0A96E958260| work=[[The New York Times]]| date=July 30, 1998| access-date=February 25, 2014}}</ref> He was the son of Lena Robbins (née Rips) and Harry Rabinowitz (1887-1977).<ref>{{cite web|title=Books|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lawrence-01dance.html}}</ref> He had an older sister, Sonia (1912-2004).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sister of Jerome Robbins Dies at Fiddler's Opening Night|url=https://playbill.com/article/sister-of-jerome-robbins-dies-at-fiddlers-opening-night-com-118184|access-date=February 13, 2022|website=Playbill|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Feb. 28|first1=L. A. Times Archives|last2=Pt|first2=2004 12 Am|date=February 28, 2004|title=Jerome Robbins' sister, 91, dies|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-feb-28-et-quick28.3-story.html|access-date=February 13, 2022|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=February 28, 2004|title=Robbins's Sister Dies at 'Fiddler' Opening|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/arts/robbins-s-sister-dies-at-fiddler-opening.html|access-date=February 13, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The Rabinowitz family lived in a large apartment house at 51 East 97th Street at the northeast corner of [[Madison Avenue]]. Known as "Jerry" to those close to him, Robbins was given the middle name Wilson reflecting his parents' patriotic enthusiasm for the then-president, [[Woodrow Wilson]].

In the early 1920s, the Rabinowitz family moved to [[Weehawken, New Jersey]]. His father and uncle opened the Comfort Corset Company in nearby [[Union City, New Jersey|Union City]]. He graduated in 1935 from Woodrow Wilson High School (since renamed as [[Weehawken High School]]).<ref name=kisselgoff/> The family had many show business connections, including vaudeville performers and theater owners.  In the 1940s, their name was legally changed to Robbins.

Robbins began studying modern dance in high school with Alys [CK] Bentley, who encouraged her pupils to improvise steps to music.  Said Robbins later: "What [she] gave me immediately was the absolute freedom to make up my own dances without inhibition or doubts." After graduation he went to study chemistry at [[New York University]] (NYU) but dropped out after a year for financial reasons, and to pursue dance full-time. He joined the company of Senya Gluck Sandor, a leading exponent of expressionistic modern dance; it was Sandor who recommended that he change his name to Robbins. Sandor also encouraged him to take ballet, which he did with Ella Daganova; in addition he studied Spanish dancing with Helen Veola; Asian dance with Yeichi Nimura; and dance composition with [[Bessie Schonberg]]. While a member of Sandor's company Robbins made his stage debut with the [[Yiddish Art Theater]], in a small role in ''[[The Brothers Ashkenazi]]''.