It’s fitting that choreographer Benjamin Millepied named a recent work On the Other Side. After a difficult two-year tenure as artistic director of the Paris Opéra Ballet, he is happily settled in Los Angeles and reemerging with big plans for L.A. Dance Project, the contemporary company he founded there in 2012. Today, his ambitious vision […]

We had a feeling this news was coming, but now it’s official: Benjamin Millepied is directing a movie. Variety just broke the news that he’ll be making his directorial debut with Carmen, a film inspired by Georges Bizet’s highly successful opera. The story will focus on a woman traveling from the Mexican desert to Los […]

Ballet Across America returns to The Kennedy Center this week with a twist: programming curated by American Ballet Theatre principal Misty Copeland and New York City Ballet soloist/resident choreographer Justin Peck. It’s a unique opportunity to get inside the heads of two of the most influential figures in American ballet today—so what companies and choreographers […]

Benjamin Millepied on his predecessors, the French style and his ambitious new era at Paris Opéra Ballet Millepied working with Aurélie Dupont. Photo by Agathe Poupeney, Courtesy POB (2) Ever since the news broke in 2013 that Benjamin Millepied would be artistic director of the Paris Opéra Ballet, many wondered whether the Bordeaux-born choreographer and […]

An international festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.     A Dance the Dream event in Houston. Photo by Russell Hancock, Courtesy Dance the Dream.   While addressing thousands of Americans at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963, Martin Luther King, […]

The company will become transatlantic to remain under Benjamin Millepied’s direction.   LA Dance Project in Millepied’s Reflections. Photo by Laurent Philippe, Courtesy LA Dance Project. It came as a surprise when the Paris Opéra Ballet announced last year that Benjamin Millepied would succeed Brigitte Lefèvre as the company director. Just four months prior, Millepied had […]

Benjamin Millepied’s new company tests the city’s appetite for concert dance.     Millepied rehearsing his ballet Plainspoken with New York City Ballet dancers. Photo by Paul Kolnik, Courtesy NYCB.   It’s hard to keep track of Benjamin Millepied. The man whose surname translates to “1,000 feet” appears to be everywhere at once, with 1,000 […]