PS 83 ( School Yard West Side Story)

Public School 83, the Luis Munoz Rivera School, stands on East 109th Street as a center of the East Harlem community. While the famous musical West Side Story draws its inspiration from the street gang conflicts of the mid-twentieth century in Manhattan, those real-life tensions were documented by choreographers like Jerome Robbins who specifically visited neighborhoods like this one to observe the movements and social dynamics of local youth. The creative team behind the musical sought to translate the raw intensity of these streets into a new form of American theater that combined dance, music, and social commentary.