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“This Cockeyed City Is THEIRS”: Youth at Play in the Dances of West Side Story

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

YING ZHU  and
DANIEL BELGRAD
YING ZHU
Affiliation:
School of Theatre and Dance, University of South Florida. Email: [email protected].
DANIEL BELGRAD
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of South Florida. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

While ethnic rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks in the film West Side Story has long figured as a point of scholarly concern, we argue the musical's main conflict is not between the two gangs, but rather that of youth versus adult authority. Engaging in a close analysis of the dances choreographed by Jerome Robbins, we contend that the gangs' enmity against each other is subsumed by their collective struggle to reject the socially prescribed roles of adults and children in Cold War America, which fetishized childhood innocence. Robbins's complex representations of youthful play participated in defining a “youth counterculture.”

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 67 - 91
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2016 

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