West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Fancy Free, Dances at a Gathering- the American choreographer Jerome Robbins stamped his mark indelibly on the musical and the ballet from the forties until his death in 1998. The energy, poetry and humour of his dances showed a rare talent. But he was a paradox. Behind the human sensitivity of his dances lay a perfectionist whose demands on his dancers often amounted to cruelty; although his work was mostly apolitical, he was caught up in the Communist witch-hunt of the fifties and "named names". Rodney Greenberg talks to dancers, colleagues and critics in an attempt to fathom the man whose theatre legacy is still a potent force on stage. Producer Richard Bannerman