Los Angeles

After the success of a first run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, Gisèle Vienne's Crowd is now being performed at the outdoor spaces of the L.A. Dance Project studios. This bewitching work, accompanied by techno music, is based on contemporary video codes: the action, elusive and in perpetual motion, alternates between slow motion and unexpected accelerations, and is even sometimes played backwards. Borrowing as much from urban dance as from the state of being entranced, Gisèle Vienne's choreography is aptly placed in the urban space of Los Angeles.

Choreographer Dimitri Chamblas, director of the dance department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), presents Slow Show. Also staged in a public space, this striking performance, which brings together some fifty amateur dancers, brilliantly combines slowness, intensity, trance, and exultation. A collective experience renewed during each performance, Slow Show questions the method of creating an ephemeral community around a choreographic project.

Lastly, Benjamin Millepied, an artist with whom Van Cleef & Arpels has forged close ties since 2012, invites us to discover his latest creation Be Here Now. Performed by ten dancers from his company, the piece comprises duets, trios, quartets and group scenes performed in the heart of a dazzling set design by visual artist Barbara Kruger. His performance is eloquently accompanied by the musical compositions of two young artists from the New York music scene, Caroline Shaw and Andy Akiho. 

It is a great pleasure to share with the Los Angeles public this program which has been made possible through the collaboration of our American partners.

Serge Laurent 

Van Cleef & Arpels' Director of Dance & Culture Programs