L.A. Dance Project Takes on the L.A. River

March 31, 2015

Benjamin Millepied has that L.A. cool and that Parisian chic all wrapped into one multi-talented package. When he’s not busy being the artistic director of the Paris Opéra Ballet, he’s making work on the company he founded in 2012, L.A. Dance Project.

LADP tours the U.S. and performs in L.A., but for those who can’t always make it to a live performance, Millepied often creates beautiful dance films starring his equally beautiful troupe of contemporary dancers. His latest film, Hearts and Arrows: Movement 6, sets the dancers’ tenderness against the harsh landscape of the L.A. River (though, these days it’s a lot more concrete than it is water).

Still from Hearts and Arrows: Movement 6, directed by Benjamin Millepied

In case you needed another reason to love this video, it turns out it’s part of a larger project called Gems, which pays tribute to George Balanchine’s ballet Jewels. Millepied created Reflections, the first ballet in Gems, for the stage in 2013. Now he’s re-imagining his own work to turn it into a series of site-specific videos (watch the film version of Reflections here). Of course, Millepied’s modern interpretation is nothing like the iconic, three-part ballet we love, but that’s part of the fun. And if you happen to be in Paris this month, you can catch LADP performing the stage version of Hearts and Arrows!