From the roof of a skyscraper, from the slopes of Colorado, from within the four walls of home. Robert Fairchild uses social media to constantly communicate his unstoppable desire to dance. He’ll hop from a tap routine to freestyle. Then there’s modern jazz and a pinch of ballet. After all, “dance is a man’s game”, to quote the famous television documentary in which Gene Kelly transformed athletic movements of some of the most famous sports personalities of the time (such as the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson) into dance steps. In Robert’s case, there’s nothing foreign about evoking Gene Kelly. It reaffirms the idea that there’s a symbolic fil rouge connecting the legendary Hollywood star to the dancer from Salt Lake City. And it’s not simply because Fairchild gave an electrifying performance in the role of Jerry Mullighan in the acclaimed theatre version of An American in Paris (choreographed and directed by Christopher Wheeldon), the famous cinema musical starring Kelly and Leslie Caron set to music by Gershwin. In fact, it’s because Kelly is the reason why Fairchild became a dancer and, later, a fully-fledged artist. He spoke to us shortly before the Gala Les Etoiles in Rome, where he duly danced an extract from the musical that established him as a star, alongside Balanchine’s Apollo, another title not chosen by chance given that Balanchine, too, has featured heavily in Robert’s career. But let’s start at the beginning. “Since I was four years old, jumping around the house and writing that I wanted to be like Gene Kelly and dance in musicals when I grew up. I have to say that fate has really given me a helping hand”, he says.

First came the New York City Ballet… This was a direct consequence of having trained at the School of American Ballet, which I attended since I was fifteen years old. It all happened quite naturally: I joined the company as an Apprentice in 2005 and in 2009 I was named Principal Dancer. And you know what? Now, when I think about it, I think it was thanks to Balanchine that I wanted to study ballet. There’s nothing more American than his dance, you can feel it in the dynamics of the movement; it’s really jazzy, crisp and snappy. Take Duo Concertante, which, not by chance, I did for my farewell to the company. I’ve always asked myself why I love it so much and then I realised: it’s because its like tap dancing but with ballet shoes. And that’s also the case with Apollo, which dates back to the 1920s! 

In 2014, aged just twenty-seven and with your entire career ahead of you, around the same time you were hired for “An American in Paris”, you decided to leave  NYCB and ballet. Did you reflect on this decision or was it impulsive? When I discussed it with Peter Martins, at the time director of the NYCB, he said to me: “you’re the youngest Principal to ever leave the company”. He added: “Remember there will always be a place for you here, Robbie”. I don’t know if it was an impulsive decision but I sometime think I learned so many important things in such a short time at the NYCB that I wasn’t meant to stay there forever. I remember that before my last show I was terrified of feeling lost after the curtain came down. Instead, when I saw it come down I was filled with joy. So I said to myself: “Ok, that’s fine. Let’s turn the page”. 

I must say that when I watched you in “An American in Paris”, which was screened in cinemas in Italy (courtesy of Nexodigital, Ed.), what struck me was the absolute naturalness with which you dance, sing and act… it all seems to come out easily, expressively, giving the impression that you are capable of perfectly mastering each technique. Virtuosity is replaced with poetic realism, very much in keeping with Gene Kelly... That means a lot to me because that’s exactly what I’m aiming to achieve. Kelly was the greatest at it. For my part, I’ve always looked for this input in dance, when I’m at the bar I am really hyper-analytical and I meticulously study every detail on myself but when I go on stage I don’t want to think about it for a second. What will be, will be… the audience wants to see ‘you’ on stage, feel your emotions… When it comes to singing and acting, of course, I went on a real boot camp with some of the best teachers in the business as soon as I’d been selected at the auditions. I was going to be surrounded by actors and singers and I needed to get to their standard. 

After “An American in Paris” you worked on other legendary musicals such as “Brigadoon” and “Carousel”, not forgetting your appearance in the film version of “Cats”. And also you played Ted Shawn, one of the forefathers of modern dance, in a film about Louise Brooks, who studied under him before becoming a Hollywood star… I’d already danced at Jacob’s Pillow (Shawn’s residence and today home to America’s oldest and most important dance festival, Ed.) and I’d started doing my research on him. The fantastic thing about acting is you can really delve into a character, entering to some extent into his way of thinking. I find his fight for male dance and his efforts to create a dance school for young people absolutely fascinating. It was something Gene Kelly also tried to do. It’s my dream too and so I feel even more strongly that there’s a link that passes from Shawn to Kelly and from Kelly to me…

Dancer, singer, actor and director. Who is Robert Fairchild today?
Goodness! Actually, at the moment I’m writing a musical. An idea came to me a little while ago and I ran straight to the computer to write it down. It’s an electrifying act of creativity. When you’re a dancer you generally transfer to your body the story the choreographer wants to tell. But now I finally feel like I’ve found my place. The idea springs from a reflection on today. As a type of show musicals have always been stereotyped according questions of genre, in a ‘boy falls in love with girl’ sort of way. But times have really changed; now there’s much more freedom within the roles. I think it’s fantastic that young people refuse to be defined beyond being human. Isn’t this what really counts after all? This is the first time I can express my emotions and create something made to measure for me. I often wonder how Gene Kelly would put everything together today, someone who, let’s not forget, danced and acted and choreographed and directed himself. Perhaps I’m subconsciously following in his footsteps again. One thing is certain: I want to find out what I’m capable of. Because, after all, who better than me to create something that fits me like a glove?
 

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