“End Of The World” Zach Tabori Releases Music Ballet Video Ft Dancers Gabe Stone Shayer, Indiana Woodward, Zimmi Coker
Today, May 30th, a new ballet video titled “End of the World” debuts, weaving together the haunting elegance of classical dance with the raw emotional force of multi-instrumentalist Zach Tabori’s new single. The project features an intimate collaboration between New York City Ballet Principal Indiana Woodward, American Ballet Theatre’s Zimmi Coker, and former ABT soloist Gabe Stone Shayer—a close-knit trio of longtime friends who bring profound vulnerability and trust to the work.
Shot by filmmaker Lucas Flores Piran, and directed by Stephanie Gotch, the video serves as both a music video for Tabori’s upcoming album Attack of the Clout Chasers (debuting May 29th) and a powerful artistic statement in its own right. Through somber yet hopeful choreography, the dancers evoke the anguish of loss and the flickering promise of renewal.
For Gabe Stone Shayer, this piece is more than a comeback—it’s a personal reclamation. After nearly 12 years with American Ballet Theatre, Shayer published a searing Op-Ed in The New York Times last year, detailing the racial stereotyping and marginalization he faced as a Black dancer. “I am a ballet dancer and a Black man, in that order,” he wrote. “I left the United States to train at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow at age 15 so that people would see my skill first and not my skin.” In Russia, he found freedom and agency, but in the United States, he was too often confined to roles that felt like “a shuck and jive,” from the evil sorcerer in Swan Lake to the lead fakir in La Bayadère.
“The leaders of the American Ballet Theatre do not agree with the way I am characterizing my tenure with the company,” Shayer wrote. “They said I lacked the technical and artistic skills for the roles I sought. But why did I get promoted to soloist in 2020 if they didn’t think I was ready?” In his essay, he laid bare how even as ballet companies brandished Black dancers as symbols of diversity in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, they still fell short of true equity. “This country’s racial reckoning has been as phony as it comes,” Shayer declared.
Against this backdrop, “End of the World” becomes a deeply personal project for Shayer. “In the case of this piece, I was presented with the music to work with and suddenly I could feel myself coming back, through Zach Tabori’s melancholic tone,” he explains. “It felt like a symbiotic narrative about what I’ve gone through and that gave meaning to my pursuit of creating a means of expression—my purpose for dancing.”
The collaboration also underscores the unique camaraderie between the dancers: Shayer and Woodward have been friends since childhood, while Shayer and Coker shared the stage at ABT. This foundation of trust lends the video an intimacy rarely seen in ballet films, intensifying the portrayal of grief, love, and hope.
For Tabori, whose musical influences include the sweeping orchestral power of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, ballet felt like the natural medium to convey the music’s emotional landscape. “My favorite piece of music of all time is The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, technically it is a ballet. Ballet to me is the original music video—if you wanted to explain to an audience visually how an instrumental piece should make an audience feel, you would use dance as a medium,” he says.
Tabori worked with arranger Suzie Katayama (Madonna, Prince, Björk) and an accomplished ensemble of orchestral players, including violinists Charlie Bisharat and Joel Derouin, violist Zach Dellinger, cellist Cameron Stone, and bassist Tim Eckert. Together, they crafted a sonic backdrop that elevates the dancers’ nuanced storytelling.
“End of the World” is ultimately more than a music video or a ballet—it is a testament to the power of art to confront and transcend pain. For Shayer, Woodward, and Coker, it is also a reminder that artistry flourishes when it is rooted in friendship, honesty, and the refusal to conform. In the words of Shayer’s essay: “I wonder if America will ever see me as I see myself—a prince instead of a pawn.”
Directed by Stephanie Gotch
Choreographed by Gabe Stone Shayer & Stephanie Gotch
Featuring: Indiana Woodward, Zimmi Coker, and Gabe Stone Shayer
Music written and produced by Zach Tabori
Orchestration arrangement by Suzie Katayama and Zach Tabori
Violin – Charlie Bisharat, Violin – Joel Derouin, Viola – Zach Dellinger, Cello – Cameron Stone, Bass – Tim Eckert
Cinematographer – Lucas Flores Piran
Edited by Lucas Flores Piran
Photos by Brian Boulos
Second Camera Dwight Cassin
Gaffer Forrest Shearer
Location – Gina Gibney Dance INC
