Jerome Robbins’ Opus Jazz on TV
http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/ballet/catch-jerome-robbins-snazzy-opus-jazz-on-tv/814/
Bar and Suozzi enlisted filmmakers Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes, who shot the film in 35mm format, resulting in a high quality snapshot of this big city that both saps and inspires us. You may recognize Coney Island, McCarren Pool, and the Highline before it was renovated, settings for some of the dreamier scenes. But providing equal texture are shots set in a diner, a school gym, a wall-less warehouse or garage space, and a timeworn theater. They are reminders to those of us who migrated here as adults that kids indeed grow up here.
NY Export: Opus Jazz, to Robert Prince’s score, with sets by Ben Shahn, is one of Jerome Robbins’ “sneaker ballets,” considered by the choreographer as a sort of abstract counterpart to his West Side Story Suite. While it is enjoyable to see these two works performed by New York City Ballet at the Koch Theater, they can both suffer from feeling lightweight, aided by spanking white Keds, spotless jeans, and a ballet dancer’s general lack of thuggishness. Two soloists from the company, Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi, have produced a 45-minute film version that has some welcome verismo and grittiness, to premiere on PBS on March 24 at 8pm onGreat Performances: Dance in America. Filmed in locations around the city, the film captures both the anomie of being a youth in the city, as well as an adrenalizing antidote in the form of dance.
Bar and Suozzi enlisted filmmakers Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes, who shot the film in 35mm format, resulting in a high quality snapshot of this big city that both saps and inspires us. You may recognize Coney Island, McCarren Pool, and the Highline before it was renovated, settings for some of the dreamier scenes. But providing equal texture are shots set in a diner, a school gym, a wall-less warehouse or garage space, and a timeworn theater. They are reminders to those of us who migrated here as adults that kids indeed grow up here.