L.A. Dance Project presents an open rehearsal and conversation with 2026 LAUNCH:LA resident artist Milka Djordjevich.
Serbian‑American dance artist Milka Djordjevich interrogates preconceived notions of what dance should or should not be. Her work draws from varied compositional strategies to examine gender in “neutral” public spaces such as theaters, galleries, and museums. Djordjevich’s work has been presented at venues across the U.S., including the American Dance Festival, Danspace Project, REDCAT, MOCA, NY Live Arts, and the Whitney Museum, and internationally in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, and the UK. She also choreographs for film, visual art, opera, and theater, and in 2016 founded STANA, an organization cultivating dance connections locally and globally.
LAUNCH:LA Performances are November 6th & 8th | TICKETS
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation.
LADP PRESENTS: OPEN REHEARSAL | LAUNCH:LA ARTIST MILKA DJORDJEVICH
L.A. Dance Project presents an open rehearsal and conversation with 2026 LAUNCH:LA resident artist Stephanie Dai.
Los Angeles–based performer, choreographer, and educator Stephanie Dai creates research‑driven, interdisciplinary work that forms poetic, moving images. A 2019 graduate of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Dai’s choreography has been featured in residencies and showcases including WIP LA, the Ghost Light Residency, the USC Alumni Residency, and Space Lab at LADP. Her recent work URETCHKO premiered at Highways Performance Space and was selected for the 2025 International Modern Dance Festival in Seoul.
LAUNCH:LA Performances are November 6th & 8th | TICKETS
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation.
LADP PRESENTS: OPEN REHEARSAL | LAUNCH:LA ARTIST STEPHANIE DAI
2245. 2245 E Washington Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90021
Saturday, November 7, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Tickets Advance General Admission | $150 each/$300 for two (please note these are limited quantity)
General Admission | $200 each/$400 for two
Premiere | $250 each/$500 for two. Premiere Seating (limited quantity)
Le Rendez-Vous 2026 Join us for an evening celebrating LAUNCH:LA, LADP’s artist residency for Los Angeles–based emerging choreographers. The evening begins with dinner and drinks, followed by a double bill featuring this year’s resident artists, Stephanie Dai and Milka Djordjevich. DJ and dancing follow!
Proceeds from Le Rendez-Vous support LADP’s arts and education programs, sustaining opportunities for artists and audiences across Los Angeles.
About LAUNCH:LA Founded in 2021, LAUNCH:LA is L.A. Dance Project’s residency program supporting Los Angeles’s emerging dance makers. The program lifts the economic burden of creating new work by providing selected artists with space, time, monetary support, and a platform to share their work with wider audiences. Designed for early‑career, L.A.-based dance‑centered artists, LAUNCH:LA welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, disciplines, and abilities, with a particular focus on artists from historically underrepresented groups.
Milka Djordjevich Serbian‑American dance artist Milka Djordjevich interrogates preconceived notions of what dance should or should not be. Her work draws from varied compositional strategies to examine gender in “neutral” public spaces such as theaters, galleries, and museums. Djordjevich’s work has been presented at venues across the U.S., including the American Dance Festival, Danspace Project, REDCAT, MOCA, NY Live Arts, and the Whitney Museum, and internationally in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, and the UK. She also choreographs for film, visual art, opera, and theater, and in 2016 founded STANA, an organization cultivating dance connections locally and globally.
Stephanie Dai Los Angeles–based performer, choreographer, and educator Stephanie Dai creates research‑driven, interdisciplinary work that forms poetic, moving images. A 2019 graduate of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Dai’s choreography has been featured in residencies and showcases including WIP LA, the Ghost Light Residency, the USC Alumni Residency, and Space Lab at LADP. Her recent work URETCHKO premiered at Highways Performance Space and was selected for the 2025 International Modern Dance Festival in Seoul.
Past Resident Artists Include: 2021: Taliha Abdiel, DaEun Jung 2022: Mike Tyus & Luca Renzi, Megan Doheny 2023: JA Collective, Jamar Kamau White 2024: Charissa Kroeger & Evan Sagadencky, Julia Eichten & Kevin Zambrano 2025: Megan Paradowski, Rosalynde LeBlanc
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation.
LADP PRESENTS: LE RENDEZ-VOUS | A NIGHT TO CELEBRATE LAUNCH:LA
About LAUNCH:LA Founded in 2021, LAUNCH:LA is L.A. Dance Project’s residency program supporting Los Angeles’s emerging dance makers. The program lifts the economic burden of creating new work by providing selected artists with space, time, monetary support, and a platform to share their work with wider audiences. Designed for early‑career, L.A.-based dance‑centered artists, LAUNCH:LA welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, disciplines, and abilities, with a particular focus on artists from historically underrepresented groups.
Milka Djordjevich Serbian‑American dance artist Milka Djordjevich interrogates preconceived notions of what dance should or should not be. Her work draws from varied compositional strategies to examine gender in “neutral” public spaces such as theaters, galleries, and museums. Djordjevich’s work has been presented at venues across the U.S., including the American Dance Festival, Danspace Project, REDCAT, MOCA, NY Live Arts, and the Whitney Museum, and internationally in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, and the UK. She also choreographs for film, visual art, opera, and theater, and in 2016 founded STANA, an organization cultivating dance connections locally and globally.
Stephanie Dai Los Angeles–based performer, choreographer, and educator Stephanie Dai creates research‑driven, interdisciplinary work that forms poetic, moving images. A 2019 graduate of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Dai’s choreography has been featured in residencies and showcases including WIP LA, the Ghost Light Residency, the USC Alumni Residency, and Space Lab at LADP. Her recent work URETCHKO premiered at Highways Performance Space and was selected for the 2025 International Modern Dance Festival in Seoul.
Past Resident Artists Include 2021: Taliha Abdiel, DaEun Jung 2022: Mike Tyus & Luca Renzi, Megan Doheny 2023: JA Collective, Jamar Kamau White 2024: Charissa Kroeger & Evan Sagadencky, Julia Eichten & Kevin Zambrano 2025: Megan Paradowski, Rosalynde LeBlanc
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation.
LADP PRESENTS: LAUNCH:LA 2026 | MILKA DJORDJEVICH & STEPHANIE DAI
L.A. Dance Project 2245 E Washington Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90021
“I CARE ABOUT YOUR BODY”
3 Day Retreat Style Experience in Los Angeles facilitated by Stephanie Zaletel with additional offerings by Heidi Ross
All levels compassion building, somatic, and creative movement practices to harmonize our nervous systems and awaken our imaginations in community informed by intersectional and circular learning/sharing
SCHEDULE Friday August 28th 5:30pm-8pm Saturday August 29th, 10am-2pm (co-facilitator, Heidi Ross) Sunday August 30th, 10am-2pm
PRICING Full Workshop Experiencing Financial Insecurity: $150-$200 Full Workshop Experiencing Financial Stability: $201-$250 Full Workshop Experiencing Financial Abundance: $251-$350 (honoring this rate will help support someone in the group experiencing less)
Please complete the application to begin the registration process.
I care about your body was founded in 2023 after a profound season of caregiving and is dedicated to the memory of Stephanie’s grandmother, Ann O’hara.
STEPHANIE ZALETEL (they/she) is a choreographer, dance artist, earth worshiper, somatic facilitator, writer, and community organizer based in Los Angeles, CA whose work centers compassion building practices, embodied empowerment, matriarchal and life attunement.
They have held educational, therapeutic, and restorative movement spaces for over a decade spanning renowned retreat centers, DIY community led spaces, as well as tailored 1:1 sessions for clients of varied ages, abilities, and cultural backgrounds.
HEIDI ROSS is a private chef and multidisciplinary artist playing at the intersection of taste, sound, and movement using food as medium. Her conceptual, somatic, and artistic approach to cooking come through in immersive performances that connect people around a shared experience. Her work centers curiosity and embodiment, everyday rituals, and the profound possibilities of sound.
Participant Testimonials:
“This type of work is truly radical and vital for all to fight the (exhausting) effects of capitalism, disconnection from nature and community.”
“This workshop was one of the most interconnected spaces I’ve ever been in. It felt like collective healing. Not just in the room but beyond.”
LADP PRESENTS: I CARE ABOUT YOUR BODY | A WORKSHOP WITH STEPHANIE ZALETEL
Stearns Wharf 217 Stearns Wharf Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Tuesday, June 16 | 3:00 PM
Free and Open to all. RSVP for event details and updates.
Parking is available on the wharf and along Cabrillo Boulevard.
The performance will take place at the Seaward Finger of the pier, extending toward the open Pacific at the far end of Stearns Wharf.
About Stearns Wharf Completed in 1872 by lumberman John Peck Stearns, Stearns Wharf is California’s oldest working wooden wharf and the first deep‑water pier between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The wharf helped transform Santa Barbara from an isolated coastal town into a growing commercial and cultural center. Today, Stearns Wharf remains an active blend of historic waterfront and contemporary public space, home to working operations, restaurants, shops, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center. Visitors enter at the iconic Dolphin Fountain by artist Bud Bottoms and experience sweeping views of the Santa Ynez Mountains, the harbor, and the city’s palm‑lined shoreline.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
LADP PERFORMS: CITY OF DANCE | STEARNS WHARF, SANTA BARBARA
Grand Avenue Takeover Hosted in collaboration with the Colburn School 200 S Grand Ave Los Angeles, CA 90012
Friday, June 5 | 12:30 PM
Free and Open to all. RSVP for event details and updates.
The Grand Avenue Takeover brings City of Dance into the center of Los Angeles’s cultural corridor. Positioned between the Music Center, the Colburn School, MOCA, and The Broad, this stretch of Grand Avenue has long served as a civic gathering place. It is a place where architecture, performance, and public life intersect.
As with all City of Dance locations, the performance is free and open to the public, and audiences are welcome to stay for as long as they like and move around the performance as it unfolds. RSVP is optional for this location, but recommended for arrival and street closure information on the day of the performance.
Arrival and Parking Information Paid Parking Lots: Convenient public parking options are located near the Colburn campus:
Walt Disney Concert Hall garage, enter on 2nd Street between Grand and Hope, or on Lower Grand Avenue.
Broad Museum garage, enter on 2nd Street between Grand and Hope.
Take Metro to Zipper Hall: Colburn can be reached by multiple Metro lines with stops within two blocks of campus. The B and D Lines serve the Civic Center/Grand Park station at Hill and 1st Streets, and the A and E lines serve the newly opened Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill station at Hope and 2nd Streets. More than 30 bus lines also stop close to campus. Use the LA Metro Trip Planner for routes and schedules.
History Grand Avenue’s evolution mirrors the story of Los Angeles. Once a quiet residential street, it became a focal point of the city’s cultural ambitions in the mid twentieth century. This transformation culminated in the creation of the Music Center in the 1960s and the arrival of world class institutions including MOCA, The Broad, and Walt Disney Concert Hall along the corridor. Today, Grand Avenue represents a living ecosystem of creativity and a place where education, performance, and public space come together.
The Colburn School, founded in 1950 and now a cornerstone of the avenue, anchors this cultural landscape. Its commitment to training, experimentation, and community engagement has shaped generations of artists. The campus is now entering a new chapter with the addition of a major expansion designed by Frank Gehry, which will introduce new performance spaces, rehearsal studios, and public areas. This project strengthens Colburn’s role as a leading center for performing arts education and deepens its connection to the cultural life of Grand Avenue.
Support Support for the street closure on Grand Avenue is provided through the generosity of Terri and Jerry Kohl.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
LADP PERFORMS: CITY OF DANCE | GRAND AVENUE TAKEOVER
Tongva Park in Santa Monica 1615 Ocean Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90401
Sunday, June 7 | 4:00 PM
Free and Open to all. RSVP for event details and updates.
At Tongva Park, City of Dance meets one of Southern California’s most distinctive contemporary landscapes. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the firm behind New York’s High Line, the park transforms a former parking lot into a sculpted terrain of gardens, overlooks, and winding paths.
City of Dance brings movement into this flowing environment, inviting audiences to experience choreography shaped by ocean light, shifting elevations, and the park’s immersive design.
This performance will be followed by a conversation about land, shoreline, and sovereignty, moderated by Joel Garcia with Dr. Cassie Rauser and Tom Ford.
A Contemporary Landscape for the Coast Tongva Park opened in 2013 as part of Santa Monica’s effort to create a welcoming public space steps from the Pacific Ocean. The park was named in honor of the Tongva people, the Indigenous stewards of the Los Angeles Basin and Southern Channel Islands.
The six‑acre site is organized into a series of sculpted “rooms,” each with its own character and plant palette. Its purpose: a landscape that reconnects the city to the coast and offers room for gathering, rest, and exploration.
Designed by James Corner Field Operations The park was created by James Corner Field Operations, internationally known for transforming urban land into places for people. At Tongva Park, the design is defined by:
Curving pathways and elevated overlooks
Native and drought‑tolerant plantings
Shaded seating areas and open lawns
A landmark fountain that anchors the central plaza
The result is a landscape that feels both intimate and expansive, shaped by the coastal climate and the rhythms of daily life.
A Park Rooted in Indigenous History The park’s name honors the Tongva, the Indigenous people whose ancestral lands include present‑day Santa Monica. The naming acknowledges a history that predates the city and affirms the importance of Indigenous presence in this place.
This connection to land and history aligns with City of Dance’s commitment to engaging the stories held within the places where performances unfold.
A Coastal Stage for Movement Tongva Park has become a gathering place for residents and visitors, offering views of the ocean, access to the Santa Monica Pier, and a landscape designed for wandering.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
LADP PERFORMS: CITY OF DANCE | TONGVA PARK, SANTA MONICA
Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center 135 N Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90012
Thursday, June 18 | 5:00 PM
Free and Open to all. RSVP for event details and updates.
Following the performance, there will be a panel discussion at The Music Center moderated by Kristin Sakoda.
The conversation explores how Los Angeles is shaped by visible wealth, hidden labor, and the systems that determine who has access to public space. Panelists will consider how parks and plazas function as places of gathering, joy, protest, and everyday encounter, and how collective bodies—activists, workers, artists, and communities—use public space to challenge power and imagine new ways of being together.
Jerry Moss Plaza began as the central courtyard of The Music Center, designed in the 1960s as a civic gathering space linking the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, and Mark Taper Forum. Long envisioned as a cultural commons for Los Angeles, the plaza served for decades as a formal, architectural anchor for the performing arts campus.
In 2019, the plaza was reimagined and reopened as a fully accessible, 48,000‑square‑foot outdoor venue designed for large‑scale public programming. Renamed in 2020 in honor of a major gift from Tina and Jerry Moss, the space now functions as The Music Center’s “fifth venue,” hosting concerts, festivals, screenings, and open‑air performances.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
Photo by Tim Street-Porter for The Music Center.
LADP PERFORMS: CITY OF DANCE | JERRY MOSS PLAZA AT THE MUSIC CENTER
Hollywood Forever 6000 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90038
Wednesday, June 17 | Gates open 6PM / Performance 7PM
We are no longer taking RSVPs for this event.
Parking $12 in advance / $15 day of show
Hollywood Forever is one of Los Angeles’s most storied cultural landmarks. Founded in 1899 and home to generations of artists, filmmakers, and musicians, the site has evolved into a place where memory, history, and contemporary culture coexist. Today, it is known as much for its concerts, film screenings, and public gatherings as for its historic grounds.
City of Dance brings movement into a reflective landscape, inviting audiences to experience choreography shaped by the site’s architecture, history, and gardens at dusk.
Getting There Hollywood Forever is accessible by car, rideshare, and Metro bus. Limited street parking is available on nearby blocks, though restrictions vary, so be sure to check street signs. The closest Metro Rail station is Hollywood / Vine on the B Line, approximately a 25–30 minute walk, and several Metro bus lines stop near the entrance, including the 4 and Rapid 704 along Santa Monica Blvd., the 210 on Vine and Gower, and the 217 connecting Hollywood to Mid‑City. The 2 and 302 also stop along Sunset Blvd., a short walk north of the entrance. We encourage ride sharing.
A Landmark of Los Angeles History Hollywood Forever was established at the turn of the twentieth century as one of the first large cemeteries in Los Angeles. Over time, it became intertwined with the history of Hollywood itself, serving as the resting place for actors, directors, writers, and cultural figures who shaped the city’s creative identity.
Its purpose today extends beyond remembrance. It has become a gathering place for community events, performances, and shared experiences.
A Setting Where Architecture and Landscape Meet The grounds of Hollywood Forever unfold across reflecting pools and gardens, historic mausoleums and chapels, and open lawns framed by mature trees, with long views toward the Hollywood Sign and the neighboring Paramount Studios. Together, these elements create an intimate and expansive setting.
A Twilight Stage for Movement The performance at Hollywood Forever unfolds at dusk, allowing the choreography to interact with shifting light and the quiet atmosphere of the grounds.
City of Dance activates this historic site as a stage, inviting audiences to experience movement in a place shaped by memory and the passage of time.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
LADP PERFORMS: CITY OF DANCE | HOLLYWOOD FOREVER CEMETERY
