Now commonly known by its initials, American Ballet Theatre (or ABT) began its life as Ballet Theatre in 1940. The company enjoyed a close relationship with Jacob’s Pillow early on, with most of its dancers spending the summer of 1941 at the Pillow while officially in a company layoff period (allowing them to receive unemployment checks). They returned to the Pillow in 1947, and then entered into an unprecedented exclusive relationship for the Pillow’s 1949 season, with Ballet Theatre supplying all of the Festival’s ballet presentations. Two ballets by Jerome Robbins that had been featured in 1947 were again on the bill in 1949, Interplay and Fancy Free. Surprisingly, not a single ballet by Robbins was performed at Jacob’s Pillow from 1949 until 2014, when Daniel Ulbricht brought back a new production of Fancy Free.
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