Dance Review: Three is the Loveliest Number

L.A. Dance Project, The Wallis, Beverly Hills, June 13-14, 2025

June 15, 2025 | By Bruce R. Feldman

In Brief: Benjamin Millepied’s company danced exquisitely in an evening of three satisfying ballets, one of which is a masterwork.

Jeremy Coachman and Lorrin Brubaker in Triade (Photo: Skye Schmidt Varga)

L.A. Dance Project began its program at The Wallis with its strongest piece, Benjamin Millepied’s signature work, Triade.

At the start, four dancers (Jeremy Coachman, Daphne Fernberger, Lorrin Brubaker, and Hope Spears) cross the stage, eyeing each other, pairing up for a few seconds, then walking off with a different partner or alone.

They soon return to the stage for an allegro sequence, danced in side-by-side pairs, that while lively and playful, also is quite lovely. Millepied follows this with two extended, enthralling romantic duets, one for each couple.

But just when you think it’s all sorted out, the pairs of teasing young lovers regroup, then change their minds again, until it’s not clear how this will end up.

This reminded me of the longing and confusion of every starry-eyed couple in every Eric Rohmer film, which should not come as much of a surprise, as Millepied was born and trained in France and briefly served as the head of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Triade also pointedly references the Jerome Robbins classic, Dances at a Gathering, the mother of all modern walk, run, stare, swap partners, and do it over and over ballets.

Millepied created his ballet in 2008 as part of a Robbins homage at the Palais Garnier. The L.A. Dance Project director also has long credited Robbins as a mentor, dating to the time when Millepied joined the New York City Ballet as a young dancer in 2001.

Nicholas Sakai, Jeremy Coachman, and Daphne Fernberger in Quartet for Five (Photo: Skye Schmidt Varga)

At The Wallis, the dancers executed Millepied’s challenging choreography gracefully and effortlessly, demonstrating that they indeed are a group of superb artists. This is dancing of the highest order.

It’s a mystery why Millepied’s company isn’t better known here in Los Angeles, where so much of modern dance has its roots. Surely it is the best of all local offerings and rivals anything you will see elsewhere.

The two works that followed Triade were pleasantly choreographed and beautifully danced.

Quartet for Five, choreographed to a Phillip Glass score by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, featured a particularly impressive solo performed by Courtney Conovan.

Janie Taylor’s Sleepwalker’s Encyclopedia was the last ballet performed. It featured nine dancers in front of a large, colorful Benjamin Styer mural, which served as the inspiration for a series of choreographed episodes.

While both ballets were enjoyable and expressively danced, it was the lyrical Triade that was the real achievement. It’s a stunner. But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can watch an early version of it here: https://vimeo.com/21021972.

L.A.Dance Project, The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 746-4000, www.thewallis.org