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NY Export : Opus Jazz
From 17 to 20 October 2025
A film by Henry Joost & Jody Lee Lipes | Music: Robert Prince | Choreography: Jerome Robbins.
The first film conceived, created, produced, and performed by dancers of the New York City Ballet.
A contemporary adaptation of the ballet, NY Export: Opus Jazz—the first film of a Jerome Robbins choreography since West Side Story—was shot on location in the streets of New York, the very city that inspired it, and is performed by dancers of the New York City Ballet.
Winner of the Audience Award at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival, the film was broadcast as part of PBS’s Great Performances series and was selected for the prestigious Rose d’Or Festival.
The piece
N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz was choreographed only a year after the landmark West Side Story opened on Broadway — the dancers in this ballet in sneakers evoke a post-war New York City with their cool jazz moves and angst-ridden beats.
N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz was first performed by Jerome Robbins’ Ballets: U.S.A. at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in June of 1958. The following are revised program notes from that production, concerning the youth and dances of the late 1950s.
There has always been a tremendous amount of popular dancing in America. At this time its vitality has reached a new high, developing and expanding in form and style from the major and basic contributions of the African-American and Latin-American. Because of a strong unconscious emotional kinship with those minority roots, teenagers particularly have popularized these dances. Feeling very much like a minority group in this threatening and explosive world, the young have so identified with the dynamics, kinetic impetus, the drives and ‘coolness’ of today’s jazz steps that these dances have become an expression of our youths’ outlook and their attitudes toward the contemporary world around them, just as each era’s dance has significantly reflected the character of our changing world and a manner of dealing with it.
N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz is a formal, abstract ballet based on the kinds of movements, complexities of rhythms, expressions of relationships, and qualities of atmospheres found in today′s dance.
Jerome Robbins
Born in New York City in 1918 to a Jewish family of Russian immigrants, Jerome Rabinowitz abandoned a potential career in business to devote himself to dance. He studied classical ballet and modern dance, learned piano and violin, and also took acting classes. He began his professional career in 1939 with Gluck Sandor and Felia Sorel, while also appearing in several musical comedies.
In 1940, he joined Ballet Theatre—later to become American Ballet Theatre (ABT)—recently founded by Richard Pleasant and Lucia Chase, where he performed a wide-ranging repertoire from Michel Fokine to Agnes de Mille. In 1944, he created his first choreography, Fancy Free, to music by Leonard Bernstein. Its immediate success led him directly to Broadway and Hollywood.
In 1948, George Balanchine invited him to join the New York City Ballet as a dancer, appointing him associate artistic director the following year. At the same time, Robbins began choreographing for Broadway, creating numerous musicals, most notably West Side Story (1957), which won ten Academy Awards in its 1961 film adaptation.
In 1958, Robbins founded his own company, Ballets U.S.A., with which he toured extensively in Europe. During this period, he was also invited to create works for ABT, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, The Royal Ballet in London, and the Joffrey Ballet. He later returned to New York City Ballet, where, as ballet master and associate choreographer, he played a central role in the company’s life. Together with Balanchine, he organized the celebrated Stravinsky Festival (1972, 1982), the Ravel Festival (1975), and the Tchaikovsky Festival (1981), while also creating an exceptionally varied body of repertory.
After Balanchine’s death in 1983, Robbins shared the artistic directorship of New York City Ballet with Peter Martins until July 1990, when he stepped down from his administrative responsibilities, though he remained one of the company’s resident choreographers.
Jerome Robbins received numerous honors, including the Handel Medallion from the City of New York (1976), the Kennedy Center Honors (1981), and the National Medal of Arts (1988).
Robert Prince
An American composer born in New York in 1929 and trained at the Juilliard School, Robert Prince left a distinctive mark on the musical landscape of the twentieth century. An eclectic artist, he moved seamlessly between jazz, dance, theater, film, and television, always with a keen sense of rhythm and atmosphere.
His collaboration with Jerome Robbins was especially significant: Prince composed the scores for N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz (1958) and Events (1961), landmark works that fused the energy of jazz with contemporary choreographic writing. He also composed for the theater (Oh Dad, Poor Dad…, 1962) as well as for several Broadway musicals in the 1960s.
In film and television, he created music for numerous cult productions, from Mission: Impossible to Columbo, and Wonder Woman. At the same time, he recorded albums under his own name, exploring the colors and daring spirit of modern jazz, collaborating with some of the greatest musicians of his era.
Robert Prince consistently captured the spirit of his time: his scores reflect the urban drive, vitality, and tension of an America in transformation. From the New York stage to Hollywood studios, he embodied, with originality and freedom, the fertile dialogue between high art, popular culture, and modernity.
Jody Lee Lipes & Henry Joost
Jody Lee Lipes
Born on January 18, 1982, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jody Lee Lipes is an American filmmaker and cinematographer. A graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, he began his career working on numerous short films before gaining recognition as the director of photography for Antonio Campos’s Afterschool and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture.
He then collaborated with Lena Dunham as director of photography and director for several episodes of her HBO series Girls. He also served as director of photography for Judd Apatow’s comedy Trainwreck, starring Amy Schumer.
Lipes was the cinematographer for Kenneth Lonergan’s drama Manchester by the Sea, shot digitally. He also worked on A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller, and The Good Nurse, directed by Tobias Lindholm. In 2023, he served as director of photography for Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama.
As a director, he helmed the documentary NY Export: Opus Jazz, which screened at the annual South by Southwest Festival, as well as Ballet 422, presented at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.
Jody Lee Lipes became a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in 2021.
Henry Joost
Born on October 30, 1982, Henry Joost is an American filmmaker known for his collaborations with Ariel Schulman. Together, they have co-directed several notable films, including Catfish, Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, Nerve, and Project Power.
After a brief stint at Columbia University, Joost first gained recognition in 2006 as a finalist in the Scion Xpress Fest, a student film competition, for directing a music video for the indie band Palomar.
In 2018, he co-directed Project Power, a sci-fi superhero thriller for Netflix, written by Mattson Tomlin. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fishback, and was released on the platform on August 14, 2020.
Henry Joost is married to actress Sofia Black-D’Elia. His career is marked by a focus on high-tension contemporary narratives and a distinctive sense of rhythm and visual storytelling.
Credits
A film by Henry Joost & Jody Lee Lipes
Music: Robert Prince
Choreography: Jerome Robbins
Dancers of the New York City Ballet
Robert Fairchild
Tiler Peck
Georgina Paczoguin
Rachel Rutherford
Craig Hall
Antonio Carmena
Adam Hendrickson
Rebecca Krohn
Troy Schumacher
Ashley Laracey
Amar Ramasar
Andrew Veyette
Brittany Pollack
Gretchen Smith
Austin Laurent
Glenn Keenan
Giovanni Villalobos
Amanda Hankes
Executive producer: Ellen Bar & Sean Suozzi
Extras executive producer: David Horn
Publication date: October 24, 2010
Distribution : Factory twenty five
