BWW Reviews: Millipied's L.A. Dance Project on the Move

At long last, Benjamin Millipied's L.A. Dance Project premiered in New York City (his home among other creative homes) at BAM. The success of the October 17th program seemed to surprise the dancers themselves--sheepishly continuing to bow upon the audience's insistence.

As Baryshnikov said, "I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself." This could certainly be applied to Millipied's creative output. He's playing his own game, where he makes the rules (the main rule being to only work with better than the best) and is his own opponent.

2013's Reflections opened the evening with a bright red and white backdrop and floor, printed with phrases "Think of me thinking of you" and "Go, Stay". David Lang's music played by Andrew Zolinsky softened the starkness of the stage. To his strength, Millipied utilized subtle, minuscule movements with efficacy. The grabbing of an ankle, the rolling of shoulders, and lateral port de bras resurfaced continually. Five dancers in varying shades of grey with tiny neon accents tactilely roamed the stage. In solos and in groupings, dancers crawled and collapsed into each other and the floor. Despite whipping arms and turns, dancers maintained an observatory relationship and direct eye contact. Millipied managed to make the playground wheelbarrow partner game (one person holds the other by the ankles as they ambulate on their hands) into an intimate trust exercise. A mild tension developed in the power plays of negotiating relationships--to stay or to go?

If Millipied has a protégé, Justin Peck would be a likely candidate. The choreographic IT-boy's Murder Ballades investigated "the nature of violence in American identity" per musician Bryce Dressner's program note. A colorfully striped backdrop illuminated pairs of shoes. Dancers ran to put them on; so as to assume their identity? Loyal to structure and form, both Millipied and Peck smartly liberate their work with nimble, chameleon dancers. These dancers can seemingly do anything - bodies built for modern dance but with balletic capacity. Peck sent the dancers under and over each other, into frenetic turns, with a few pauses as a dancer appeared to knock on another's head. Whatever murder Peck referenced, appeared to be post-mortem. Although the tennis shoes held loose reference to turf markings of gangs, as well as an urban headstone (shoes hung over electrical wires). By putting the shoes on, the dancers symbolically brought back to life the many lives tragically cut short in recent sweeps of violence. The movement seemed to be an exploration of what life those shoes contained, and possibly the adage of walking, or dancing, a mile in someone else's shoes.

In finding the company's identity, Millipied's dancers visited Forysthe's 1993 Quintett. Where Millipied and Peck focused on structure and form, Forsythe flaunted texture and quality of movement, although Millipied obviously took note. Within the elasticity of Quintett, Forsythe interjected staccato and exclamatory slapping of legs, swinging and slapping of arms, and backward falls at ninety degree angles. Forsythe put the dancers on the run, accompanied by Gavin Bryars' uplifting musical loop "Jesus' blood never failed me yet/Never failed me yet/Jesus' blood never failed me yet/There's one thing I know/For he loves me so". And so Millipied's winning streak continued, as his dancers and movement have yet to fail him--especially Juilliard trained dancer Aaron Carr, whose proportions and command of stage are reminiscent of Millipied himself.

Rachelle Rafailedes and Anthony Bryant by Julieta Cervantes

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