FILM + VIDEO

    Celebrate dance with NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ

    Celebrate dance with NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ Image gallery

    Presented by Indie Memphis at The Evergreen Theater

    May 24, 2011

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    Part of an Indie Memphis series of dance films screening at the Evergreen Theatre in collaboration with Project: Motion.

    A "ballet in sneakers" by the legendary Jerome Robbins (West Side Story), NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ was a smash hit in 1958 when it was broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show. Set to a rousing jazz score by Robert Prince, the ballet portrayed the experiences of urban youth through movements that blended ballet, jazz, and ballroom dancing to create a contemporary and powerfully expressive style. This 46-minute modern-day adaptation takes the ballet off the stage and back to the streets that inspired it, with the ensemble cast of disaffected youth played entirely by dancers from the New York City Ballet. Shot on location all over New York City on anamorphic 35mm, the film takes advantage of some of New York City's rarest and most stunning locations. The stylized cinematography captures the majestic landscape of New York City as well as the subtle beauty and sensuality of the dance piece.

    New York Magazine called NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ "just about the purest, sexiest thing going in ballet," and The New York Times said the film "may prove classic."

    "All the stagy, perfected boredom one might feel towards ballet is cast aside and rendered fresh in NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ," wrote FilmThreat. "The film is just awesome to watch and simply made me happy to have seen it. I can't recommend it highly enough."

    Following the screening of NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ is a 15-minute documentary that recounts the history and summarizes the enduring significance and appeal of Opus Jazz. Choreographer (and original West Side Story dancer) Eliot Feld and Sondra Lee (one of Robbins' original Opus dancers), along with other Robbins' friends and colleagues, join the current cast of dancers to contextualize the cultural and historical importance of Mr. Robbins' career and NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ.

    The Opus Jazz program is preceded by Mitchell Rose's MODERN DAYDREAMS (16 min), a suite of four Chaplinesque films exploring the theme of movement engendered by day-to-day life. In TREADMILL SOFTLY, a man reaches aerobic heart rate at the gym when he falls for a hunkette. In ISLANDS IN THE SKY, four people weave fifty feet in the air atop four cherry-pickers, aloft and aloof in their ivory towers. In UNLEASHED, a cubicle-bound Dilbert-ditto gets in touch with his inner puppy. In DEERE JOHN, a man and a twenty-two ton John Deere excavator dance a dance of discovery, fulfillment, and eventually, the loss that any diesel-based relationship must suffer.


    • At-a-
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      • Venue Info

        The Evergreen Theater

        1705 Poplar Avenue
        Memphis, TN 38104

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      • Admission Info

        Tickets:

        $7 at the door / $5 for members and Project: Motion "Frame-by-Frame" ticket holders. Online tickets are available at a $1 discount plus service fees.

        Info Phone: 901-214-5171

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      • Dates & Times

        Dates:
        May 24, 2011

        Times:

        7 pm

      • Accessibility Info

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