Jody Lee Lipes's Ballet 422

The first time I worked with Balanchine personally was when he was choreographing Square Dance. I was a complete neophyte and knew nothing about the choreographic process, but seeing the steps pour out of this man was a revelation.  He could just walk into a studio and begin choreographing the way most people begin to talk.  It seemed that easy for him.
--Edward Villella, Prodigal Son (Simon and Schuster,1992)


Ballet 422, a film directed by Jody Lee Lipes and released in 2014, is about Justin Peck and his creation of Paz de La Jolla in 2013, the 422nd ballet performed at The New York City Ballet.  Most of the first 421 were choreographed by George Balanchine, who died in 1983, and most of the ballets that came after him have not survived in the repertory.  In 1957, when Balanchine choreographed Square Dance, he also choreographed Gounod Symphony, Stars and Stripes, and Agon, each one brilliant in its own way and all still being danced regularly (with the exception of Gounod Symphony, a wonderful ballet which has not been performed since the 80's)   Did it come easy to Balanchine?  No one knows the answer to that question, because it was all going on in his head. We don't get a great deal of insight into Peck's thought process either, something Lipes wisely does not attempt.  Lipes has obviously been influenced by Frederick Wiseman, as his film (like those of Wiseman) contains no talking heads explaining things.  Wiseman has done portraits of the American Ballet Theatre (1995) and The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) but these, like most of Wiseman's films , are wide-ranging films about large institutions.  Lipes sticks to just the creation of one ballet.

I have not seen the complete Paz de La Jolla (though I intend to this season) but, based on this film, Peck is a choreographer willing and able to learn, as we watch him work closely with lighting designer Mark Stanley and costume designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung. Peck struggles a bit and records rehearsals on a computer, which he takes home to study. He is also quite comfortable with dancers Amar Ramasar, Tiler Peck and Sterling Hyltin and willing to listen to their suggestions.  An important collaborator with Peck on Paz de La Jolla and prominent in the film was former dancer Albert Evans, who died this year at the age of 47; he took notes and made suggestions to Peck throughout the choreographic process.  This is a film not just about creation but also about all the work that goes into it.  And after Peck watches the premiere of his ballet, sitting in the theatre, he goes to his dressing room and changes into dance attire to dance in the corps of the last ballet of the evening.