Bodytraffic, the Los Angeles-based troupe that’s carved out a name for itself on both national and international stages while also elevating the contemporary dance scene in its hometown, is especially thankful this season. Co-founded by Tina Finkelman Berkett and Lillian Barbeito in 2007 and under the sole direction of Berkett since 2020, the company recently received a $1 million grant from the Perenchio Foundation.
Fueled by the endowment, Bodytraffic is returning to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, where the eight-member troupe has been in residence since 2019, for a program of three new works, Dec. 6–7.
“I can’t even stand it,” gushed the New York-born Berkett, who was a founding member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance before heading West to establish Bodytraffic. “I was in my kitchen when the email came in, and we’d been waiting to hear about the grant. We’d asked for a lower sum of money and gone through a process of applying and vetting. Some months had passed, and when I opened the email, I counted the zeroes and dropped to my knees.”
There may or may not be any knee-dropping moves when Bodytraffic performs this weekend, but there will be a world premiere, Mayday, from acclaimed choreographer Trey McIntyre, who was recently named the company’s creative partner, as well as the West Coast premiere of Matthew Neenan’s I Forgot the Start. Juel D. Lane’s Incense Burning on a Saturday Morning: The Maestro completes the bill.
“I’m excited about this program,” said Berkett. “I think Trey’s work, the physicality, is astonishing. It’s to the music of Buddy Holly, and it’s so fun. Matthew’s work is very intimate and emotional. He made it to honor what he’d been going through supporting his husband fighting cancer. We performed that [earlier this year] in Philadelphia and in Sun Valley, Idaho, and the response has been beautiful.”
As for Lane’s work, Berkett said that the company had a “light preview” at the Audrey Irmas Pavilion in September and that it’s an homage to painter Ernie Barnes (1938–2009), who was known for his style of elongated characters and movement. “The company loves working with Juel,” she explained. “He’s another highly generous artist, and the piece is about Barnes and his creative mind. Juel’s been in touch with the Ernie Barnes Estate to make sure we honor his work properly. [Altogether] it’s a highly versatile program that showcases the dancers and their ability to accomplish different styles.”
Different styles could also be key to Bodytraffic’s success. These dancers, known for their technical prowess and versatility, have mastered a repertoire of nearly 50 works that span ballet, contemporary, modern, Afro-Cuban, and hip-hop. The troupe isn’t driven by a singular choreographic voice but rather an eclectic range of styles and perspectives, with Berkett having worked with renowned dancemakers such as Kyle Abraham, Ohad Naharin, and Sidra Bell, to name a few.
Berkett said that what she looks for in a work, first and foremost, is “kindness. The choreographers need to be in the studio and add to the environment our company is committed to. Dancers are notoriously underpaid and spend more time with each other than their families, [so] ours has to be positive, welcoming, supportive, and safe, and choreographers have to add to that environment.”
Berkett added that “there has to be a willingness to work in the context of the repertory. I’m also looking for someone who’s going to help the dancers grow and evolve, to make the dancers feel their best and that their craft is getting better every day.”
Since its founding, Bodytraffic has performed in over 30 U.S. states and 20 countries, including as cultural ambassadors to Israel and Jordan during the Obama administration, as well as to South Korea (2016), Algeria (2017–2018), and Indonesia (2018). In the last year alone, the company presented 50 shows.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” said Berkett, “but for a little company like us, it feels like we’re on the precipice of what we’ve dreamt of having — a company to rally behind. For years, I’ve been giving a living wage, [and] my goal is to support these people that I have the pleasure of working with, to keep doing what we’re doing. I’m trying to perpetuate a new way of being [so] that our dancers will accomplish the greatest things that are available to them.”
