Founded in 2012 under the direction of dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, L.A. Dance Project has become one of the city’s prominent dance hubs. On Thursday, May 2, 2024, I attended the opening night of LADP’s “Spring Dances” which continues through May 12. The program included two works by Millepied, Moving Parts and Me.You.We.They, and the world premiere of Janie Taylor’s Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia. Tickets are on sale now.
Janie Taylor performed with NYC Ballet for 16 years before joining LADP as dancer and rehearsal director in 2017 and this is the fourth work that she has created for the company. Taylor collaborated with visual artist Benjamin Styer whose 55’x22’ mural acts as the piece’s backdrop. Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia is structured in six sections, each with its own music. To aid the audience in seeing which part of the painting inspired each section, the lighting designer, Brandon Stirling Baker focused on a separate part of Styer’s painting that matched Taylor’s vision.
LADP – Daphne Fernberger and Jeremy Coachman in Janie Taylor’s “Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
As the performance began, the light was focused on the words “Sleepwalker’s Charms” while the remainder of the painting and the performance area were half-lit. Dancers quietly entered by walking, somersaulting, or spinning while crouched low to the floor. The work opened up as the final two dancers entered with a very brief and silently rapid duet.
Baker’s lighting focus shifted to a small globe containing a forest scene as dancers walked on demi-pointe around the space with their arms in a wide and delicate v shaped position. The movement throughout this second was light, simple and elegant. It bordered on becoming balletic, but beautifully never quite went there. The focus changed again to a spiral on the mural for six dancers that decreased to three and then to only one. The choreography here was organized chaos making inventive use of duets performing the same or similar movement in canon and ending by softly tossing the dancers like a snow flurry into a sitting position against the stage right wall.
LADP – Shu Kinouch in Janie Taylor’s “Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
The mural’s lighting continued to open up and focus in just as Taylor’s Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia awed us with an intriguing women’s duet that resembled one dancing with her mirror image while the two magically encircled each other, but never physically connecting. An octet drew me in and evoked an image of a sleepwalkers’ disco dance that almost made me cry and finally, a trio of duets melted into a duet and back again concluding in a surprising and beautiful ending.
In an artistically stunning way, Taylor’s Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia slowly drifts over one like a pleasant dream that moves from one scene to another.
The highly trained and excellent cast were Courtney Conovan, Jeremy Coachman, Lorrin Brubaker, Daphne Fernberger, David Adrian Freeland, Jr., Shu Kinouchi, Audrey Sides, Hope Spears, Aidan Tyssee and Nayomi Van Brunt.
LADP – Jeremy Coachman and Daphne Fernberger in Janie Taylor’s “Sleepwalker’s Encycelopedia” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
Music for Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia included “Gymnopedies” – by Claude Debussy, Erik Satie & Gabriel Fauré, French Festival: CSR Symphonic Orchestra, Bratislava & Keith Clark; “Paradise Lost” by Justin Sherburn Music for Puppets Volume 2; “Organ Symphony No. 5 in F Minor, Op. 42 No. 1: V. Toccata” by Charles Widor; French Organ Masterworks: David M. Patrick; “Heartache” by Justin Sherburn Music for Puppets Volume 2; Vintage Soul by Sebastien Marcovici (Original Track); “Lay All Your Love On Me” by Benny Goeran Bror Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus; and “Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part”: Sō Percussion & Caroline Shaw. Costume Design was by Janie Taylor with construction by Annie Ulrich.
LADP – (L-R) Hope Spears, Jeremy Coachman, Lorrin Brubaker, Courtney Conovan, Shu Kinouchi in Benjamin Millepied’s “Moving Parts” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
The second work on the program was the sometimes edgy and often frantic Moving Parts by Benjamin Millepied, a piece for six dancers set to music by Nico Muhly (Performed by Le Balcon conducted by Maxime Pascal, Philharmonie de Paris, March 2024). The visual installation by Christopher Wool worked well because it continuously divided up the space and as it moved, allowed the dancers to disappear without leaving the stage. Once, the set moved back and forth while a couple of dancers performed providing a different view for separate areas of the audience.
LADP – Courtney Conovan in Benjamin Millepied’s “Moving Parts” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
What bothered me mostly about this piece was how fast and awkwardly the dancers were forced to traverse partnering sections. These were excellent dancers who proved in other works that they are more than capable, so the issue lies with Millepied. His ideas were strong and the movement exciting when the speed allowed. Another negative was the costumes by Camille Assaf which in no way flattered most of the dancer’s bodies and sometimes hid the movement. A few times two or more dancers looked like a mass of material. The positives were the male duet performed by Lorrin Brubaker and Jeremy Coachman, the set, and lighting by Masha Tsimring.
The cast included: Lorrin Brubaker, Jeremy Coachman, Courtney Conovan, Shu Kinouchi, Audrey Sides, and Hope Spears.
LADP – Hope Spears and Jeremy Coachman in Benjamin Millepied’s “You.Me.We.They” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
Millepied’s second piece, Me.You.We.Them, also with music by Nico Muhly, was a breath of fresh air after the previous work. Here the dancers were given the time to exquisitely complete Millepied’s very athletic movement that covered the space with very few moves. Yes, some of it was closely knit, but not so tight that the dancers and the movement could not breathe.
Due to a few of the costumes and movement phrases reappearing from Moving Parts, at first Me.You.We.They looked like an extension of that work. Soon, however, everything opened up with a playful duet between Lorrin Brubaker and Nayomi Van Brunt followed by an exciting men’s duet performed by David Adrian Freeland, Jr. and Jeremy Coachman that thrilled the audience with exciting turns and leaps. Another wonderful duet, performed by Shu Kinouchi and Audrey Sides, seemed like it was inspired by Millepied watching two opposing magnets attracting and repelling each other.
LADP – Audrey Sides and Shu Kinouchi in Benjamin Millepied’s “You.Me.We.They” – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
One section of Me.You.We.They had dancers standing or slowly moving in a large circle while solos and duets took place within. The dancers who stood out from the others during this part were David Adrian Freeland, Jr., Daphne Fernberger, and the truly amazing Shu Kinouchi.
The cast included the entire LADP company: Courtney Conovan, Jeremy Coachman, Lorrin Brubaker, Daphne Fernberger, David Adrian Freeland, Jr., Shu Kinouchi, Audrey Sides, Hope Spears, Aidan Tyssee and Nayomi Van Brunt.
L.A. Dance Project is an exciting company and if you get a chance, I suggest that you go see them.
Spring Dances runs through May 12, 2024 at L.A. Dance Project Studio located at 2245 E Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90021. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit their website.
This article was edited to correct errors at 11:10 5/6/24
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: LAPD – Jeremy Coachman and Hope Spears in Benjamin Millepied’s Me.You.We.They – Photo by Brian Hashimoto.
