Renowned for its versatility and innovative repertoire, BalletMet ranks among the nation’s 20 largest professional ballet companies and stages from 60 to 70 performances every year at home and on tour. As the 2016-17 season began last week on September 22, BalletMet released a special video project entitled “Becoming Violet” that explores the transformative and uniting power of creativity and highlights never-ending internal desire to craft beauty out of chaos.
The one-and-a-half-minute video was created by an integrated creative production company, Collective @ Lair, that comprises of directors, visual effects artists, animators, editors, and interactive digital craftsmen. The New-York-based creative studio conceptualizes, designs, and executes motion content for advertising and broadcast design on all platforms. The piece was directed by a Columbus native, Steven Weinzierl, who is a creative artist devoted to bold, visual storytelling, no matter the medium and/or platform. He is well-known for combining his knowledge design and live-action storytelling in his music videos, broadcast productions, digital media, narrative film and commercial adverts. His recent work includes an experiential campaign for Bentley and an award-winning short film entitled “Bear”. Weinzierl, who got to work on his latest piece with his sister, Lynette Shy, the Director of Marketing at Ballet Met, described it to being: “…a passion project, an art piece. This is a celebration of dance and film in its rawest form. It’s not a typical marketing spot. It was done for the love of the art form.”
Shot in one day in April 2016 in BalletMet’s Performance Space, the video features BalletMet dancers Miguel Anaya, Jessica Brown, Grace-Ann Powers, Jarrett Reimers, Josh Seibel and Carly Wheaton who all blend their movements within dramatic clouds of colour blasted into the air as the performers jump and spin in a completely dark room. BalletMet Artistic Director Edwaard Liang said that: “[We] were so fortunate to be able to collaborate with Lair and Steven on this incredible project, and we couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Becoming Violet is a beautiful interpretation of what it means to find release in creative exploration, to come together in the name of art.”
Credits:
Lair TV & BalletMet
Director: Steven Weinzierl
Cinematographer: Derek Mckane
Choreographer: Edward Liang
Music: Annul by Ed Harrison
Executive Producer: Mark Aji
BalletMet : Lynette Shy
Dancers: Jessica Brown, Grace-Anne Powers, Carly Wheaton, Miguel Anaya, Jarrett Reimers, Josh Seibel
Crew: AJ Cherup, Ryan Blazso, Jennifer Zmuda, Taylor Starek, Jamie Lara, Judy Barto