L.A. Anthem

Casual perfection. Studied grace. Spontaneous elegance. These are but a few of the words that came to mind when this writer observed nine gorgeous dancers from LA Dance Project and four students from the Trudi Zipper Dance Institute at the Colburn School, cavorting around the courtyard and grounds of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts last Friday in Janie Taylor’s “Anthem.”

Performance

LA Dance Project: “Gatherings,” mixed bill choreography

Place

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills, California, June 13-14, 2025

Words

Victoria Looseleaf

Daphne Fernberger, Aidan Tyssee, Hope Spears, and Caroline McAleavey in “Anthem” by Janie Taylor. Photograph by Skye Schmidt Varga

The first of four dances under the heading, “Gatherings,” the work, a US premiere (it was first performed at the National Museum of Qatar in 2022), featured a recorded score by Nico Muhly. Beginning outside the building that was built in 1934 as a post office, the ensemble moved like a shapeshifting amoeba. Clad in Reid & Harriet’s pastel-colored, neo-track suits, the performers ran, spun, and fell into formations that, at times, resembled prisoners in an exercise yard, albeit one with no bars, guards or athletic equipment, but a refuge, instead, where trees, the sweet smell of jasmine and the cool breeze of a June evening in Los Angeles proved the perfect milieu for these movers.

Indeed, backbends ruled and pairs were formed, with LADP members Jeremy Coachman and Courtney Conovan performing an ebullient pas de deux, before the group relocated to the gorgeous marbled lobby. Once inside, the dancers, deploying mini-hip twists and assuming yoga-like poses, created tableaux that resembled sculptures come to life, their faces studies in concentration. With Muhly’s score growing louder and more insistent, the group not only proved there was safety in numbers, but, considering the student performers, generated hope for the future.

Also new to this writer: Bobbi Jene Smith’s and Or Schraiber’s “Quartet for Five,” which bowed in Paris in 2022 and is set to Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 5 (1991). Immediately recognizable as Glass—swelling, ever-changing rhythms and falling arpeggios, but also unpredictable in its contrasts—the work, a perfect marriage of music and movement, is luscious, deep and dark (evocative lighting design by Clifton Taylor), as it explores the diverse relationships that exist between a quintet of dancers: Daphne Fernberger, Marcel Mejia, Nicholas Sakai, Conovan and Coachman.

And what relationships they were! A kind of nod (in this reviewer’s mind) to Arthur Schnitzler’s notorious 1897 play, “La Ronde,” this was coupling, uncoupling and fluctuating group dynamics confined only to the length of the 22-minute score and the size of the stage, with the overarching mood elegiac, and a table and several chairs also on view.

Los Angeles Dance Project and Colburn Students in “Anthem” by Janie Taylor. Photograph by Skye Schmidt Varga

Clad in Victoria Bek’s black garb—including shoes—save for Coachman in a crisp white shirt, the trio of men and two bare-legged gals appeared nearly monk-ish. A shirt-waisted Conovan had the first solo, falling to her knees one moment, executing an outrageously impossible backbend the next, her arms extended heavenward. Coachman, always at the ready, and whether caught in the middle of a human, bent-knee sandwich (with Sakai and Fernberger), or keeping his cool with Sakai in a deliberate face-off, can do no wrong. This was especially apparent in his and Sakai’s tap dance-like number, which also provided a soupçon of humor.

Of course, with Smith and Schraiber having danced with Batsheva Dance Company, hence, also purveyors of Gaga, there were several signature moves, including quivering arms and angsty spasms, though this piece felt more contained, more controlled. And the dancers, even in stasis and gazing from an invisible sideline, as was the case with Fernberger keeping watch over Coachman and Sakai, made an intriguing scene even more so; and in partnership with Mejia, her nonchalant gaze while being tipped on her side, proved positively arresting.

They are, after all, the magnificent members of a select group of performers, those so committed to craft that the most simplistic of gestures can take on several meanings, with emotions palpable. Even Smith’s and Schraiber’s use of chairs—so often overdone in dance—was mysterious: Who would sit; who would rearrange them; who would be in charge? With this round-robin revealing little in the way of intentions—sexual or otherwise, it mattered not.

Because it was the vocabulary of the body, the keeper of flesh, that held weight. Vertical jumps, cocked heads, shoulder scrunches, as well as the deepest of lunges and an angled stance, seemed to say more in a moment than a marathon display of art can. With Glass as the ideal accompaniment, at once the apex of minimalism while cleaving to a stunning sound, the piece felt revivifying, with the quintet, while reaching a climactic conclusion, illuminated an empathic humanity.

Nicholas Sakai, Jeremy Coachman, and Daphne Fernberger in “Quartet for Five” by Bobbi Jene Smith’s and Or Schraiber. Photograph by Skye Schmidt Varga

A pair of previously reviewed works completed the program: “Triade,” choreographed by LADP artistic director Benjamin Millepied, originally premiered in 2008 as a tribute to Jerome Robbins, and was also set to a Muhly composition; and Taylor’s “Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia” (2023). In the former, two couples—Lorrin Brubaker and Hope Spears, Fernberger and Coachman—displayed gravity-defying leaps and whiz-bang pirouettes, with the pairs partner-switching with abandon. The swoopy-armed unisons offset the floor skitterings to Muhly’s pulsating piano sounds, giving these cryptic vignettes an air of derring-do.

Coachman’s anchoring of Fernberger lent an ecstatic sensation to their pairing, while his dancing with Brubaker also proved propulsive. Adding Spears to the mix was oomph-worthy, while Camille Assaf’s sparkly, mesh-like garb effectively caught glints of Masha Tsimring’s ace lighting.

Closing the program: Taylor’s “Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia,” her fifth for LADP, once again featured Benjamin Styer’s colorful mural as backdrop, with the 23-minute piece set to an array of recorded music, including selections from Satie and Caroline Shaw.

But following “Quartet for Five,” the dance, which this critic deemed a “delicious romp” when seen last year at the intimate LADP space, seemed a tad frivolous, although the nine dancers, including Caroline McAleavey, Maxwell Simoes and Aidan Tyssee, certainly embodied the spirit of the work, their neo-balletic gamboling cause for respect.

Still, with arts organizations threatened like never before, it’s reassuring to know that LADP continues to, as the late great Sly Stone intoned, “Dance to the Music.”

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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