‘Ballet 422’ Goes Behind the Scenes of Dancemaking
Originally published on Neon Tommy, USC’s digital-first news publication.
By Christina Campodonico | February 17, 2015
In the documentary “Ballet 422,” director Jody Lee Lipes takes us inside New York City Ballet’s universe on a behind the scenes look at Justin Peck’s creation of a new ballet — yet leaves much of that choreographer’s creative world lingering just outside the frame.
In the ballet world, Justin Peck is a kind of boy wonder. At 27, he is already a soloist and City Ballet’s Resident Choreographer, only the second choreographer to hold that position during the company’s 67 years. At the time of filming, Peck was 25 and had just been commissioned to create a new ballet for the Company’s 2013 winter season.
The enormity of this proposition is clear just by reference to sheer numbers. This is Peck’s third ballet. It is City Ballet’s 422nd. And he only has two months to conceptualize and create a new work. Much is riding on this young, yet immensely talented choreographer.
Despite, or perhaps because of his rising profile, Peck comes off as a reticent figure in the film, a creative who secludes himself in a studio to record himself dancing on his iPhone, or retreats to his apartment to replay footage of dancers rehearsing his choreography on his Mac.
While Peck unburdens himself to Apple’s cameras, Peck’s creative range remains understated, not quite thoroughly expressed or articulated in “Ballet 422,” which was shot in the cinema vérité style.
The name of Peck’s dance is not known until it innocuously appears upon a theatre-goer’s playbill the night of the premiere. While the film is built progressively upon excerpts from Peck’s rehearsals with NYCB dancers — Lipes ordered the scenes so that the visual narrative moves from Peck choreographing alone to finally rehearsing the corps de ballet — it is hard to understand the artistic thrust behind the dance itself or the creative consciousness that pulses within Justin Peck’s brain, compelling him to create.
The dancers’ costuming gives some hint as to the ballet’s drive — pastel swimsuit-style rompers indicate a day at the beach, while a fluttering blue sash on one principal ballerina effects a whirl of nautical whimsy. But these suggestions are vague, rather than revealing.
Much of this exclusion is deliberate. Lipes, who counts the nuanced and understated filmography of documentarian Frederick Wiseman among his influences, is not one to force connections.
“Justin doesn’t walk out and display his motivations,” said Lipes in a post-screening Q&A on Saturday night at the Nuart. “It’s not something he’d talk about. [We] didn’t feel the need to show it in the film.”
Ultimately, Lipes is more interested in the choreographer’s process of making art rather than implications of that artwork, even though Peck is primed to become an influential dance-maker.
“When we see artists who we consider masters we don’t see them when they’re young,” said Lipes. “I tried to make a movie that moves more, that has a clock.”
This clock might tick too slowly through the creative process for some, or become too wrapped up in the milliseconds it takes to suture a pointe shoe together for others. From start to finish the film is a visually intimate look at the making of a dance, a journey that will engage all who appreciate the creation of beautiful things, thoughts and ideas.
Yet the film’s creative force and guiding star remains elusive, like an ephemeral flit of genius — maddeningly just out of reach.
