For the New York City Ballet’s spring gala, the director tracks dancers backstage and on stage as they perform Robbins, Balanchine and a new work by Justin Peck.

“The challenge for me was to convey the feeling of seeing live dance,” Coppola tells New York Times. “A lot of dance is filmed in a very flat, standard way. But getting close up, which is thrilling in rehearsal, doesn’t always translate onto film either. I had to move the camera much more than I am used to, and try to give the feel of experiencing a live performance from different vantage points.”