Jessica Koslow

After filing out of Walt Disney Concert Hall this past Sunday after the second and final performance of Benjamin Millepied’s “L.A. Dance Project,” I couldn’t help but think that I had witnessed the real L.A. Dance Project the previous evening at the Fifth Annual J.U.i.C.E.Hip-Hop Dance Festival at the Ford Amphitheatre.

Saturday evening’s fest was an exciting showcase of street dance from local companies. Powered by grants and community support, producer Emiko Sugiyama has pulled together a night of hip-hop dance for the past three years to benefit the nonprofit weekly hip-hop arts program called J.U.i.C.E., Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy. The collective meets every Saturday afternoon at the MacArthur Park Recreation Center and every Thursday evening at Chuco’s Justice Center in Inglewood and provides instruction in the four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, B-boying and graffiti writing.

While Millepied’s Project boasted beautiful dancers and playfully intricate choreography, there was nothing particularly L.A. about the performance, except for the costumes designed by Kate and Laura Mulleavy of L.A.’s Rodarte. …

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Photo by Peter Griffith

Amy “Catfox” Campion’s arms are sinewy — evidence of her hard work. A longtime b-girl and capoeirista, she is petite, strong and confident. The founder of Antics Performance is standing in front of the 13 street dancers in her crew. Her expression is earnest as she emphasizes the importance of the dancers connecting to their characters. This is something new for everybody. It’s the first time Campion is producing a long-form theatrical piece with a narrative.

“You are assassins,” Campion reminds the two men crouching on the floor. Another dancer portrays a monster, another a tyrant. It’s the second Thursday of September, and inside Campion’s loft on the northwest corner of MacArthur Park, Antics is rehearsing for its premiere of Illuminated Manuscript, which will bring breaking, popping and krumping to Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC), September 28-30.

The dancers have been running through scenes all afternoon. They break to eat and then head out to the Downtown LA Art Walk to freestyle in the lobby of LATC and hand out flyers for their upcoming show. It’s all part of creating and promoting a new work, which Campion hopes will live on after its debut.

Campion has been involved in street dance and in the Brazilian martial art form Capoeira since her years when she was studying for a BA in dance from the University of Washington. …

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Krystle Bueno, center, and other cast members rehearse “BEauty.” (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times / June 21, 2012)

Many of the images in last year’s “Beauty CULTure” exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography provoked discussion: the blank stare of a child beauty contestant, a pair of taut lips being poked with a surgeon’s needle. The exhibition touched on issues of vanity, acceptance and self-worth. After catching the show, a handful of dancers from the urban dance collective Culture Shock L.A. were inspired to put their own spin on the concept. This Friday at the Ford Amphitheatre, they will premiere “BEauty,” featuring their own work alongside contributions from contestants of “America’s Best Dance Crew,” guest MCs, and actress and Culture Shock L.A .board member Tamlyn Tomita.

For 19 years, Culture Shock L.A.’s main focus has been on outreach and education. The nonprofit community dance organization offers in-school, after-school and public classes in urban dance styles, mostly in neighborhoods lacking arts education programs. Armed with music and dance, they aim to cultivate dignity and combat stereotypes. In 2005, the collective decided to produce benefit shows. “BEauty” will be its eighth, and its third big production this year.

Allison Tanaka is one of Culture Shock L.A.’s co-executive directors. She is slight, almost fragile. One week before “BEauty” premieres, she is gliding graceful as a feather …

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Jessica Koslow listens as Sarah Reich talks about the trouble tap dancers have earning a living and achieving fame. But the 22-year-old Los Angeles native is not stepping away from her big tap family.

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Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performs Alexander Ekman’s “Tuplet” at UCLA Live on April 28. / Photo courtesy of UCLA Live

Several times on April 28, Benoit-Swan Pouffer, the French-born artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, walked through the lobby of Royce Hall looking like he was nervous. He made eye contact with passersby, stopped to chat with other young, stylishly dressed people, but mostly, he looked as if he couldn’t sit still. That evening’s performance was his company’s second of a two-night engagement at UCLA Live. It’s surprising to think Pouffer would be worried, considering he’s incredibly gifted at spotlighting beatific dancers, with just enough impeccable training mixed with the gift of free flow. Cedar Lake’s versatile movers wrap their bodies around choreography like Silly Putty. Toned, flexible and funky, this performance was a prime example of how they ease from one choreographer’s work to the next, shifting effortlessly from one particular style to another.  If my attention ever wandered throughout the night’s three sets, it was no fault of the dancers.

Especially not Jon Bond, who makes 28-year-old Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman’s “Tuplet” piece his own. The scene opens with a white screen, Bond standing as a black silhouette. Every time he moves, a sound escapes. An arm causes a whirring, a foot evokes a beep, and a shoulder lets out a hum. Simple, but evocative. By replacing counts of eight with noises, the body becomes a toy and the movements more relatable. The rhythmic exercise roots dance firmly in everyday life. But there’s nothing ordinary about Bond’s graceful execution. He plays his body like a virtuoso. Or, more likely, Bond acts as DJ, his body acts as turntables that blend and create sounds with every revolution.

“Nothing isn’t a rhythm,” a voice blares out…

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