Ate9 dance company in Los Angeles is already a success, a young, fresh and contemporary group of artists led by Danielle Agami. They truly engage with a diverse group of Angelenos and many companies can learn from their recent activities.

Late January, I attended Ate9 and Think Tank Gallery's collaboration, Queen George, in Downtown LA's gritty Fashion District. The site-specific and multi-disciplinary work featured the dancers performing duets throughout the gallery with private one-on-ones that broke off into tiny rooms in the gallery for one dancer and one viewer. The collaborating artists included Israeli designer and carpenter Amir Raveh and LA- based abstract expressionist artist Avi Roth. What was so special about the evening, was how the rather large audience in attendance changed and adapted to how they consumed dance in an untraditional way and beyond that, in a section of LA that most people don't venture out to. The artists were connecting to the patrons and patrons to the artists. (See the first image below) Its almost as if the patron is in the work.... The audience was UBER diverse and represented the social look of LA. Speaking of which, there were two celebrities in attendance. Kudos to Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) and Mayim Bialik (Blossom and The Big Bang Theory) for supporting local LA artists. Check out the images below to see some documentation of the game-changing work.