Rosalynde LeBlanc is no stranger to the dance world. A Loyola Marymount University dance professor and director of the award-winning documentary “Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters,” the 52-year-old artist has worked in this space for quite some time.
However, September 19, 2025 will mark the first time LeBlanc presents her choreography in a professional Los Angeles venue. She, alongside Megan Paradowski, 29, has been selected for the competitive Launch: LA residency program at L.A. Dance Project, which supports two emerging local choreographers each year with a financial stipend, rehearsal space and other production resources.
Rosalynde LeBlanc in rehearsal – Photo by Skye Varga for L.A. Dance Project Launch: LA 25.
“I felt or suspected that someone might say, because of my age and the length of time I’ve been in the dance world, I’m no longer emerging, so I’m not really eligible,” LeBlanc told LA Dance Chronicle. “What I appreciated was that LADP didn’t look at age. They looked at just your choreographic experience. … I just thought that was great — you could be emerging your whole life.”
On Sept. 10 and 11, LADP hosted open rehearsals with LeBlanc and Paradowski, respectively, and gave audiences a glimpse into their creative processes. LA Dance Chronicle had the opportunity to sit down with both artists to discuss their vision and how the program supports their personal and professional goals.
Rosalynde LeBlanc (seated) and dancer in rehearsal – Photo by Skye Varga for L.A. Dance Project Launch: LA 25.
“LA Dance Project is doing the residency program right,” Paradowski said. “This is real support. It goes beyond time and space in the studio, and it even goes beyond the financial stipend. It’s somebody checking in on you at 9:30 a.m. when you get here every day and making sure you have what you need until 5:30. This is honestly the most supported I’ve felt making work as a choreographer up until this point.”
Paradowski, who holds a BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, has lived in Los Angeles for five years and founded the dance company Empara in 2024. For her piece “Simulacra,” she’s teamed up with private chef and multidisciplinary artist Heidi Ross and field recordist Ian Wellman to confront climate change and other existential crises facing humankind.
Dancers in rehearsal for Rosalynde LeBlanc’s “WomanLand” – Photo by Skye Varga for L.A. Dance Project Launch: LA 25.
Hanging from the ceiling throughout Paradowski’s dance will be a 40 to 50 pound ice sculpture created by Ross and dyed red with beet juice. The performance will take place on a white carpet obtained from EcoSet — which recirculates and repurposes discarded production materials — that will be reused each show, so it will get increasingly sticky and stained with each iteration. Meanwhile, Wellman has been working on recording the sounds of the dripping ice to incorporate into the score.
“The ice helps us have this looming inevitability. We know that it will melt, and there’s nothing that we can do to keep it from melting,” Paradowski said. “But on the positive side, everything exists in a cycle — destruction, control, violence. Death turns to rebirth. From control typically comes renaissance. Looping through these themes of destruction and control, but also collective care and healing, while we watch this thing collapse.”
Dancers in rehearsal for Rosalynde LeBlanc’s “WomanLand” – Photo by Skye Varga for L.A. Dance Project Launch: LA 25.
Meanwhile, in LeBlanc’s piece, titled “Womanland,” the dance professor explores the “landscape of womanhood” in the U.S. The work is accompanied entirely by music from female composers and comprises nine different sections, including “Women Have it All” and “The Job Interview,” which she previewed at the open rehearsal.
At one point, LeBlanc worked closely with dancer Camila Arana on an unfinished solo, offering precise gestures to shape the performance while encouraging the dancer to improvise and follow where the music took her.
“Even as we’ve been given the trust and space to process and find the movements, you’re always very clear on what the tone is,” Arana said to LeBlanc of their collaborative process. “That’s been the guiding force to be on the same page.”
Dancers in rehearsal for Rosalynde LeBlanc’s “WomanLand” – Photo by Skye Varga for L.A. Dance Project Launch: LA 25.
Looking forward, both LeBlanc and Paradowski hope to keep their pieces alive with performances at other venues. After winning a Peabody Award for her Bill T. Jones documentary, LeBlanc is also brainstorming future dance film ideas. But even as their time with LADP comes to an end, the choreographers appreciate the company for providing a launch pad for their future success.
“How else does the next generation of choreographers stay alive? How else do they get nourished? We have the Kyle Abrahams and the Bill T. Joneses and those established people, but you’ve also got to nourish the soil to have more choreographers come in and be the next generation,” LeBlanc said. “This is how you nourish the soil.”
Launch: LA — Rosalynde LeBlanc and Megan Paradowski at L.A. Dance Project, 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los Angeles; Fri.-Sat., September 19-20, 8 p.m., Sun., September 21, 2 p.m. & 6 p.m. $15-$25. For more information and to purchase tickets go here https://ladanceproject.org/tickets/
Written by Lauren Harvey for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Dancers in rehearsal for Rosalynde LeBlanc’s “WomanLand” – Photo by Skye Varga for L.A. Dance Project Launch: LA 25.
