United States Various – ‘Gatherings’: Dancers of L.A. Dance Project. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills, 13.6.2025. (JRo)
In an eclectic program, L.A. Dance Project presented Janie Taylor’s Anthem – a Judson Dance Theater style piece; a splendid pair of lyrical pas de deux in Benjamin Millepied’s Triade; and a part humorous, part tortured Quartet for Five by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. As for the final Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia, it was an unresolved idea that never materialized, as Taylor likely intended.
Anthem opened with a small group of dancers positioned inside the lobby of the Wallis Annenberg Center. They quickly moved outdoors to the grounds of the theatre where they were joined by the rest of the troupe. As in the work of choreographers like Trisha Brown, this was a site-specific piece that molded itself to the surrounding environment. Dancers took their places at waist high metal fences, creating a classroom atmosphere of students warming up at the barre. They marched, pivoted and posed until they reached their ultimate destination on an open expanse of concrete. In their retro polyester tops and sweatpants, it felt as if they had landed in Beverly Hills from an old episode of Star Trek and were enacting rituals from another planet. As in the downtown Manhattan dance and theatre work of the nineteen-sixties and seventies, the audience dodged the moving stream of performers, repositioning themselves again and again to accommodate the dancer’s steps. The piece had an upbeat quality – refreshing the spirit in the light of L.A.’s tumultuous weeks.
Taylor’s second piece, Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia, which ended the program, failed to realize its promise. Dancers assembled in front of a candy-colored backdrop by Benjamin Styer embellished with images of rainbows, sweets, starbursts, a snow globe and puffy trees, and my first thought was that we were in the Land of Sweets from Nutcracker. Lighting was often so dim that figures were barely discernible, and shadows of the dancers in motion loomed on the backdrop, which only served to distract further. Movement was lackluster and costumes of black briefs and tee shirts were unflattering to the body. It was all the more disheartening because the premise seemed appealing – an encyclopedia of nighttime wanderings. But the most egregious mistake were the silent pauses when dancers waited in the dark as the musical selection changed. Pauses and silences need to have meaning or they distract and confuse.
Though it all ended on a weak note, fortunately Millepied’s Triade was a pleasure. The highlights were pas de deux for Jeremy Coachman and Daphne Fernberger and Lorrin Brubaker and Hope Spears. Millepied calls Triade a tribute to choreographer Jerome Robbins for whom he danced during his time at New York City Ballet; and with the lyrical dancing of Brubaker and Spears, Robbins’s influence could be felt. Appropriately, the title of the evening was Gatherings, which surely made reference to one of Robbins’s most breathtakingly beautiful pieces, Dances at a Gathering to music by Chopin.
Chopin’s waltzes and mazurkas certainly inspire romantic choreography. Nico Muhly’s original score for Triade, though far from romantic, created an interesting contrast to the amorous partnerings. These were dances for couples in love who seemed magnetically attracted to one another. The music (all music for the evening was recorded) with its Minimalist roots and dense harmonies carried with it the angst-driven impulses of contemporary life and made the dancing vivid and relevant. This was especially true in the pairing of Coachman and Fernberger, whose partnership contrasted perfectly with the poetic Brubaker and Spears.
Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber spent time with the Batsheva Dance Company and the influence of its artistic director and choreographer, Ohad Naharin, on their work is unmistakable. With Naharin’s Gaga movement language, limbs and torsos twist, turn and fold in unexpected ways. At times movement seems to depict human suffering, and this was the case in one of the opening sequences of Quartet for Five with music by Philip Glass – a richly harmonic and textured string quartet.
Courtney Conovan, arms flailing, elbows bending and neck flung back looked like a soul in torment as she used her tall, elegant frame to barbarous effect. There was the appearance of self-flagellation in the piece, as dancers beat themselves and thrashed the air. But there were also more amiable moments, particularly in the dancing of Jeremy Coachman when partnering Marcel Mejia or Nicholas Sakai. Whether illustrating frustration or joy, these pairings expressed the humor inherent in the human condition, as did the fleet footwork of the men and the capering of the five performers as they rushed in a body across the floor, fingers rotating in circles.
The Wallis stage is the perfect venue for small dance companies and L.A. Dance Project, embarking on a two-year residency, will be back in October.
Jane Rosenberg
Featured Image: Anthem © Skye Schmidt Varga for LA Dance Project
Anthem
Choreography – Janie Taylor
Music – Nico Muhly
Costumes – Reid & Harriet
Triade
Choreography – Benjamin Millepied
Music – Nico Muhly (original score)
Costumes – Camille Assaf
Lighting – Patrice Besombes (original), Masha Tsimring (2024 Version)
Quartet for Five
Choreography – Bobbi Jene Smith & Or Schraiber
Music – String Quartet No.5 by Philip Glass
Costumes – Victoria Bek
Lighting – Clifton Taylor
Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia
Choreography – Janie Taylor
Costumes – Janie Taylor
Sets – Benjamin Styer
Lighting – Brandon Stirling Baker
Music – ‘Gymnopedies I’ by Satie; ‘Paradise Lost,’ Music for Puppets Volume 2’ and ‘Heartache’ by Sherburn; ‘Toccata’ by Widor; ‘Vintage Soul’ by Marcovici; ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ by Goeran, Andersson & Ulvaeus; ‘Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part’ by Sō Percussion & Caroline Shaw
Dancers: Jeremy Coachman, Lorrin Brubaker, Audrey Sides, Daphne Fernberger, Hope Spears, Courtney Conovan, Aidan Tyssee, Marcel Mejia, Caroline McLeavey, Maxwell Simoes, Nicholas Sakai (guest dancer)
Additional cast for Anthem – Coburn School Dancers: Jubilee McAlister, Naya Sevilla, Elsie Tucker, Sylvie Watts