November, 1957

While this magazine was sometimes mistakenly identified as a chronicle with all but exclusive interest in the Ballet, a quick scan of this issue's table of contents reveals a variety of stories related to dance in the movies, on television, folk dancing, ballroom, local and international festivals and competitions, and, of course, the theatre. So it was not surprising that the November 1957 cover should be devoted to the new dance-driven Broadway musical in town. Though the latest achievement of ballet master Jerome Robbins was certainly an event of interest to a publication called "Dance," the accompanying article, even with an understandable bias toward the choreography, reported fairly and diligently on all aspects of the production's virtues, and the special talents of creators and performers alike. A disappointingly brief review of the musical highlights the contributions of Carol Lawrence, Lee Becker (in "an interesting but somewhat thankless assignment") and of course cover girl Chita Rivera, who the reviewer confidently saw as "a future great lady of the American theater." In fact the cast as a whole was praised for "superb" dancing, each with the potential of "soloist possibilities in his own genre." With not the slightest indication of condescension to the arena of musical comedy, Dance Magazine instead unabashedly proclaimed the importance of West Side Story as "it re-establishes dance as a living, fruitful independent theatre art."