LARRY FROM GARY (2020, 26min)
Director - Producer
A dedicated dance teacher continues inspiring his current and former students even after the arts high school in Gary, Indiana where he's taught for decades is shut down by the state.
Featuring original choreography by Larry performed in vivid locations throughout Gary by some of his best students - including one who went on to study at The Juilliard School and another who is now a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Larry from Gary celebrates how art drives the human spirit by highlighting the extraordinary legacy of one special public school program with a teacher who changed peoples’ lives forever.
Renaldo Maurice - one of Larry’s former students and currently a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - returns to Gary to perform at a fundraiser for Larry’s studio The South Shore Dance Alliance during a scene from the film.
By seeing a person who's devoted his life to teaching have to leave his position because of the financial crisis, Larry from Gary also humanizes the challenges facing arts education, especially in underprivileged cities. And although it could be another sad film about the dissolution and disenfranchisement of at-risk people of color (no matter how painful and true those stories are), Larry from Gary instead focuses on the beautiful ways art and education allow communities filled with unsung heroes to grow and thrive despite difficult circumstances.
Larry Brewer in the early 1980’s when he first started dancing.
Filming the end credits dance sequence at sunrise on Lake Michigan at Miller Beach in Gary, Indiana with Larry’s former student, celebrated dancer/choreographer Joshua L. Ishmon accompanied by jazz saxophonist Mike Carson.
July 24, 2020: A packed crowd of cars watches the drive-in premiere of Larry from Gary as part of the Academy Award-qualifying Indy Shorts International Film Festival.
Larry from Gary star Larry Brewer, featured dancer Briana Arthur, and director Dan Rybicky attend the film’s drive-in premiere at the Indy Shorts International Film Festival.
Director Dan Rybicky
Editor Amber Love
Cinematographer Ben Kolak
Producers Dan Rybicky & Naeema Jamilah Torres
Music Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Original Choreography by Larry Brewer
Original Dance Performances by
Renaldo Maurice (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)
Briana Arthur (The Juilliard School)
Joshua L. Ishmon (Deeply Rooted)
Original Music for Dances Written by Billy Foster
Original Music for Dances Performed by
Art Hoyle (trumpet)
Billy Foster (piano)
Mike Carson (saxophone)
Audio Post Facility Another Country
Audio Post Supervisor Tim Konn
Re-Recording Mixer Drew Weir
Colorist Giorgia Harvey
Funding Provided by
Larry revists the Gary Ensemble Theater where he danced early in his career during a scene in Larry from Gary.