1. Benjamin Millepied has created choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies.
27 Facts About Benjamin Millepied
1. 2.
Benjamin Millepied initiated the LA Dance Project, leading it from 2011 to 2014.
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Benjamin Millepied was the Director of Dance at the Paris Opera Ballet from October 2014 to 2016.
4.
Benjamin Millepied choreographed and performed as a dancer in the 2010 movie Black Swan, and choreographed the "sandwalk" in Dune.
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Early in his career, Benjamin Millepied was mentored by choreographer Jerome Robbins, who took an interest in him.
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Benjamin Millepied joined New York City Ballet's corps de ballet in 1995, was promoted to soloist in 1998 and became principal dancer in 2002.
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Benjamin Millepied became a choreographer, creating dances for City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the School of American Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera Ballet, Ballet de Geneve, and his own company, Danses Concertantes.
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On 26 October 2011, the media announced that Benjamin Millepied would retire from New York City Ballet.
9.
Dance Project, founded and directed by Benjamin Millepied, was launched with a commission, expected to last two years, from Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Los Angeles Music Center.
10.
Benjamin Millepied partnered with composer Nico Muhly, producer Charles Fabius, composer Nicholas Britell, and Matthieu Humery to found the company.
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The dance collective's first program featured a Benjamin Millepied premiere, Moving Parts, with a score by Muhly and visual design by painter Christopher Wool.
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Benjamin Millepied's collaborators include Rodarte, Barbara Kruger, and Alex Israel, a contemporary California painter and video artist.
13.
The premiere of "Reflections" by Benjamin Millepied took place at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on 23 April 2013.
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In January 2013, the Paris Opera Ballet announced that Benjamin Millepied had accepted the position of director of dance.
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Benjamin Millepied officially succeeded Brigitte Lefevre on 15 October 2014.
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Benjamin Millepied established a digital platform for new work and organized dancer exchanges with the Mariinsky and American Ballet Theatre.
17.
Benjamin Millepied resigned from the Paris Opera Ballet on 4 February 2016 and was succeeded by Aurelie Dupont.
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Benjamin Millepied has commissioned and collaborated with contemporary composers including David Lang, Nico Muhly, Thierry Escaich, Daniel Ott, and Philip Glass.
19.
In 2001, Benjamin Millepied's dancing was motion-captured for the animated children's film Barbie in the Nutcracker, along with that of other New York City Ballet dancers.
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Benjamin Millepied's dancing was again captured for the 2003 Barbie film Barbie of Swan Lake.
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In 2012, Benjamin Millepied founded The Amoveo Company, a multimedia production company and art collective.
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Benjamin Millepied has directed a number of short films in collaboration with various artists, including Mark Bradford, Philip Glass, Io Echo, Zeds Dead, and Lil Buck.
23.
In 2014, Benjamin Millepied became the Artistic Advisor of the new Dance Academy at the Colburn School in Downtown Los Angeles, joining fellow former-principal dancers with the New York City Ballet, Jenifer Ringer and James Fayette.
24.
Benjamin Millepied met actress Natalie Portman on the set of Black Swan in early 2009 and left his partner at the time, Isabella Boylston, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, to begin a relationship with Portman.
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The family lived in Paris for a time, after Benjamin Millepied accepted the position of director of dance with the Paris Opera Ballet.
26.
In January 2014, Benjamin Millepied said he was in the process of converting to Judaism.
27.
Portman and Benjamin Millepied separated in 2023 after it was reported that Benjamin Millepied was involved in an extramarital affair.