Week 4 Day 3

Tomorrow is most of the casts' last day of shooting. I hope that they all have enjoyed this experience as much as I have. One day, and I feel it's coming soon for me at least, we will all pine for the days when we could jump up at a moments notice and dance our asses off, and it is our benefit that we will be immortalized dancing on film.

Getting to work with such incredibly talented people for the past month has been so inspiring. Do I know how to work a movie camera? No. Do I know how to set up a lighting rig? No. Do I know how to make sure 20 dancers get through hair and make-up in time for the first shot of the morning? No. Do I know how to feed 100 plus people for 12 hours straight? Maybe. Everyone would get a can of Pringles at 7am and be told to shut up.

But seriously, I'm completely grateful to be part this project. Even coming home tonight with splinters in my ass, literally, IN MY ASS, I can not wait to get back on set tomorrow morning. Chaz, get that french toast ready.

Week 4 Day 2

Bitch Moan Bitch Moan....I have splinters in my ass. Are they worse than lead paint chips in my nose? I guess I really don't care. Today was crazy exhausting. This movement has much longer shots than the previous sections so there are many more rehearsals for the camera which requires us to dance and dance and dance. Keeping energy and moral up is top priority right now but I'm pretty sure that we have the solution. We Are Opus Jazz will soon present 'The Opus Jazz Dance Off'. Later this week I'll post original dances created by cast members, then it's up to you to vote for your favorite dance in the comments section. Please stay tuned and vote.

The Last Week Begins

I'm actually sad to be in the last week of shooting Opus Jazz. It has been an enlightening challenge as a dancer, a co-worker and person. I have been going through an amazing journey with many friends and strangers. Strangers that I now can call friends.

Yesterday we had our final rehearsal/ costume fitting. I found it somewhat sad, at least for me. I don't know how much longer, or even if, I'll ever dance this ballet on stage again, and it has been great to be shown again just how incredible this ballet is. Being 'inside' of a ballet for so long can glaze your eyes over, making it harder and harder to see what the ballet is like to be seen from the outside. But throughout the filming process I have seen clips of what has been shot already, and it has given me an even deeper appreciation for this ballet. It makes the ballet look exactly how I feel when I'm dancing it.

This month has been grueling. My brain feels fried. My body feels on the brink of total collapse, but I don't want this to end yet. It has been great to experience something so new. To get to watch so many people work with such invested energy and talent on the transformation of this ballet to film has been amazingly humbling. It is a given that any dancer with half a brain loves and respects the gifts that Jerome Robbins left for us, but to have these gifts, and to share them with film directors, editors, camera operators, lighting designers, key grips, gaffers, make-up artists and craft service cooks (hell yeah Chaz), and countless others, is the best aspect of making Opus Jazz the Movie.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I said "yes" to Ellen and Sean, but I would be kicking myself in the ass for the rest of my life if I had said "no".

I Love This Project

One of the greatest things about being part of this film is getting to see Robbins through someone else’s eyes. Neither Henry nor Jodi (the directors) were ever dancers, and they have had no experiences with the Jerome Robbins way of dancing aside from coming to NYCB to watch. So needless to say I was looking forward to see their take on Opus Jazz.

For us it’s easy to describe dancing in a Robbins’ ballets in the same old ways. You “perform” less, you share the “communal feel”, and you use the “less is more” approach. But those ways of describing dancing Jerry’s ballets are selling the man short. Yes, his ballets are some of the best to dance, but the real benefit is how his ballets make you feel as a person, not just as a dancer, as a person. His works force you to examine why you dance, why you interact with certain things in life, why you feel certain things. People talk a lot about how Jerry was a task master and how he’d break you down if you didn’t give your all. But even though I never got the chance to work with him directly, I can say with out a doubt that Jerry was an extremely cool guy.

He wasn’t a kid when he made Opus Jazz, and yet he didn’t set Opus Jazz to be “lived” in his own adolescent days as others probably would have, but he captures the essence of all youth in angst. A spirit that gets past down through the ages, urging the young to rebel, explore themselves, explore others and don’t trust anything but yourself.

I find it amazing to watch Henry and Jodi find all of the hidden elements to this ballet. They don’t know the names of steps or the reason that one step comes after another, but they completely understand the reason of the ballet.

Having someone take a ballet that you know inside and out, having had already come up with your own inner story for it and then they give you theirs, seems like it would be a hindrance, but I actually find it quite liberating. We’ve all been able to take our own created stage characters and place them perfectly into Henry and Jodi’s world that they are creating around us. It feels like home. It feels right. I keep expecting to look up and see Jerry standing next to the camera with an old fashioned megaphone and a smile across his face. I think he would have loved this. To see a ballet filmed in truth. To see it danced with love.

Craig Hall Master Class

Mornings always start slow on set, so out of a necessity to get warmed up and kill boredom, Ballet Super Star Craig Hall has begun teaching warm up classes for the cast. Craig has come up with an amazing jazz dance for Rebecca, Gretchen and Amar that the whole cast later performed for the neighborhood. This is one of the rehearsals for it.

Wrapped!

We just wrapped on day two of 'Entrances'. We actually got through all of it. Twenty four different camera angles! I may be off, but I'm sure it was more if I am wrong.

'Entrances' has such a smokey, sexy feeling and having the hazy sun in your eyes while dancing gave us all a little extra bump on the sex factor.

It's so frustrating to not get to see how things look as they go, but everyone who does get to watch the monitor is excited by how well this ballet looks on screen. How has this not been done before? It seems a given that this ballet gets shot for a film. I guess better late than never. Get your minds ready, they will soon be blown.

Lunch Break at the Pool

We are finally on our lunch break. Given how many handfuls of M&Ms I've thrown back this morning, I'm amazed that I had room for pulled pork and baked ziti. The craft service here is unbelievable. We get any kind of breakfast sandwich in the morning, there is a never ending stream of coffee (hot and iced), tons of snacks and drinks, and surprisingly no one looks at us like we're pigs. I admit that I do get a little embarrassed while running to set with a candy bar dangling from my mouth, but hey, if I needs my sugar, I needs my sugar.

We're trying really hard to get 'Entrances' shot today since the forecast for tomorrow seems rainy. It feels like we have a load still to cover and I hope that we can keep our energy up until the last shot. As long as Craig keeps us as entertained as he has so far I'm sure we'll be fine.