LADP Platforms Eccentric Emerging Artists at LAUNCH:LA

On Friday, November 6, 2026, I found myself huddled with a horde of excited dance viewers in the lobby of the LA Dance Project building, the small, softly lit foyer providing reprieve from the chilly night and the early setting sun. Audience members held plastic cups of wine and bouquets for the performers, greeting one another with deep embraces. We were all gathered for LAUNCH:LA, an LADP residency program supporting Los Angeles-based emerging artists in the creation of and presentation of new work. Each LAUNCH:LA artist received three weeks of rehearsal space, monetary support, mentorship, and production resources to create new work, which was presented to audiences in a fully produced show in LADP’s performance space. This year’s resident artists, Stephanie Dai and Milka Djordjevich, received artistic feedback from choreographer and artist Madeline Hollander and LADP Associate Artistic Director Sebastien Marcovici. Tonight’s double bill consisted of 00:00:00, choreographed by Stephanie Dai, and Triangle Dance, choreographed by Milka Djordjevich.

We entered the performance space right as the clock struck 8 PM, the stage already set for the first piece. Stephanie Dai lay in the fetal position, back to the audience, surrounded by white eggs of various sizes and a piece of white fabric hanging from the ceiling. As the lights dimmed, Noah J. Rubin began playing a live modular synth score, and Dai twitched to life, isolated movements in her back growing bigger until she was facing the audience, cradling a Styrofoam egg in her arms, her eyes gently closed.

LAUNCH: LA – Stephanie Dai (seated) in “00:00:00” Choreography by Stephanie Dai – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.

00:00:00 is inspired by Mamoru Oshii’s animated science-fiction film Angel’s Egg, which follows a girl traversing a post-apocalyptic world, fiercely protecting a large, mysterious egg that she carries around everywhere. Mimicking this girl, Dai carefully caressed her egg on stage, rolling it around from the crook of her arm to her hands to her stomach to her back, pressing her cheek to it in admiration now and then. She moved around the floor with grace, the articulation in her ankles and feet being an especially impressive technical feat.

Dai retreated to the back of the stage, staring at her egg cross-legged, while performers Valerie Chen, Emmy Cheung, and Anne Kim waddled into view from stage left and right, their arms extended downwards and subtly flapping, the penguin-like movement eliciting some laughter from the audience. The sprightly, bouncy movement was an intense contrast to Dai’s smooth, graceful motions that opened the show. The dancers each gathered their own eggs on their feet, attempting to balance them as they waddled, and chasing them down when they dropped and rolled away from their ankles.

LAUNCH: LA – Valerie Chen, Emmy Cheung in “00:00:00” Choreography by Stephanie Dai – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.

After a while, the three dancers all fixated on the same egg, glaring down at it in rapture. When one dancer found themselves distracted by another egg and began drifting away, Cheung would frantically wave them back over, encouraging them to fixate again on the same egg, all the dancers appearing eager, in anticipation of it hatching.

A turning point in the piece occurred when the dancers tried to seize the eggs with their hands, only to find that they had become heavy and were impossible to lift. Chen, Cheung, and Kim’s movement was quite convincing and larger-than-life, almost cartoon-like, as they attempted to lift the eggs to no avail.

Eventually, a frenzied frustration with the eggs melted into ecstatic, synchronized movement, the dancers finally looking up from the eggs and out to the audience and at each other. Chen, Cheung, and Kim moved with stunning precision, their staccato penguin-like motions melting into large, bombastic movements, akin to swans.

LAUNCH: LA – Valerie Chen, Emmy Cheung, Stephanie Dai, Anne Kim in “00:00:00” Choreography by Stephanie Dai – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.

Towards the end of the piece, focus fell back on Dai at the back of the stage, still staring at her egg. In the final motion of the dance, Dai, clearly impatient, waiting on something that would never come to fruition, held up the egg and smashed it into the ground, right as the stage turned black. The piece was a beautiful, lively meditation on living for hope versus living with what’s right in front of you, brought to life with evocative music from Rubin, immersive scenic design from Sierra Francesca, and stunning lighting from Caleb Wildman.

After a brief intermission, the audience returned to the performance space to find the stage completely transformed. The centerpiece of the stage was now a triangle, outlined with tape, along with tube lighting on all three sides. The audience seating had been rearranged in a triangle as well, with rows of seating on either side of the centerpiece. The arrangement of the performance space, along with the title of the piece, Triangle Dance, instantly had me excited, anticipating some kind of “evil square dance.”

LAUNCH: LA – Miles Brenninkmeijer, Milka Djordjevich, Dorothy Dubrule in “Triangle Dance” Choreography by Milka Djordjevich – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.

Dancers Miles Brenninkmeijer, Dorothy Dubrule, and Milka Djordjevich emerged wearing solid-colored leotards, a black ribbon tied into a bow around each of their necks, along with sheer black pants that mimicked chaps. The movements they engaged in evoked sexy, alt-cowboys, slapping their rears, cupping their chests, and pointing finger guns to sky in concentric circles within the triangle, moving around in concentric circles reminiscent of a compass, all set to music by Max Jaffe.

LAUNCH: LA – Milka Djordjevich in “Triangle Dance” Choreography by Milka Duordevich – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.

According to the artist’s statement, the repetitive motions drew inspiration from three-sided square dancing, Balkan footwork, and conventional bi-pedal movements. Just as the movement was verging on redundancy, the dancers would change up their pattern and direction. Over time, the dancers grew visibly fatigued, and began counting the music out loud, and glancing at one another, seemingly looking for assistance with the choreography. It became unclear, to me at least, whether this was intentional, though it accompanied the end of the piece well.

In the last third of the dance, the performers collapsed in each point of the triangle, and a green wash of light was cast upon them, courtesy of lighting designer Caleb Wildman. They then began engaging in slower movements, sharply contrasting the jubilant dance pattern at the start of the piece. This slow pattern, consisting of deep grand plié-like and downward dog-like movements, along with finger bites and captain salutes winded inwards, until the performers all met in the center, erupting into an outburst of movement, slapping one another all over the rear, legs, and so on, ending tangled up and disheveled. While the program posited that the piece intended to “dismantle expectations of feminine anonymity,” I read it more as a society collapsing under Taylorism, commenting on the exhaustion and grueling monotony of late-stage capitalism, which inevitably trends towards collapse. While an interesting concept and set up, I wished for a little more conviction from these performers, for them to sell the fatigue as something explicitly choreographed into the movement.

LAUNCH: LA – Miles Brenninkmeijer, Milka Djordjevich, Dorothy Dubrule in “Triangle Dance” Choreography by Milka Duordevich – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.

LAUNCH:LA is providing vital funding, mentorship, and performance opportunities for emerging dance artists in Los Angeles and offering audiences the chance to experience experimental art from local artists. I heartily encourage emerging artists to apply, and for audience members to attend. Click here to learn more about LAUNCH:LA and stay tuned early next year for the application window if you’re interested in applying.

For more information about L.A. Dance Project, please visit their website.

Written by Madison Huizinga for LA Dance Chronicle.

Featured image: LAUNCH: LA – Miles Brenninkmeijer, Milka Djordjevich, Dorothy Dubrule in “Triangle Dance” Choreography by Milka Djordjevich – Photo by Luca Renzi for LADP.