Repertory 

Repertory 

Martha Graham Duets

Choreographer: Martha Graham

“The Graham Duets” entered LADP’s repertory in 2016 and celebrates one of the 20th century’s most influential choreographers, juxtaposing three distinct pas de deux from larger Graham works—Diversion of Angels and Canticle for Innocent Comedians—first presented in 1948 and 1952, respectively. The first pas de deux is inspired by the “White Duet” from Diversion of Angels, a ballet widely considered to be the choreographer’s ode to love. Set against piano music by Cameron McCash featured in the soundtrack of the 1957 documentary film A Dancer’s World, the “White Duet” communicates profound intimacy through Graham’s signature purity of form. The second and third duets, titled “Stars” and “Moon,” are rarely staged and are, in fact, the only surviving sections of Canticle for Innocent Comedians whose remaining choreography is thought to be lost. While “Stars” gives off a playful energy through Graham’s finely sculpted partnering, “Moon” remains more ethereal as the dancers yield to the piece’s wonderfully poetic and hypnotic core.

Premiere
July 26, 2016 at The Joyce Theater in New York City

Lighting Design
Brandon Stirling Baker

Costume Design
Janie Taylor

Regisseur: 
Denise Vale 

Music
Arrangement based on music by Cameron McCosh from the documentary film “A Dancer’s World” (1957).  Recording by commission for L.A. Dance Project, 2016.

Length
8 minutes

Martha Graham Duets

MinEvent

Choreographer: Merce Cunningham

A MinEvent is an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts drawn from the work of Merce Cunningham.  L.A. Dance Project’s MinEvent, arranged and staged by Silas Riener, features material from several early Cunningham dances including Septet (1953), Springweather and People (1955), Nocturnes (1956), and Suite for Five (1956).   First performed on February 20, 2016 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, as part of the exhibition Leap Before You Look:  Black Mountain College 1933-1957, this MinEvent was newly arranged by Mr. Riener for performances at the Joyce Theater.

Music
John Cage, Music for Piano

Musician
Adam Tendler

Lighting design
Josh Johnson and Benjamin Millepied

Costume Design
Benjamin Millepied

Arranged and Staged by:
Silas Riener 

Length 
35 Minutes (Approximately)

Choreography by Merce Cunningham © Merce Cunningham Trust.  All rights reserved.

Music for Piano by John Cage.  Used by permission of C.F. Peters Corporation and Henmar Press Incorporated.  All rights reserved.

* L.A. Dance Project developed this work thanks to a Technical Residency Partnership with The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College

MinEvent

Morgan’s Last Chug

Choreographer: Emmanuel Gat

Morgan’s Last Chug, is a study on layered temporality. A multifaceted look at the experience of passing time, through both the choreographic and the audible. Through a series of relentless variations, using different modalities of time related composition, the dancers explore dance as an inherently musical practice, bringing forth its temporal aspects and mechanisms. Beckett’s compelling monologue from “krapp’s last tape”, in itself a theatrical counterpoint between live and recorded text, highlights the innumerable ways in which the human experience is inhabited and highlighted by passing time.

Premiere
September 17, 2013 at Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France

Sound Design
Emanuel Gat

Lighting and Costume Design
Emanuel Gat

Assistant Choreographer
Genevieve Osborne 

Music
J.S. Bach, French suite #1 in D minor BWV 812. Piano, Glenn Gould. H. Purcell, Funeral Music For Queen Mary – March. Andrew Parrott, Taverner Consort & Players

Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett
Performed by Jim Norton
The recording is used with permission from Naxos AudioBooks

Length
20 Minutes

Morgan’s Last Chug

Moving Parts

Choreography
Benjamin Millepied

Premiere
Premiered on September 22, 2012 at The Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA. Commissioned by Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, Los Angeles, CA.

Costume Design
Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte 

Lighting Design
Roderick Murray 

Visual Installation
Christopher Wool

Organ recorded by Nico Muhly at Disney Hall September 2012

Length
25 minutes 

Moving Parts

Murder Ballades

Choreographer: Justin Peck

Justin Peck’s Murder Ballades was commissioned and premiered by L.A. Dance Project in 2013. Set against a vivid backdrop by contemporary artist Sterling Ruby, the exuberant work for six dancers unfolds to Bryce Dessner’s “Murder Ballades” (recorded for L.A. Dance Project by the American chamber music ensemble Eighth Blackbird). Inspired by American folk songs of the 1930s and ‘40s, specifically murder ballades, Dessner synthesized melodies and concepts from these ballades into a classically-based chamber piece with complex rhythms and a strong pulse. Though the ballet contains no explicit narrative, Peck drew upon the lyrics of the original folk songs during his creative process, the dark hints of which can be gleaned from the choreography—particularly in the piece’s two duets. Athletic, playful, and slightly sinister, Murder Ballades is at once a celebration of life and a cautionary tale told through Peck’s buoyant choreography.

Premiere
September 17, 2013 at Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France.

Lighting Design
Brandon Stirling Baker

Visual Installation
Sterling Ruby

Costume Design
Justin Peck

Music
Bryce Dessner, By arrangement with Chester Music Limited Recorded by eighth blackbird

Length
20 minutes

Murder Ballades

Night Bloom

Premiere
May 27th, 2021 at L.A. Dance Project Outdoor Performing Space.

Choreography
Janie Taylor

Costume Design
Janie Taylor
Construction by Lauren Matesic

Set Design
Concept by Janie Taylor
Design & Construction by Jack McGuinn

Music
Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto For Two Pianos
1st, 3rd, 4th Movement played by Katia Labèque & Marielle Labèque
2nd Movement played by Paul Jacobs & Ursula Oppens

Length
20 minutes

6 dancers
Original Cast: Daisy Jacobson, Nayomi Van Brunt, David Adrian Freeland Jr., Anthony Bryant, Vinicius Silva, Shu Kinouchi

With grateful thanks to Flavia and Barden Gale

Night Bloom

On the Other Side

Choreographer: Benjamin Millepied

On the Other Side premiered in 2016 and is the third installment of Benjamin Millepied’s “Gems” trilogy, a collaboration between L.A. Dance Project and Van Cleef & Arpels. (The two other ballets completing this trilogy are Hearts and Arrows, inspired by diamonds and the idea of light, and Reflections, inspired by the energy of rubies.) Millepied has described this trilogy of ballets as “an emotional journey” with “a strong and hopeful sense of lasting love and community amidst the uncertainty in which we live.” On the Other Side, inspired by emeralds, is set to a suite of piano études by Philip Glass with jewel-tone velvet costumes by designer Alessandro Sartori and a remarkable set by Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford. The piece’s eight dancers ebb and flow naturally between ensemble dancing, pas de deux, solos, and groups of three or four, sustaining Millepied’s high lyricism and emotional momentum through to the ballet’s pensive conclusion.

Premiere
June 24th, 2016 at Sadler’s Wells in London, United Kingdom

Art
Mark Bradford

Lighting Design
Lucy Carter

Costume Design
Alessandro Sartori

Music
Philip Glass: Etude No. 1, 2, 6,12,16,18.   Orphee Suite – Mvmnt 2 & Mvmnt 7, Trilogy Sonata Mvmnt 1 – Knee Play No. 4 from Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass.  ©1999, 2012, 1993, 1976.  Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc.  Used by Permission.    From Philip Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes – Maki Namekawa, piano (2014, Orange Mountain Music) and The Orphee Suite for Piano, Music by Philip Glass – Paul Barnes, piano (2003, Orange Mountain Music).

Length
43 minutes

Commissioned by Van Cleef & Arpels.

On the Other Side

Orpheus Highway

Choreographer: Benjamin Millepied

Orpheus Highway premiered in June 2017 at The Joyce Theater in New York. This ballet explores the tragic love story of its eponymous mythological protagonist through an intricate juxtaposition of film and live dance performance, directed and choreographed by Benjamin Millepied. Nine dancers onstage echo and riff against a commanding cinematic backdrop in which they also star as Steve Reich’s suspended and strident Triple Quartet propels the work toward its dramatic conclusion.

World Premiere
June 14, 2017 at The Joyce Theatre in New York City, New York

Lighting Design
Jim French and Benjamin Millepied

Video
Directed by Benjamin Millepied / Produced by Studio6
Executive Producer: Nick Williams
Director of Photography and Steadicam: Trevor Tweeten
Camera Assistant: Robert Matthews
Video System Designer: Eamonn Farrell
Video System Assistant: Thomas Kavanaugh

Costume Design
Benjamin Millepied

Music
Triple Quartet by Steve Reich
by arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc. a Boosey & Hawkes Company, publisher and copyright owner.

Length
16 Minutes

* L.A. Dance Project developed this work thanks to a Technical Residency Partnership with The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College

Orpheus Highway

Peripheral Stream

Choreographer: Hiroaki Umeda

In Peripheral Stream, the choreographer starts from a hypothesis that ‘the core of all movements cannot be defined physically.’ For instance, when one observes a large river in close-ups, he or she will realize that it is actually consisted of countless peripheral streams. Similarly, when one watches the stage, the audience readily assumes that he or she is enjoying a dance performance. But actually, what they see is only the peripheral streams generated from the gravity point of the dancers, and, also the flow of accompanying electronic music and digital video. The audience cannot realize the origin of movement, that is, main ‘flow of force’ deriving from the dancers. In other words, what are vis- ualized on stage are only the peripheral streams. In order to embody this aesthetic concept, the four dancers on stage do not focus on the ornamental ‘poses,’ but rather, attempt to generate multiple different ‘flows’ from their gravity points. These flows guide the audience’s vi- sion towards their body parts, to the unity of the four dancers, and, also to the background digital images reminiscent of physical phe- nomena. From time to time, the jittering of their torsos synchronizes with the back image, which makes us think that the faintest change of a human may transform the whole universe. Indeed, the physical language that the choreographer adopts in this piece differs from clas- sical ballet in terms of the position of the gravity point, the manner of movements, and even the way the dancers breathe. However, Umeda is not trying to abandon the aesthetics of ballet. On the contrary, he is striving to embed the basic ‘movement method’ developed through his physicality to the underlayer of all ‘dance method,’ which may in turn strengthen and enrich the vocabulary of ballet. Umeda’s initial endeavor for creating this ballet language of the future can be ob- served through this piece.

Premiere
March 5, 2014 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France

Sound, Image, Lighting Design
Hiroaki Umeda 

Image Programming
Shoya Dozono 

Costume Design
Hiroaki Umeda 

Length
18 minutes

Peripheral Stream

Quartet for Five

Premiere
October 15th, 2022 at the Theatre du Chatelet presented by the Theatre de la Ville, Paris.

Choreography
Bobbi Jene Smith & Or Schraiber

Music
String Quartet No. 5 by Philip Glass

Costume Design
Victoria Bek

Lighting Design
Clifton Taylor

Length
23 minutes

5 Dancers

Original Cast
Payton Johnson, Courtney Conovan, David Adrian Freeland Jr., Lorin Brubaker,
Jeremy Coachman

Quartet for Five