By:  Laura Byerley, College of Communication
At a typical movie premiere, stars dressed in thousand-dollar ensembles step out of limos and onto a red carpet. But at the Austin premiere of Associate Professor Andrew Garrison’s “Trash Dance,” stars dressed in neon city sanitation uniforms roll up in garbage trucks.

“Trash Dance” performers and choreographer Allison Orr take a bow.Courtesy of Andrew GarrisonBefore someone scoffs at their choice of transportation, Garrison wants people to see the unique beauty of the mucky 27-ton machines. After all, that was Garrison’s goal in directing, producing and recording “Trash Dance.”

The world premiere takes place during the South by Southwest® Film Conference and Festival (SXSW) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 10, at the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Ave. After the premiere, the director, producer and cinematographer will host a premiere party and Radio-Television-Filmalumni gathering from 6-8 p.m. at Progress Coffee, 500 San Marcos St.

In “Trash Dance,” choreographer Allison Orr works with Austin sanitation workers and garbage trucks to create a dance performance. The film follows the daily lives of the employees and the rehearsal process that led to a final performance that features 16 trucks, 24 dancers, a piano, violin and cello.

Associate Professor and “Trash Dance” director Andrew Garrison is an award-winning independent filmmaker with experience in both documentary and dramatic film production.Garrison hopes viewers will be entertained and moved by the film.

“It speaks about dignity of work and the way that the work we do can be a conscious act of beauty,” Garrison said. “Art does not end at the edge of a stage or a museum door. The film also introduces you to the people who do this work every day. You know public employees are sometimes attacked as living off taxpayers’ money. You get to meet these people and see the effort they put into the job and their personal goals. I hope that makes a lasting impression.”

After the world premieres, Garrison will look into international television broadcast opportunities for “Trash Dance.”

Including “Trash Dance,” University of Texas at Austin faculty members, staffers and students are screening about 20 films at SXSW.http://www.utexas.edu/know/2012/03/09/trash_dance_garrison/ 

Sanitation worker part girlie girl, part tomboy
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, December 10 2011, 7:23 PM

A willowy blonde with perfectly polished nails and Dolce & Gabbana glasses is turning heads as she tosses trash into a truck.

Meet Mary Ellen Connolly, one of six women to graduate the city Sanitation Department’s 2011 class. She and 119 other haulers will be sworn in by Mayor Bloomberg Wednesday.

Working as one of New York’s Strongest is not for the faint of heart. Each worker lifts five to seven tons of garbage per day — from trash bags of rotten food to living room furniture to washing machines.

The job is tough, but also recession-proof — after all, the city residents create 12,000 tons of refuse a day.

Connolly, 36, said she couldn’t be happier in her new career.

“ I wish some of my girlfriends would do it,” Connolly said last week. “ It’s a great job.”

She’s obviously not a woman who says “eww” much.

“I’ m not squeamish at all,” she said. “ I was an X-ray technician in the trauma slot at Bellevue Hospital for 12 years, so I've seen a lot.”

The Queens native said she has always been athletic, playing sports in high school and faithfully hitting the gym for a blast of cardio and weight-lifting.

As I try to keep up with her on her Far Rockaway route, I imagine she can skip the gym, now that she does the waste can workout.

"I I like it, because I’ m outside and I’ m moving around,” she said. “And I liked helping people when I was an X-ray tech, and this is helping people, too.”

Anybody who lived through the Sanitation workers’ strike in the 1970s knows Connolly speaks the truth.

Like all 6,000 uniformed members of the city’ s Sanitation Department — the world’ s largest — Connolly had to pass a strenuous test, dragging bags and cans through an obstacle course.

Then she got the call that she would start 30 days of intense training in October, driving big-bruiser trucks and snowplows.

The timing wasn’t ideal — her wedding to restaurant manager Sean McCallion was scheduled a few days before the start of training.

“I spent my honeymoon at Floyd Bennett Field,” Connolly said.

She and the five other female newbies are far from the first women on the force, says the department’ s Chief Keith Mellis.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/meet-member-york-city-sexiest-strongest-article-1.989851#ixzz1gKgNmeZy