Canadian premiere of an exclusive Canadian engagement!

Co-founded in 2012 by celebrated dancer-choreographer Benjamin Millepied (the new Director of the Paris Opera Ballet), the enormously successful L.A. Dance Project makes its Canadian premiere at the NAC. A highlight of the evening is two new works by Millepied: Moving Parts, a series of sharp, sophisticated scenes, and Hearts and Arrows, the highly anticipated second chapter of the Gems trilogy, featuring music by Philip Glass. The program also includes the playful Morgan’s Last Chug by Israeli choreographer Emanuel Gat. L.A. Dance Project performs in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday March 11 at 7:30 p.m.

 

ABOUT MOVING PARTS

Benjamin Millepied’s Moving Parts is a series of urbane, cleverly staged scenes, performed among stunning calligraphic scenic panels by L.A. artist Christopher Wool. The dancers constantly move and manipulate the portable panels, dynamically reframing the performance many different ways. Moving Parts features costumes by fashion house Rodarte and a violin, organ and clarinet score by company co-founder Nico Muhly. Moving Parts embraces and celebrates the wonder of movement. It’s joyful, entertaining and accessible, performed with real technical prowess.

MOVING PARTS (2012)
ChoreographY Benjamin Millepied

MUSIC COMPOSITION Nico Muhly

VISUAL INSTALLATION Christopher Wool

COSTUME DESIGN Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte

LIGHTING DESIGN Roderick Murray

DURATION: 25 MINUTES

 

ABOUT MORGAN’S LAST CHUG
Choreographed by Emanuel Gat, Morgan’s Last Chug was commissioned for L.A. Dance Project, and premiered in Lyon, France in September 2013. The work has an alluring European nature, as the dance unfolds independently, in flurries of rapid, dislocated gestures, set to recordings of Purcell, Glenn Gould playing Bach, and text from Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. Mr. Gat’s compositional layerings of bodies in space and their apparently accidental refractions astonish the eye.

MORGAN’S LAST CHUG (2013)
ChoreographY, SOUND, LIGHTING, and COSTUME DESIGN Emanuel Gat

MUSIC Henry Purcell “Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary,” J. S. Bach “Suites Françaises”

TEXT Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape (recited by Jim Norton)

DURATION: 20 MINUTES

 

ABOUT HEARTS & ARROWS

High-end jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels commissioned Benjamin Millepied to create Gems, a new trilogy based on George Balanchine’s three-part Jewels ballet (1967). Also supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, Jewels was the first full-length abstract ballet in the history of classical dance. Millepied’s vision also reflects precious stones and the emotions they can provoke onstage. Reflections (2013), the trilogy’s first part (rubies), toured the world and was adapted as a dance film. For the second part of the trilogy (diamonds), Millepied has created a work that is simply enchanting: the dancers’ bodies move like interconnected prisms, forming a cascade of diamonds. The lighting accentuates the multiple perspectives and facets of the performers and the dance, playing with light and shadow, creating a captivating ambience that consists only of dancers bathed by pure light on a bare stage. The title Hearts & Arrows refers to a method used by gemologists to assess the reflecting qualities of a diamond, and takes its name from the shapes that light creates within the stone. As Millepied says, “[like jewellery craftsmen] sometimes choreography is all about polishing and refining.'' Hearts & Arrows had its world premiere in December 2014.

HEARTS & ARROWS (2014)
CHOREOGRAPHY Benjamin Millepied

LIGHTING DESIGN Roderick Murray

VISUAL CONCEPT Liam Gillick

COSTUME DESIGN Janie Taylor

DURATION: 17 MINUTES

 

ABOUT L.A. DANCE PROJECT
L.A. Dance Project is an artists’ collective founded in 2012 by renowned choreographer-dancer Benjamin Millepied, composer Nico Muhly, art consultant Matthieu Humery, Founding Producer Charles Fabius, and Nicholas Britell. L.A. Dance Project creates new work and revives seminal collaborations from influential dance makers. Programs include evenings in traditional theatres as well as modular performances in non-traditional environments. New works feature collaborations with emerging and established visual artists, musicians, designers, directors, and composers.

Marina Harss, writing about Benjamin Millepied on dancetabs.com in 2012, said, “It’s always been clear that Millepied is a man of intelligence and taste. These qualities were evident in his dancing … you always felt he understood the ideas a ballet was trying to get across. The same goes for his choreography. There is usually much to admire; certain images, an idea, an overall visual elegance; one senses a personal statement of style: casual, cool, urban, sophisticated, playful ….”
 

TICKETS AND PERFORMANCES

L.A. Dance Project perform Moving Parts, Morgan’s Last Chug, and Hearts & Arrows in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday March 11 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40, $45, $53, and $61 for adults and $22, $24.50, $28.50, and $32.50 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card).

Groups of 10 or more save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices; to reserve your seats, call 613 947-7000,

ext. 634 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Tickets are available for purchase:

• In person at the NAC Box Office

• At all Ticketmaster outlets

• By telephone from Ticketmaster, 1-888-991-2787 (ARTS)

• Online through the Ticketmaster link on the NAC’s website (http://www.nac-cna.ca)

• A service charge applies on all purchases made through Ticketmaster