L.A. DANCE PROJECT: GEMS

10:30 AM

Recommended for grades 9th - 12th.
Running Time: 60 minutes + 15 minute Q&A

Discover a ballet triptych by Benjamin Millepied celebrating the unity of dance, music, and visual art.

Commissioned by Van Cleef & Arpels, this trilogy of contemporary ballets—Reflections (2013), Hearts & Arrows (2014), and On the Other Side (2016)—draws inspiration from the symbolic and emotional resonance of precious stones. Each work offers a distinct world where movement, music, and design converge to reveal something luminous and intimate. 

Presented together for the first time in the U.S. by the Wallis Center for the Performing Arts and L.A. Dance Project, the triptych marks the culmination of a creative journey spanning over a decade.

Reflections is a meditation on longing—sensual, sharp-edged, and fleeting. Set to David Lang’s haunting score and framed by Barbara Kruger’s bold visual language, the ballet explores the tension between presence and absence, desire and memory. 

Hearts & Arrows pulses with crystalline energy, carried by the precise, layered rhythms of Philip Glass. Liam Gillick’s sculptural design of shifting light and shadow becomes a silent partner to the choreography, where emotion takes on an architectural clarity.

On the Other Side is a deeply human work—intimate, emotional, and communal. Set to a suite of piano études by Glass and enveloped by Mark Bradford’s immersive, painterly set, the ballet becomes a portrait of togetherness, tracing the bonds between individuals and the quiet strength of collective experience