Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park 4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027
Saturday, June 6 | 4:00 PM* Saturday, June 20 | 11:00 AM
Free and Open to all. RSVP for event details and updates.
At Hollyhock House and Barnsdall Art Park, City of Dance meets a century‑old vision for art in public life. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for arts patron Aline Barnsdall, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was conceived as a radical experiment in community, creativity, and shared space.
Today, City of Dance brings movement back to Olive Hill, honoring the site’s history while inviting Angelenos to experience dance woven into its architecture.
*The June 6th performance will be followed by a conversation about architecture, landscape, and civic balance, moderated by Frances Anderton in conversation with artist Kim Abeles.
The Vision on the Hill Barnsdall Art Park sits atop Olive Hill, purchased in 1919 by Aline Barnsdall, an oil heiress, radical arts patron, and early champion of experimental theater. She envisioned the site as a 36‑acre arts campus for performance, education, and community.
Her ambition: art should be public, accessible, and part of everyday life.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s First L.A. Commission
Barnsdall hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design the complex. Between 1919–1921, he created Hollyhock House, named for Barnsdall’s favorite flower and adorned with stylized hollyhock motifs throughout the architecture.
The house blends prairie style and Mayan revival influences with early California modernism, and became a harbinger of modern architecture in Los Angeles.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site In 2019, Hollyhock House became Los Angeles’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized as part of The 20th‑Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, the first modern architecture designation in the U.S. This places Olive Hill in the company of Fallingwater, Taliesin, and the Guggenheim. From Private Vision to Public Park In 1927, Barnsdall donated the house and surrounding land to the City of Los Angeles, ensuring it would remain a public cultural resource. Today, Barnsdall Art Park includes:
Hollyhock House
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) — one of the city’s largest publicly funded contemporary art spaces
Barnsdall Junior Arts Center Gallery — a community‑focused exhibition space
Community arts programs and classes
Open lawns with panoramic views of the city
Together, these spaces continue Barnsdall’s original vision of Olive Hill as a public arts campus, where creativity, architecture, and community life converge.
Hollyhock House embodies the idea that art belongs in public life, a principle at the heart of City of Dance.
Kim Abeles has created projects with science museums, health departments, air quality agencies, and community organizations. A Guggenheim Fellow, her work is in collections at MOCA, CAAM, LACMA, and BAMFA. Her documents are archived at the Center for Art + Environment. Recent collaborations include Pugai Padam Collective in Chennai, India; Kim Abeles: Community Smog at Gregory Allicar Museum of Art with neighborhoods and atmospheric scientists; and, Valises createdwith Camp 13, a group of female prison inmates who fight wildfires. Among her public artworks are Citizen Seeds along Park to Playa Trail and Walk a Mile in My Shoes based on the shoes of Civil Rights activists.
Presented by L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project.
Join LADP company member Audrey Sides for an open level class built around movement from City of Dance. This session offers participants an opportunity to engage with material from the citywide project and experience how the choreography lives in the studio.
In June 2026, L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project present the U.S. premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s public dance initiative, La Ville Dansée / City of Dance.
Premiering in 2025, La Ville Dansée drew more than 10,000 spectators across Paris and four neighboring cities through seven free performances in iconic public spaces. In 2026, City of Dance activates sites across Los Angeles, with select performances followed by conversations on urbanism, ecology, technology, and social change curated by Françoise Vergès.
Set to Philip Glass’s score for Koyaanisqatsi (1982), five choreographers — Dimitri Chamblas, Madeline Hollander, Benjamin Millepied, Jamar Roberts, and Pam Tanowitz — each respond to a section of the music, creating a unified work that reflects on technology, modern life, and a world out of balance.
LADP CLASSES: CITY OF DANCE REPERTORY CLASS | AUDREY SIDES
Join LADP company member Hope Spears for an open level class that introduces dancers to movement from City of Dance. The class offers an opportunity to explore phrases from the project and connect with the physicality of the work in a studio setting.
In June 2026, L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project present the U.S. premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s public dance initiative, La Ville Dansée / City of Dance.
Premiering in 2025, La Ville Dansée drew more than 10,000 spectators across Paris and four neighboring cities through seven free performances in iconic public spaces.
In 2026, City of Dance activates sites across Los Angeles, with select performances followed by conversations on urbanism, ecology, technology, and social change, curated by Françoise Vergès.
Set to Philip Glass’s score for Koyaanisqatsi (1982), five choreographers — Dimitri Chamblas, Madeline Hollander, Benjamin Millepied, Jamar Roberts, and Pam Tanowitz — each respond to a section of the music, creating a unified work reflecting on technology, modern life, and a world out of balance.
This organization is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
LADP CLASSES: CITY OF DANCE REPERTORY CLASS | HOPE SPEARS
2245. 2245 E Washington Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90021
Saturday, May 29, 2026 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm
PRICE: Free with RSVP
Join us in the studio for a working rehearsal with choreographer Dimitri Chamblas as he sets his section of City of Dance on the L.A. Dance Project dancers. These sessions offer audiences a rare opportunity to observe the artists at work, revealing the collaborative process behind this citywide project. Each rehearsal reflects the piece in progress and may include pauses, adjustments, and conversation as movement and structure take shape. A brief Q&A with the choreographer follows each session, offering insight into their artistic approach and their contribution to City of Dance.
Dimitri Chamblas From the duet À bras‑le‑corps created with Boris Charmatz in 1993 to his collaboration with Kim Gordon in 2018, Dimitri Chamblas’s career reflects a deep commitment to artistic encounter. He has collaborated with Bret Easton Ellis, William Forsythe, Emmanuelle Huynh, Glen Keane, Benjamin Millepied, Mathilde Monnier, Alex Prager, Nile Rodgers, Claire Tabouret, and Virginie Viard. Chamblas founded and directed the 3e Scène at the Paris National Opera before becoming Director of Dance at CalArts in 2017. His work has been presented at Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, MOCA Los Angeles, the Paris National Opera, Performa New York, and the Louvre. Through his Studio, he continues to develop projects including takemehome with Kim Gordon, Crowd Out, and Slow Show. In 2024, he premiered Fountain at La Contemporaine in Nîmes.
This organization is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
LADP PRESENTS: OPEN REHEARSAL | CITY OF DANCE WITH DIMITRI CHAMBLAS
2245. 2245 E Washington Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90021
Friday, May 15, 2026 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm
PRICE: Free with RSVP
Join us in the studio for a working rehearsal with choreographer Jamar Roberts as he sets his section of City of Dance on the L.A. Dance Project dancers. These sessions offer audiences a rare opportunity to observe the artists at work, revealing the collaborative process behind this citywide project. Each rehearsal reflects the piece in progress and may include pauses, adjustments, and conversation as movement and structure take shape. A brief Q&A with the choreographer follows each session, offering insight into their artistic approach and their contribution to City of Dance.
About Jamar Roberts Jamar Roberts is a celebrated choreographer based in New York and former Resident Choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (2019–2022). His work has been commissioned by New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, the Martha Graham Company, BalletX, Ailey 2, and The Juilliard School, where he served as a Creative Associate.
He has danced for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, earning a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer (2016) and appearing as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet. His creative work extends to film, including Cooped, A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time (Works & Process at the Guggenheim), and The First Bluebird in the Morning (LA Opera).
LADP PRESENTS: OPEN REHEARSAL | CITY OF DANCE WITH JAMAR ROBERTS
PERFORMANCES Select location for more information.
Century Park June 2–4, 12:30 PM
Marciano Art Foundation* June 4, 6:30 PM
Grand Avenue Takeover June 5, 12:30pm
Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park* June 20, 11:00 AM
Tongva Park, Downtown Santa Monica* June 7, 4:00 PM
Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara June 16, 3:00PM
Hollywood Forever June 17, 7:00 PM
The Music Center, Jerry Moss Plaza* June 18, 5:00 PM
Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park June 20, 11:00 AM
LACMA June 21, 3:00 PM
ASL interpreter at Tongva Park June 7 + LACMA June 21 —Mona Jean Cedar Live Audio Description at Grand Avenue Takeover June 5 — Audio Eyes
Each location was free and open to the public. The performance ran approximately 72 minutes, and because the work is designed to be encountered in public space, audience members were welcome to stay for as long as they like and move around the performance as it unfolds.
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CITY OF DANCE — Overview In June 2026, L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project present the U.S. premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s public dance initiative, La Ville Dansée / City of Dance.
Premiering in 2025, La Ville Dansée drew more than 10,000 spectators across Paris and four neighboring cities through seven free performances in iconic public spaces.
In 2026, City of Dance activated sites across Los Angeles, and proposed a simple but radical idea: to take dance out of the theater and into the shared spaces of civic life. In doing so, the project asks how movement can deepen our understanding of one another, expand empathy, and reveal the stories held within the city itself.
OPEN REHEARSALS / Q+A May 15, 1:30–2:30 PM – Jamar Roberts May 29, 1:30–2:30 PM – Dimitri Chamblas
CLASSES May 17, 2:30–4:00 PM – Repertory Class | Audrey Sides May 31, 2:30–4:00 PM – Repertory Class | Hope Spears
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“The film Koyaanisqatsi found me in the late nineties and never left. Its political force — its warning of a world out of balance — has stayed with me ever since. For years, I dreamed of commissioning a dance to Philip Glass’s extraordinary score. My dream is the event of this year’s City of Dance. I imagined five choreographers, each taking on a specific musical section of the film, coming together to create a single work — a work defined by the velocity of technology and the toll it exacts on nature, on society, on us. Koyaanisqatsi is as urgent today as the day it was made. Perhaps more so. It has been a thrill for all of us to come together and make this piece.” — Benjamin Millepied
CHOREOGRAPHERS
Dimitri Chamblas From the duet À bras-le-corps created with Boris Charmatz in 1993 to the one with Kim Gordon in 2018, Dimitri Chamblas’s career reflects a taste for encounters that he continuously implements. He collaborates with numerous artists such as Bret Easton Ellis, William Forsythe, Emmanuelle Huynh, Glen Keane, Benjamin Millepied, Mathilde Monnier, Alex Prager, Nile Rodgers, Claire Tabouret, and Virginie Viard. In 2015, he founded and directed the 3e Scène at the Paris National Opera, then became director of dance at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles in 2017. His work has been presented at the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Paris National Opera, Performa New York, and the Louvre Museum. Today, through his Studio, he develops projects such as takemehome with Kim Gordon, Crowd Out, an opera for 1000 voices, and Slow Show, a performance that slows down time. In 2024, he created the performance Fountain at La Contemporaine in Nîmes. Alternately dancer, teacher, choreographer, and artistic director, dance is the vehicle that allows him to travel through various geographical and social contexts around the world.
Madeline Hollander Initially trained as a ballet dancer, Madeline Hollander (b. 1986, Los Angeles, CA) studied cultural anthropology and visual arts at Barnard College (BA) and Bard College (MFA), New York. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2021); the University of Texas at Austin, Visual Arts Center (2020); Bortolami Gallery, New York (2020); The Artist’s Institute, New York (2018). Her work has been exhibited at the Brandhorst Museum, Munich, Germany (2022); Performa Biennial, New York (2021); The Aldrich Museum, Connecticut (2020); the Whitney Biennial curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta (2019), Helsinki Contemporary, Finland (2019), the Work Marathon Festival at the Serpentine Galleries in London (2018), and Centre Pompidou Metz, France (2019). As a choreographer, Hollander’s pieces have been performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Joyce, New York; The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, and Louvre Abu Dhabi with the Los Angeles Dance Project, and she has collaborated with Jordan Peele on his feature film Us (2019) and Urs Fisher’s immersive installation PLAY at Gagosian, New York (2019) and Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, CA (2019).
Benjamin Millepied Benjamin Millepied is a choreographer, director, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Born in Bordeaux in 1977, he spent his childhood in Senegal before returning to France. He began dancing with Vladimir Skouratoff in Bordeaux, then continued his training at the Lyon Conservatory and the School of American Ballet. In 1995, he joined the New York City Ballet, becoming a principal dancer in 2001. He simultaneously began his career as a choreographer and founded the Danses Concertantes project. In 2010, he choreographed and performed in Black Swan, which brought him worldwide recognition. He founded L.A. Dance Project in 2012, a company dedicated to contemporary creation. Appointed Director of Dance at the Paris Opera Ballet in 2013, he modernized the company by launching a dance medicine program and a digital stage. He invited choreographers such as Forsythe, McGregor, and Pite before resigning in 2016 to focus on creation. Among his recent works are Romeo and Juliet for LADP, Me.You.We.They at the Paris Philharmonie, and in 2024, the ballet Grace Jeff Buckley dances. In 2025, he presents Rituels by Pierre Boulez at the Paris Philharmonie. Benjamin Millepied was awarded the Legion of Honor in 2024 for his contribution to the arts.
Jamar Roberts Jamar Roberts, is a celebrated choreographer based in New York, USA. Jamar is a Resident Choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (2019–2022), and has had numerous works grace various stages, showcasing his distinct artistic voice. His choreography has been commissioned by leading companies, including New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, the Martha Graham Company, BalletX, Ailey 2, and The Juilliard School, where he served as a Creative Associate.
He graduated from New World School of the Arts (Miami, FL) and The Ailey School (New York, NY), and has danced for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. His performance career includes a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer (2016) and guest appearances with The Royal Ballet in London. His expansive creative work extends to film, including Cooped and A Chronicle of a Pivot at a Point in Time (Works & Process at the Guggenheim) and The First Bluebird in the Morning (LA Opera).
Pam Tanowitz Pam Tanowitz is a celebrated New York-based choreographer and collaborator who has steadily delineated her own dance language through decades of research and creation. She redefines tradition through careful examination, subtly questioning those who came before her yet never yielding to perceptions stuck in the past. Today, the world’s most respected companies—Martha Graham Dance Company, Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet—are integrating her poetic universe into their repertories. Her combination of intentional unpredictability, whimsical complexity and natural drama evokes master dance makers from Cunningham to Balanchine. She is a graduate from Ohio State University and Sarah Lawrence College, she has founded Pam Tanowitz Dance in 2000. Her work Four Quartets (2018), inspired by T.S. Eliot’s literary masterpiece, was called “the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century” by the New York Times. She is currently a professor at Mason Gross School of the Arts/Rutgers University and the first-ever choreographer in residence at the Fisher Center at Bard.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project present the U.S. premiere of City of Dance in 2026. L.A. Dance Project presents this new edition with a newly commissioned section, with foundational support from Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
The Century Park Art Fund supports the presentation of City of Dance at Century Park, including the newly commissioned section.
The City of Santa Monica Recreation and Arts Department Art of Recovery Fund and the City of Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment support the Tongva Park performance and panel.
We gratefully acknowledge additional contributions from Villa Albertine, and the Albertine Foundation through the FUSED program, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and LA County Arts & Culture, with in‑kind support provided by, the Marciano Art Foundation, Hollywood Forever, and Gloria Molina Grand Park at The Music Center in Downtown L.A.
City of Dance was originally commissioned as La Ville Dansée by Paris Dance Project in 2025, with support from CHANEL and Richard Mille, who continue to support Paris Dance Project’s artistic initiatives.
*Ticket revenue covers only a portion of what it takes to bring new work to life. Your added contribution helps close the gap between ticket income and the true cost of creating new work.
WALL—BODY brings together choreographer Shu Kinouchi and designer Hiroshi Kaneko in a performance that examines how walls shape the body’s relationship to space. The work assembles inanimate objects into an ensemble in dialogue with Kinouchi’s solo choreography.
Twelve movable ten‑foot walls and a tower create shifting conditions that test the endurance of the body and its desire for change. The performance approaches the intimacies of shelter, division, obstruction, and transgression through gestures of vulnerability, resistance, and care. The work emerges from an extended exchange of drawings, dances, models, and conversations, bringing architecture and choreography into a shared creative process.
WALL—BODY invites audiences to consider how we navigate the structures that surround us.
WALL—BODY was developed and produced by L.A. Dance Project through its programming arm, LADP Presents, with funding from Charlene Achki‑Repko, Susan Baumgarten, Robert Braun & Joan Friedman, Susan Friedman, Jane Jelenko, Michael & Aliza Lesser, David Totheroh, and Sue Tsao.
INSIDE THE COLLABORATION Over the past year, choreographer Shu Kinouchi and architect Hiroshi Kaneko have been building WALL—BODY through an intimate exchange of drawings, dances, models, and conversations. What began with a simple question — “Why walls?” — grew into a deep exploration of boundaries, vulnerability, support, and the ways bodies and structures shape one another. Read the Full Interview.
CALL + RESPONSE WALL—BODY emerged through a dialogue between body and structure. Shu and Hiroshi traded words, movements, drawings, and models, each response reshaping the next. Over time, their exchange expanded across images, sounds, and materials, forming the foundation of the piece. This slideshow gathers a selection of those shared images, drawings, and gestures. The full collection is available to view here.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Shu Kinouchi is a Japanese dancer and choreographer whose work moves between performance, theater, and installation. Through choreographic installations, he uses objects, repetition, and spatial systems to explore support, intimacy, and human disconnection.
Based in Los Angeles, Kinouchi has performed with L.A. Dance Project since 2020, and previously with Houston Ballet and Tulsa Ballet. He trained at Hamburg Ballet School and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre.
Alongside his performance career, he creates choreographic works that treat objects not as props but as partners, witnesses, or structures that shape behavior. His process often begins with extended physical research with materials such as chairs or walls, then develops through repetition, tableaux, and movement tasks into live performance environments.
His recent projects include Shu Loves Chairs, a solo work about support created in collaboration with Waka Waka, and WALL—BODY, a choreographic installation with architect Hiroshi Kaneko that examines how walls organize relationships through confrontation, enclosure, incarceration, and transgression. Across his work, Kinouchi studies longing, habit, and the quiet force of inanimate things, creating performances in which choreography becomes a way to observe the systems bodies live inside.
Hiroshi Kaneko is a designer, educator, and researcher whose work spans architecture, interiors, sets, and text. Hiroshi is a partner at KANEKOWINSTON, a design office based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that focuses on architecture, and is an instructor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture, where he teaches design studios exploring material construction, perception, and tectonics.
His interdisciplinary practice is grounded in drawing and model making as tools to examine how built environments shape—and are shaped by—the body.
His current projects include two renovation projects, in San Francisco and New York City, and a text on color, in addition to his ongoing collaboration with Shu Kinouchi on WALL—BODY and Shu Loves Chairs.
Mutate | is a selection of multi-medium performances curated by Masha to revisit her cancer diagnosis and how it has changed her relationship with dance. Masha was diagnosed with AML in Russia while pursuing her dream as a professional ballet dancer. From her sudden diagnosis, her sense of self, image, and direction came crumbling down in a matter of seconds. How could a future and identity that she had been building for half of her life dissipate so quickly? Was this life not meant for her?
Since her diagnosis, cancer has mutated Masha’s relationship with dance. Dance no longer grows cancerously inside of Masha as a performer, but rather grows alongside her as a reflection.
The night will include performances from former Principal dancer of Canada National Ballet Skylar Campbell and dancer Jaclyn Oakley, USC BFA student Garris Munez, a world premiere choreographed by Masha Cherezova, comedian and breast cancer survivor Julia Johns + film screenings from various artists.
All profits will be donated to Blood Cancer United and their fight towards saving more lives via Masha’s campaign Raise the Barre.
*Please consider purchasing a higher valued ticket as all the profits raised from this night will be matched by a generous patron. By increasing the value of your ticket, you are also multiplying your impact.
Greenberg Center at Ojai Valley School 723 El Paseo Road Ojai, CA 93023
Friday, June 12, 2026 | 3:30PM Saturday, June 13, 2026 | 3:30PM
L.A. Dance Project Premieres New Works Set to Luciano Berio’s Sequenza Series at the at the 2026 Ojai Music Festival with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.
L.A. Dance Project, led by Artistic Director Benjamin Millepied, will premiere new work at the 2026 Ojai Music Festival, created in response to four works from Luciano Berio’s iconic Sequenza series. Choreographed by Janie Taylor, Jobel Medina, and Madeline Hollander, the program brings together LADP’s distinctive movement language with Berio’s groundbreaking explorations of instrumental virtuosity.
The performances feature live music by festival artists Rose Lombardo (flute), Nathan Schram (viola), Hanzhi Wang (accordion), and Jay Campbell (cello). Each dance responds to one of Berio’s Sequenzas—Sequenza I for flute, Sequenza VI for viola, Sequenza XIII for accordion, and Sequenza XIV for cello—composed between 1958 and 2002. These works are central to Berio’s redefinition of solo performance practice, examining the expressive and technical capacities of individual instruments through extended techniques and highly focused writing.
Presented June 12 and 13 at the Greenberg Center at Ojai Valley School, this intimate program highlights the close interplay between dancer and musician, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience Berio’s virtuosic scores in direct dialogue with new choreographic voices.
“The tradition of the Ojai Music Festival is that there is no tradition other than that people can do things that they wouldn’t be able to do elsewhere. Ojai invites us to dream, and it’s a place where dreams can become reality.” – Esa-Pekka Salonen
Dancers Marissa Brown Rachel Hutsell Shu Kinouchi Audrey Sides Hope Spears
LADP at 2245 2245 E Washington Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90021
July 27 – August 9, 2026
MovementFest LA is a new dance festival for Los Angeles, connecting the spaces where dance is trained, created, performed, and shared with the public. Participants can engage with the Festival in four ways:
Open classes and workshops (27 offerings with over 10 internationally renowned teaching artists)
Two Performance Labs
Two weekends of performances
Community and education events uniting artists and audiences
The Performance Lab is a two‑week creation incubator for professional and pre‑professional dancers who want to work inside the choreographic process with leading artists. Two Labs will be offered as part of the Festival: one led by Mike Tyus and Diego Vega Solorza, and one led by Dolly Sfeir. Each Lab culminates in the Weekend Two Showcase, where the newly created works premiere as part of the MovementFest LA performance program.
Performance Lab Choreographers: Mike Tyus, Diego Vega Solorza, and Dolly Sfeir.
Founded by Jessie Lee Thorne, Mike Tyus, and Majella Bess, the festival is presented and produced in partnership with L.A. Dance Project as part of LADP Presents.
