Creative Mind: Benjamin Millepied
The acclaimed choreographer, director, and former principal dancer at the New York City Ballet has a rich history of collaborating with artists
In the world of dance, no one is in perpetual motion quite like Benjamin Millepied. His extraordinary achievements as a choreographer, director, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet earned him the French Legion of Honor in 2024—and he’s still not missing a beat. This year, he returns to Manhattan to showcase two programs as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival. With the company he founded, L.A. Dance Project, Millepied presents Reflections: A Triptych at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, a culmination of a decade’s worth of work, and at the Park Avenue Armory, Romeo & Juliet Suite, which examines Sergei Prokofiev’s legendary ballet by synthesizing dance, theater, and film.
Team spirit: Millepied has a rich history of collaborating with artists and has done so again for the trio of ballets in Reflections. For the first, titled Reflections, he tapped Barbara Kruger to layer the performance with her signature text. “She just has this way with words that brings imagination and intellect to a different place as you’re watching the dance,” he says. Millepied utilized Liam Gillick’s bold take on light and sculpture for the second ballet, called Hearts & Arrows, while Mark Bradford painted the set for the third, On the Other Side.
Ongoing muse: “Life is my inspiration. The craft of choreography is endless learning, discovering, changing, and mastering. I’m coming into a time where I know myself better—my life, my choices, my experiences. That allows me to have a point of view on things that I didn’t have before.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Spring Issue in the section “Creative Minds.” Subscribe to the magazine.