Qatar’s heritage sites host dance performances by acclaimed artists

The Qatar Creates presentation, which launched on December 5, is co-curated by French choreographer and filmmaker Benjamin Millepied, and American composer Nico Muhly. The free programme showcases more than a dozen exceptional artists from around the world.
The first week of the festival featured performances by the curators, as well as the dance company Mazelfreten, acclaimed dancer Janie Taylor with the L.A. Dance Project, pioneering Moroccan choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen, award winning choreographer Salia Sanou originally from Burkina Faso and American artist, choreographer, and dancer Madeline Hollander.
Millepied is a choreographer, filmmaker, and former principal dancer with New York City Ballet. Born in Bordeaux, France, he grew up in Senegal until age five, where he began dancing. At age eleven, he began studying Classical Ballet with Vladimir Skouratoff at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux.
In 1993, Millepied moved to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, where he studied with Stanley Williams and Adam Luders. In 1995, he joined the New York City Ballet, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2001 when he also began to choreograph.
Millepied founded a pick-up troupe, Danses Concertantes, in 2002, a vehicle for his choreography and commissions. Since 2005, Mr. Millepied has choreographed for New york city ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Berlin Staatsoper, The Mariinsky Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Geneva Ballet, and Dutch National Ballet.
Over the years, Millepied has collaborated on new works with artists Mark Bradford, Christopher Wool, Barbara Kruger, Liam Gillick, Rodarte, Thierry Escaich, and UVA. Nico Muhly and Benjamin have created six Ballets together. In 2010, Millepied starred in and choreographed Darren Aronofsky's award-winning film Black Swan.
He moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and co-founded the L.A. Dance Project with Charles Fabius. In January 2013, the Paris Opera Ballet appointed Millepied as its new director. He resigned in 2016 to pursue his career as a choreographer and filmmaker.
A documentary about Millepied's tenure at the Paris opera titled "Reset" can be seen on Amazon. Millepied recently finished production on his directorial feature debut, "Carmen. The film will be released worldwide in 2023 by Sony Pictures Classics.
Muhly, born in 1981, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music and sacred music. He’s received commissions from The Metropolitan Opera: Two Boys, (2011) and Marnie (2018); Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tallis Scholars, King’s College and St John’s College, Cambridge, Wigmore Hall, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. He is an avid collaborator and has worked with choreographers Benjamin Millepied at the Paris Opéra Ballet, Bobbi Jene Smith at the Juilliard School, Justin Peck and Kyle Abraham at New York City Ballet; artists Sufjan Stevens, The National, Teitur, Anohni, James Blake and Paul Simon; and has written film scores for The Reader (2008) and Kill Your Darlings (2013), and the BBC adaptation of Howards End (2017).
More information on dates and times of Festival in Motion performances, is available on http://events.qacreates.com/festival-in-motion-doha.