Millepied creates 'This Part in Darkness' for Pennsylvania Ballet

To celebrity watchers, he's Natalie Portman's fiance and the father of her baby, due this summer. To cinephiles, he's the man who created and appeared in the dance scenes in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, which nabbed Portman a best-actress Oscar.

But in the ballet world, Benjamin Millepied has long been a familiar presence, successful as both dancer and choreographer. Now 33, he has performed with the New York City Ballet since 1995, as a principal dancer since 2002.

He has created works for some of the world's finest companies: City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Paris Opera Ballet among them. He choreographed a solo for Baryshnikov, and has his own touring troupe, Danses Concertantes.

In recent weeks, Millepied has been in Philadelphia, creating a piece for the dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet. This Part in Darkness, set to Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang's 2007 Pierced, will have its world premiere Thursday at the Merriam Theater. Millepied created it as a thank-you gesture to the company for providing 14 dancers for Black Swan.

"I really enjoyed working with the dancers when we did Black Swan, and I'm really enjoying working with them now," he said. "They're quick, they're musical, they're a really interesting group of people, they're enthusiastic."

This Part in Darkness is on the company's "Building on Balanchine" program, which also includes the master's Agon and Who Cares? City Ballet was Balanchine's canvas, and he encouraged one of his students, Barbara Weisberger, to form the Pennsylvania Ballet.

"Balanchine is one of the great geniuses of the 20th century, one of the greatest choreographers of all time," Millepied said, "so we're all building on Balanchine somewhat. It exists, that repertory, and it lives in me."

The program is also part of the French-themed Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Millepied, who was born in Bordeaux and moved to the United States at 16, is the French connection.

Since Black Swan, which opened last fall, Millepied has had a number of balls in the air: two ballets to be performed in Russia, a commercial, a theatrical work, a short film. For part of April, he shuttled between Philadelphia and his home in New York, where he was workshopping a musical possibly destined for Broadway. But two weeks ago, he and Portman settled in here for several days so he could spend intensive time in the ballet's East Falls studio, working his dual interests in dance and film.