Jerome Robbins' NY Export: Opus Jazz the Film

SXSW Film Festival Screenings dates announced.

· Sat, Mar 13 – 6:45pm – ALAMO RITZ 2

· Tues, Mar 16 – 3:45pm – ALAMO RITZ 1

· Sat, Mar 20 – 7pm – ALAMO RITZ 2

Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies and television. His Broadway shows include On the Town, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof. His last Broadway production in 1989, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, won six Tony Awards including best musical and best director. Among the more than 60 ballets he created are Fancy Free, Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, Dances At a Gathering, Glass Pieces and NY Export: Opus Jazz, which are in the repertories of New York City Ballet and other major dance companies throughout the world. In addition to two Academy Awards for the film West Side Story, Mr. Robbins has received four Tony Awards, five Donaldson Awards, two Emmy Awards, the Screen Directors’ Guild Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Mr. Robbins was a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient and was awarded the French Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur. Mr. Robbins died in 1998.

Born in New York City in 1929, Bob Prince graduated the Julliard School, completing studies in composition and percussion. He worked as A&R and Producer for Columbia and Decca Records in the late 50’s and 60’s, producing, arranging and composing for Johnny Mathis, Richard Davis, and Sonny Rollins.  He was commissioned to write “NY Export: Opus Jazz” for Robbins’ Ballets: USA and Events for the New York City Ballet.  His concert hall compositions received rave reviews in Brussels, the Spoleto Festival Due Mondi and New York.  He was even asked to the White House on President Kennedy’s birthday. Bob continued to work with Robbins in theater where they collaborated on the hit show Oh Dad Poor Dad.  After moving his family to Los Angeles, Prince composed scores for all the major studios for both feature film and television.  Bob always attracted bass players as lifelong friends.  His love for their artistry lasted his lifetime, and his affection for Milt Hinton, George Duvivier, and Ray Brown deserves mention here.  Bob spent the past 24 spring and summers in Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard, where he was adored by his neighbors and tennis partners. Challenging players 20 years his junior, Bob was always a true gentlemen, on and off the court.

Ellen Bar attended the School of American Ballet from the age of eight and was asked to join the New York City Ballet in 1998. Ellen has danced featured roles including Agon, The Four Temperaments, Episodes, and Tschaikovsky Suite #3 as well as Robbins’ works The Cage, West Side Story Suite, and Antique Epigraphs. She was promoted to Soloist in 2006. Ellen has also performed with Morriss Center Dance in East Hampton and Benjamin Millepied’s Danses Concertantes in Lyon and Stockholm and at the Joyce Theater here in New York. Ellen danced as a child Candy Cane in Emile Ardolino’s The Nutcracker (with New York City Ballet), in the feature film Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and as an animated character in Barbie of Swan Lake. Ellen has an Associate’s Degree in Business from Penn State University and is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree at Columbia University. Her dance writing has been published in Ballet Review and The Columbia Observer. Like Sean, Ellen was part of the original cast of the revival of Opus Jazz. Together she and Sean have developed, funded and produced the project since its inception in 2005.

Sean Suozzi, 28, was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, and grew up in Connecticut. He studied at the School of American Ballet for three years and was asked to join the New York City Ballet in 2000. In 2007, he was promoted to soloist after his debut as Romeo in Peter Martins’ full-length Romeo + Juliet. Sean has received much critical and audience acclaim for his featured roles in Agon, The Four Temperaments, Swan Lake and Jewels, as well as Robbins’ classics Fanfare, The Four Seasons, Dybbuk, West Side Story Suite, and Interplay. Outside the New York City Ballet, Sean has performed with Peter Boal & Company, Eliot Feld’s Mandance Project, and Benjamin Millepied and company, at venues around the world including Joyce Theater and the Venice Bienalle. Sean was in the original cast of New York City Ballet’s revival of NY Export: Opus Jazz in 2005 and has danced in every single performance of it. During the rehearsal process, Sean conceived the idea to bring it to the screen, update it to the present day and shoot it on location. This is his first film.