Celebrated choreographer, director and filmmaker Benjamin Millepied has crafted an impressive body of artistic projects, starting out as a dancer with New York City Ballet and moving on to create work for his company L.A. Dance Project and other prestigious companies from around the world, as well as Darren Aronofsky’s acclaimed film Black Swan. He harnesses his propulsive style, a fusion of ballet and contemporary movement, to revisit Prokofiev’s iconic ballet in a contemporary, site-specific take blending dance, theater and film.
Through the use of handheld cameras, the audience is taken on a journey which far exceeds the parameters of a traditional stage setting with live video transmitted to onstage screens that follows the action in different tableaux and locations both backstage and throughout the Armory. The dance-drama plays with the ideas of theatricality and reality and features a condensed version of Shakespeare’s story that distills the narrative to it essentials, focusing on the undying love of the central couple and the explosive emotions elicited. Each performance features a different cast as the star-crossed lovers, departing from traditional gender norms to highlight diverse couples male/ female, male/male, female/female in a universal celebration of love. Millepied thus presents the mythical tale through a modern and original lens, rediscovering its beauty in a fresh and inspired interpretation of the tragic tale.
