L.A. Dance Project to Present U.S. Premiere of CITY OF DANCE With Free Public Performances

L.A. Dance Project and Paris Dance Project will present the U.S. premiere of City of Dance, a citywide series of free public performances adapted from Benjamin Millepied’s landmark Paris Dance Project initiative, La Ville Dansée.

City of Dance is meant to bring society face to face with dance, on equal footing, in the streets of the city. The body carries history. The city carries history. To take dance out of the jewel box of the theater, a space some do not feel invited into or cannot afford to enter, is to let those histories meet. That is the political force of this work: dance as a way of telling us who we are, through stories embedded in the city itself, challenging our empathy and our understanding of one another.

Artistic Director's Benjamin Millepied shared, "The film Koyaanisqatsi found me in the late nineties and never left. Its political force - its warning of a world out of balance - has stayed with me ever since. For years, I dreamed of commissioning a dance to Philip Glass's extraordinary score. My dream is the event of this year's City of Dance. I imagined five choreographers, each taking on a specific musical section of the film, coming together to create a single work - a work defined by the velocity of technology and the toll it exacts on nature, on society, on us. Koyaanisqatsi is as urgent today as the day it was made. Perhaps more so. It has been a thrill for all of us to come together and make this piece."

Choreographers include Dimitri Chamblas, Madeline Hollander, Jamar Roberts, Pam Tanowitz, and Benjamin Millepied.

City of Dance At-A-Glance

A multi-day public program that transforms iconic sites across the city into stages for free, site-specific performance from June 2-7 and June 17-21, 2026. Information for each location available on the Event Page on LADP website.

Following select public performances, a series of conversations with artists, scholars, and experts in urbanism, ecology, technology, and social change will take place, curated by author and political scientist Françoise Vergès.

City of Dance proposes a simple but radical idea: to take dance out of the theater and into the shared spaces of civic life. In doing so, the project asks how movement can deepen our understanding of one another, expand empathy, and reveal the stories held within the city itself.

In 2025, La Ville Dansée brought together 10,000 spectators across Paris and four partner neighbouring cities, through seven free performances held in iconic locations such as the Parvis de La Défense, Gare de Lyon, La Villette and the Cité du Cinéma.

Open Rehearsals/Q+A

Friday, May 15, 2026, 1:30-2:30 PM with choreographer Jamar Roberts
Friday, May 29, 2026, 1:30-2:30 PM with choreographer Dimitri Chamblas

Classes

Sunday, May 17, 2026, 2:30-4:00 PM
Sunday, May 31, 2026, 2:30-4:00 PM

Performances