Justin Peck Takes the Big Screen

The Tribeca Film Festival announced the films of its 2014 World Documentary Competition yesterday. Excitingly, one of the 12 chosen is Ballet 422, the collaboration between Ellen Bar, a former New York City Ballet soloist and the company’s director of media projects, and choreographer Justin Peck. Bar’s documentary follows Peck during the making of his third work for NYCB, Paz de la Jolla (2013), and is supposed to give the “regular” world a taste of the painstaking but incredibly rewarding process of starting a new dance from scratch.

I hope that normal folk love the insider’s perspective, but it looks like there’s plenty for us dance experts, too: Peck working closely with the orchestra to bring the classical score to life, costume designers putting the finishing touches on their garments and, of course, lots and lots of dancing. We even get a peek of Peck’s “office”—his little NYC apartment. It’s like a day in the life of Justin Peck! (Oh wait, we beat ’em to that.)

We’re eagerly waiting for a preview of the film. Until then, check out this NYCB video of Peck working with the company during Paz de la Jolla‘s final stages.