But I’m Old Fashioned, made in 1983, confirmed my belief that Robbins had an Oedipal complex and it caused some of his works to suffer. Invited by George Balanchine in 1948 to join his company as the assistant artistic director, Robbins spent 40 years with City Ballet. “Imagine working under that genius,” said Francis Mason, founder of Ballet Review, about Robbins’ position as second fiddle to Balanchine’s greatness. In I’m Old Fashioned Robbins fell under the spell of another big man in dance—Fred Astaire—and consequently tripped over his own efforts. In the finale of the ballet, Robbins chose to project a clip of Astaire whirling Rita Hayworth in his arms from the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier. This projection on the back of the State Theater transformed the screen stars into 30 foot giants. By placing 12 dancing couples below them, Robbins diminished his dancers. They looked like sea urchins, churning below in black tie wear. Unless he had a chip on his shoulder, why would Robbins have created such disproportionate proportions?

Not even principal Ashley Bouder could compete. However, when Bouder wasn’t dancing below the giant Hayworth, her musically driven charm (to Morton Gould’s variations on Jerome Kern’s song I’m Old Fashioned) made me cheer. Paired with Stephen Hanna, Bouder danced the role of the lady given a partner with three feet. Bumping in to him, she first made the best of it. The next time Boulder was less forgiving. By the third collision, she reminded me of Lucille Ball’s endearing obstinacy in I Love Lucy. Because Robbins wasn’t trying in this duet to imitate the super smooth Astaire, it is the work’s most pleasurable section. It also features something rarely seen in ballet: Irony. Rather than imitating another’s style, here Robbins let his imagination and humor run free. When he did this, and put ballet, social dance, and jazz on an equal footing, it’s clear why Robbins remains one of America’s greatest choreographers. His work resembles a melting pot, much like the America he loved and used as inspiration.

In Interplay—made at the end of World War II (1945), first presented at the Ziegfield Theater (where ballet did not reign) and following the choreographer’s phenomenal success with Fancy Free (think of the pressure!)—Robbins’s second work featured the choreographer’s and America’s momentary high spirits. Much like America’s war documentaries of that period, which promoted the heroism and resilience of “Our Troops,” City Ballet dancers Sean Suozzi, Daniel Ulbricht, Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild performed with virtuoso zippiness and youthful confidence. Suozzi, Ulbricht and Fairchild engaged in a battle of double tours. Against Morton Gould’s swing sounds, each performed a competitive solo in response to the previous dancer’s demonstration of might. Like the ballet’s theme of being champions, its structure involves increasing acts of stamina—be it turn, kick or jump. The dancers were up for it. What was missing was any inflection of individual character. Even Ulbricht failed to bring his unique, cherubic charm to the fore.

It’s no wonder that City Ballet performs Robbins’s Ives, Songs often. The ballet has heart. To Charles Ives’s poem cycle, which was sung Tuesday evening with strength and grace by Philip Cutlip, it tells a story of a man looking back at his life. Robert La Fosse—considered the consummate Robbins dancer—performed the elderly man role. He tracked the dancers with a mournful gaze and heavy steps as though he was Robbins, who acknowledged in his 70th year that his recently created Ives was a nostalgic summation of his dancing life. Corps dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring channeled the youthful and virile Robbins with legato phrasing and a sparkling expression. Sara Mearns embodied another Robbins ideal: The extremely feminine ballerina who lacks pretension. The work, about joyfully playing as a child, becoming part of a community of couples in adulthood, and feeling solitude at life’s end, requires ensemble acting. This cast, which included the fragile strength of Wendy Whelan, did just that.

Suozzi, Ulbricht, Fairchild, Bouder, Danchig-Waring, La Fosse