Dance, architecture and Hollywood came together in a big way when L.A. Dance Project began its residency (performances are also slated for the fall), at the new Ace Hotel.
When it comes to geometric shapes, Jacques Heim, 50, is obsessed. After founding the risk-intensive, hyper-physical dance troupe Diavolo in Los Angeles in 1992, Paris-born Heim translated that passion into full-blown, custom designed stage sets. Included are a 2-1/2-ton aluminum wheel, a 17-foot-long rocking boat and an enormous cube with more configurations than Mr. Rubik’s.
After an inexplicable 10-year absence from the City of Angels, this 44-year old, Rochester, N.Y.-based troupe roared back into town with power, grace and its unique brand of high-octane ebullience, courtesy of Ebony Repertory Theatre’s Wren T. Brown.
Welcome to the world of Ate9 Dance Company, one of Los Angeles’ hottest cultural commodities. Indeed, Agami, who founded the eight-member troupe in Seattle in 2012 before boldly decamping to the City of Angels a year later (a town not known for being overly dance-friendly), is decidedly having a moment.
Today’s dancers are getting younger and more technically dazzling, coming from the jump-higher-turn-faster school of ballet. Indeed, “So You Think You Can Dance,” where the 90-second “contemporary” swaggerfest lives, springs to mind. But the question remains: Are these brave young terpsichores also more artistic or is it merely a surface thing?
When it was founded in 2012 by Benjamin Millepied, L.A. Dance Project was touted as some kind of second coming for the dance scene in Los Angeles.
