Ezra Hurwitz and Gap's Zac Posen Stage Jerome Robbins' Landmark 'Opus Jazz' for Promo

The Miami City Ballet reimagines the 1958 classic this month

Hoping to introduce a new generation of fans to Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, the Miami City Ballet (MCB) commissioned director Ezra Hurwitz to create a promo teasing the company’s upcoming presentation of the groundbreaking work as part of this month’s American Rhythms program. The resulting video offers a vibrant performance from members of the company clad in costumes designed by Zac Posen through GapStudio.

Opus Jazz rocked the ballet world when it debuted in 1958. Focused on the youth culture of the day, it featured a previously unseen blend of ballet, jazz and ballroom styles. The dancers were outfitted not in traditional tutus and pointed shoes, but in T-shirts, pants and sneakers.

As evidenced by the promo, Hurwitz and Posen’s talents are well suited to the task of drawing a new audience to Robbins’ vision. Hurwitz, represented for directing assignments by m ss ng p eces, has helmed other content for the MCB, drawing on his experience as a dancer. (The NYC native spent 12 years training at the American School of Ballet and was a member of MCB for 8 years.)

Play

Posen, executive vice president and creative director at Gap Inc., has refined the brand’s wardrobe essentials. His ability to create elevated basics was key to this project, as the dancers required youthful, hip attire while allowing for freedom of movement.

Here, Hurwitz delves into the making of the promo, which was produced by Miami’s RundaShow Productions, as well as Posen’s contributions to the aesthetic:

MUSE: Why were you interested in working on this particular project, and how did you get Zac Posen involved?

Ezra Hurwitz: This project truly inspired me since Gonzalo Garcia [MCB’s artistic director and Hurwitz’s husband] first began considering programming the Robbins ballet as part of MCB’s upcoming season. I had seen Opus Jazz performed in New York when I was a teenager and agreed with Gonzalo that it had real potential to be a success in Miami. 

Dance on film has broken into the zeitgeist, and in a major way at Gap. For me, Gap’s recent dance fever lit a nostalgia for the brand’s iconic Y2K campaigns, like the ones that feature dances from Robbins’ West Side Story. While rediscovering the swagger of Robbins’ Opus Jazz, a lightbulb went off as to how we might breathe new life into the classic. I immediately reached out to Zac at GapStudio.

How did the costumes Zac created impact the performance?

I couldn’t have anticipated the kind of impact the costumes would have on screen. On the rack, they felt like stylish Gap looks. But on the body and camera, they came alive. I think the informality and familiarity of the looks helped the dancers feel natural and perform without being performative. Additionally, the silhouettes and color story ignited the frame in a way I didn’t expect. Zac Posen is a genius with color and form, and both pop without speaking too loudly. Effortless cool. 

What was the biggest challenge for you in interpreting Opus Jazz as a filmmaker? 

The greatest challenge was preserving the integrity of the 45-minute ballet and distilling it into 2 minutes. I wanted to feature elements from across the entire piece, while keeping the film feeling linear, like a real performance. Ultimately, this meant linking choreographic phrases from various sections and re-synchronizing them to different parts of the music. It was honestly one of the first projects that I genuinely felt I couldn’t have executed without my specific background in dance.

What went into conveying the energy and the thrill of the performance?

Capturing the electricity of this dance on camera comes with its own challenges. In a theater, audiences in their seats can’t just swipe away onto something new—at least not yet. You really need to earn that engagement on screen, through the performances and through choices in the lighting, camera work and editing. We thought about how far to push those cinematic variables, and when to keep the visual language simpler in reverence to the choreography and the dancers. I feel we found a good balance.

The Miami City Ballet is a non-profit dance company. This was not a commercial shoot in any capacity. So, mounting a film production like this was ambitious. You can forget a pre-light or prep days for the crew. But, luckily, everyone brought their A-game.

Some of the camera movement in the film is very tethered to the choreography. And although the dancers had been rehearsing, the camera technicians had not. With that in mind, it can be tough on set. You don’t want the dancers getting fatigued repeating takes, but the crew does need to see the dance to know how  best to react with the camera. That was probably the greatest challenge. 

In the end, we actually didn’t capture everything we had set out to, and I ultimately changed the edit to accommodate the coverage we got. In hindsight, however, I prefer where we landed.

Did you learn anything from this project that you will carry forward as a filmmaker?

With each new film I continue to learn, or better accept, that you never finish exactly where you set out to, and that’s ok. Like most projects, this was born from an idea that felt more like a fantasy. There were so many unknowns. In the end, it really feels like a testament to going after your goals, no matter how unrealistic they seem.

How does your background as a dancer inform your work as a director?

Ballet is a storytelling medium in the absence of words. I think growing up in ballet armed me with an understanding of how to “show” rather than “tell”—an appreciation for visual storytelling.

If a client in the ad space wants to work with you, what kind of projects attract your attention and interest these days?

Dance will always have been my first love, but at this point I’m super interested in leveraging my experience to build worlds and convey emotion without dance necessarily being the vocabulary.  

Related: Gap Celebrates Rites of Spring With Young Miko