Starrett's ballet is based on Green's popular and colorful paintings of life among the Gullah people, descendents of West African slaves who live on the coast: known as "lowcountry": and islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Green grew up in the lowcountry of South Carolina in the 1960s.

The choreographer has interpreted Green's images and set them to a mix of music that includes African-American gospel, jazz, field-work songs, and popular music as well as: according to the South Carolina newspaper The State: a recording of a sermon by Gullah preacher Sam Stoney.

According to the paper, Starrett hopes to arrange a national and an international tour for Off the Wall.

The Columbia Museum of Art has arranged a concurrent retrospective of Green's work, called Rhythms of Life: The Art of Jonathan Green. The exhibition runs through February 13.

Starrett, a former dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, has been artistic director of Columbia City Ballet since 1985.