This site has limited support for your browser. We recommend switching to Edge, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.

Hidden Gems

Benjamin Millepied—known in the ballet world for his 16 years at New York City Ballet and recent tenure as director of the Paris Opera Ballet, and beyond it for his choreographic turn in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and subsequent marriage to Natalie Portman—co-founded LA Dance Project in 2012 with four other creatives. In its four years, the collective has struck up some powerful relationships, including one with Van Cleef & Arpels, the jewellery brand associated with Balanchine’s legendary “Jewels.” Van Cleef & Arpels is now LADP’s principal sponsor, and the influence behind two of three pieces recently shown in London: “Hearts and Arrows” and “On the Other Side.” These works—a UK and world premiere respectively—form the latter two-thirds of a trilogy loosely inspired by the dynamic aesthetic of precious stones.

Performance

L.A. Dance Project: “Hearts & Arrows” / “Harbor Me” / “On the Other Side”

Place

Sadler’s Wells, London, UK, June 24 & 25, 2016

Words

Sara Veale

L.A. Dance Project in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's “Harbor Me.” Photograph by Andrea Stappert

subscribe to the latest in dance


“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”

Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.

Already a paid subscriber? Login

“Hearts & Arrows” takes its title from the term for diamonds cut to create certain shapes as they refract light. This imagery emerges quickly in the work as the eight dancers dart and dash to a Phillip Glass score, bounding like the glinting beams of a disco ball. The 15-minute piece is portioned into several distinct snippets, each bookended with a blackout. The first is swift and sharp, the dancers seesawing between levels, their arms slicing through the little negative space present in their tightly knit tableaux. Subsequent segments become slower and more lyrical—a shift accompanied by sweeping floorwork and gentle skips—before fast-forwarding to a breakneck pace, the stage peppered with rowdy partnering and strident slides and chugs.

Throughout the work is a steady dialogue between dance and music: Millepied is deft at plucking out individual layers of Glass’s striated score and pairing them choreography that highlights their finicky twists and turns. His dancers too show a flair for musicality, nimbly meeting the demanding swivels in tempo and cadence. A collaboration with a music-focused choreographer like Richard Alston could go a long way with this troupe, I think.

Like “Hearts & Arrows,” “On the Other Side” is also episodic, though much less stark in aesthetic: here, Millepied has swapped the strapping black and white costumes and blunt lighting of the former for bright jumpsuits and an abstract watercolour backdrop dripping in vivid reds, yellows and blues. Another Glass score accompanies the dancers as they move through a series of animated scenes, some light-hearted, others impassioned. There’s no unifying narrative or tone, which mutes some of the work’s lustre, especially towards the end, when it veers jarringly from pensive to restless, with no discernible reason for the pivot. The choreography is superb throughout, though—a radiant swirl of tight waltzes and fleet-footed skips. The same-sex partnering is a particular treat: women hoisting each other into pendulous leaps, men rolling as one across the floor.

Millepied's work has been described as ‘urban ballet,’ and it’s easy to see why in these works, both of which flirt with the vernacular but stop short of pedestrian. For all their flexed feet and crouched poses, a ballet base remains ever present, articulating itself in every extension. This carries through to Millepied's Balanchine homage at large, which doesn’t stop short at its triptych format or jewel-related theme; Millepied frequently peppers the two pieces on show here with elegant formations that recall those of the renowned dancemaker himself, especially his fondness for big, sweeping circles.

Sandwiched between Millepied’s works is a moody male trio from Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui: “Harbor Me.” The work invokes the elements of earth, air and fire, and simmers with quiet drama from its first phrase, a violet-lit solo in which the dancer unfolds a series of luxurious reaches and stretches that tug out the wails of the doleful score, composed by Korean musician Park Woojae. The trio that follows is a shimmering web of artful formations, including one elaborate skein of twisting torsos and criss-crossing limbs. There’s a gripping symbiosis to the dancers’ interactions, as if they’re giving each other life and sucking it out at once. The pacing is a little stilted—it never strikes a steady clip, nor does it really build towards anything—but the atmosphere is soothingly smooth, a tantric swirl of breathy contractions and indulgent reaches played out amid smoke and shadows and plucky strings.

Earlier this month LADP announced a three-year partnership with the Luma Foundation, which includes an upcoming residency in Arles, France. Fingers crossed this means we’ll be seeing more of Millepied’s lively American troupe this side of the pond.

Sara Veale


Sara Veale is a London-based writer and editor. She's written about dance for the Observer, the Spectator, DanceTabs, Auditorium Magazine, Exeunt and more. Her first book, Untamed: The Radical Women of Modern Dance, will be published in 2024.

comments

Featured

Let the Dancers Speak
REVIEWS | Sophie Bress

Let the Dancers Speak

Ballet West’s Works from Within program gave company dancers a chance to speak. This year’s edition featured five works: Katlyn Addison’s “Andromeda,” Nicole Fannéy’s “Lingering Echoes,” Jazz Khai Bynum’s “With Feeling,” Vinicius Lima’s “Elis,” and Emily Adams’ “Mass Hysterical.”

Continue Reading
New York Knickknacks 
REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

New York Knickknacks 

For the third year in a row, I attended the Spring is Blooming festival on Mother’s Day. Thanks to Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels and artist Alexandre Benjamin Navet, in place of crowded, overpriced brunches, I now look forward to a public dance spectacle, bougie swag, and the delightful camouflaging of the concrete jungles of midtown with pop-art flowers, pastel gazebos, and lazy bench swings.

Continue Reading
Changing of the Seasons
REVIEWS | Steve Sucato

Changing of the Seasons

Pattern and symmetry are the modus operandi of choreographer Thierry Malandain’s “Les Saisons” (2023), performed by his Malandain Ballet Biarritz contemporary ballet company to close out the Pittsburgh Dance Council’s 2024-2025 season.  

Continue Reading
Here Comes the Sun
REVIEWS | Victoria Looseleaf

Here Comes the Sun

Talk about a Terpsichorean/Euterpean acid-like trip! Brooklyn-based Mark Morris Dance Group, currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, burst onto the stage of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts last Friday in their Carnaby Street-type costumes that popped with color and pizazz, all the while brilliantly bouncing, wildly whirling, and lusciously leaping to live music.

Continue Reading
Good Subscription Agency