Miami City Ballet is giving one of Jerome Robbins’ most iconic works new visual life, with director Ezra Hurwitz helping translate that reinvention from stage to screen.
For the company’s new presentation of N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, Gap Inc. EVP and Creative Director Zac Posen was invited by The Robbins Rights Trust and Miami City Ballet to redesign the ballet’s costumes through GapStudio. The collaboration marks the first authorized stage redesign of the original costumes, pairing Robbins’ 1958 choreography with a contemporary fashion sensibility.
To extend the production beyond the theater, Miami City Ballet enlisted two-time Emmy Award-winning director Hurwitz to create a visual campaign built around the intersection of fashion, movement and individuality. Hurwitz is represented by m ss ng p eces, with production handled by RundaShow Productions in Miami. Watch below:
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“What could be better than bringing together the work of Jerome Robbins, with the dancers of Miami City Ballet, and the creative force that is Zac Posen and GapStudio,” Hurwitz said. “While the 1958 Robbins ballet, N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, is truly a timeless work, my hope is that this project breathes new life into the masterpiece – and that we engage new audiences around what ballet can look like, and what it can make you feel.”
That ambition feels especially appropriate for Opus Jazz, which was already pushing against convention when it debuted nearly seven decades ago. Robbins dressed ballet dancers in T-shirts, pants and sneakers, blending classical technique with jazz rhythms, youthful energy and a distinctly urban attitude.
Posen’s redesign builds from that foundation rather than fighting it. Each of the 16 dancers receives an individual look, with Gap staples such as denim, T-shirts, button-downs, hoodies and relaxed trousers adapted for the physical demands of Robbins’ choreography.
The palette draws inspiration from Henri Matisse’s Jazz series, mixing streetwear neutrals, denim and black with brighter saturated tones reflecting Miami. The finale brings the full cast together in white T-shirts and sneakers, directly echoing Robbins’ original vision while reinforcing the piece’s themes of individuality and community.
“Jerome Robbins called it ‘a ballet in sneakers.’ There was something incredibly modern about his vision of dancers in T-shirts and sneakers, capturing the energy and individuality of young people in New York City,” Posen noted. “That is the Gap vocabulary. Our ads have always danced.”
For Posen, the collaboration also creates a natural bridge between Gap’s history and a work whose visual language already feels remarkably aligned with the brand. GapStudio becomes less of an outside fashion intervention and more of a continuation of ideas already embedded in Robbins’ choreography.
Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Gonzalo Garcia said the designs match the spirit of the piece, describing Posen’s approach as “vibrant” and “playful,” and well suited to the ballet’s youthful energy.
N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz premieres as part of Miami City Ballet’s American Rhythms, running October 16–25 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale.
For GapStudio, it is fashion meeting dance. For Hurwitz, it is a chance to make that collision cinematic.
CREDITS
- Director: Ezra Hurwitz
- MCB Artistic Director: Gonzalo Garcia
- Choreography by Jerome Robbins
- Performed by Permission of The Robbins Rights Trust
- Staged by Jean Pierre Frohlich
- Designed by Zac Posen with GapStudio
- Styled by Stella Greenspan
- Director of Photography: Sam Brave
- Editor: Ian Wallace, WildChild Studios
- VFX: Ira Morris, Finalbyte
PRODUCTION COMPANY: RunDa Show
- Executive Producer: Marco Sroka
- Producer: Daniela Cisneros
- Producer (MCB Marketing): Ali Castro
- Color: Maria Carretero, Royal Muste
- Executive Producer: Marco Sroka
- Producer: Daniela Cisneros
- Producer (MCB Marketing): Ali Castro
MCB DANCERS
- Peyton Andersen
- Shadian Aquia
- Adrienne Carter
- Katya Chernyshev
- Cameron Catazaro
- Rachel Collett
- Isabella DeVivo
- Sujanya Dhillon
- Guillermo Dominguez
- Lorenzo Dunton
- Macarena Gimenez
- Satoki Habuchi
- Chloe Humphrey
- Maximiliano Iglesias
- Alexander Kaden
- Anabel Katsnelson
- Andrew Larose
- Suzette Logue
- Yuliia Moskalenko
- Jasmine Perry
- Alexander Peters
- Ethan Rodrigues
- Nicole Stalker
- Chase Swatosh
- Damian Zamorano
