Australia sees so little international contemporary dance – considered too far and too expensive a journey, with too small a dedicated dance audience to make it worthwhile. What does appear is mostly in Melbourne and Sydney. So it’s a curious coup for Brisbane festival to land the second visit to Australia by L.A. Dance Project – the troupe founded by the former New York City Ballet principal Benjamin Millepied – after the Sydney Opera House’s presentation of his contemporary, genderqueer Romeo and Juliet Suite last year.
For this year’s Brisbane festival, L.A. Dance Project presented a trilogy of contemporary ballets – commissioned between 2013 and 2016 for the company’s key funder, Van Cleef & Arpels – on the theme of gems. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. There’s precedent: NYCB founder George Balanchine’s landmark 1967 abstract ballet Jewels was inspired by the French jewellery company’s wares, with each of its three acts a tribute to a different precious stone.
