NY Export: Opus Jazz

Co-directed by Jody Lee Lipes and Henry Joost, this PBS-aired entry in the Great Performances series presents an adaptation of famed choreographer Jerome Robbins' 1958 five-part “ballet in sneakers,” a kind of dance highlights version of his classic West Side Story set to a score by Robert Prince. A contemporary restaging conceived by New York City Ballet soloists Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi, NY Export: Opus Jazz begins as company dancers spend an afternoon in the city, riding bicycles, playing video games, and hanging out at the beach before meeting in an abandoned courtyard, where they dance the first movement in street clothes. The New York setting and finger-snapping will be familiar to West Side Story fans, as will scenes set in a parking garage and high school gymnasium (where the sounds of swing predominate). In one of the loveliest sequences, two characters perform a pas de deux along a weed-covered railroad track, while the finale is an impressive stage number in which the performers' shadows create calligraphic designs (with colored shapes in the background adding to the sense of abstract expressionism). Broadcast many years ago on The Ed Sullivan Show, the original ballet was a sensation. A half-century later, NY Export: Opus Jazz offers a fine update. DVD extras include a documentary on the work's significance, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and an essay by John Lithgow. Recommended. [Note: this is also available with public performance rights—$250: colleges & universities, $125: public libraries—from Argot Pictures at www.argotpictures.com.] (K. Fennessy)