To close out the 2012 season, Los Angeles Ballet produced "NextWaveLA." This particular ballet includes four entirely new dances from four acclaimed choreographers.

"Colony" (coreographed by Kitty McNamee), "Duets in the act of..." (coreographed by Sonya Tayeh), "SIRENS" (coreographed by Josie Walsh), and "Be Still" (coreographed by Stacey Tookey) are the featured pieces. Each person choreographed their piece in a way that illustrates their thoughts and feelings through dance.

The performance begins with "colony," where multiple dancers become united at one point and deliver a puzzling, yet breathtaking performance. Kitty McNamee, who is now the artistic director of Hysterica Dance Company, certainly outdid some of her own past work, while acclaimed dancer Kelly Ann Sloan - who is soon to retire - shines. "Colony" is beautiful  --so much that it leaves you speechless.

This was followed by a perhaps even more impressive piece: Sonya Tayeh's "Duets in the act of...," which is performed by four sets of couples. The duets depict "cold desperation," "artificial seduction," "fleeting nostalgia" and "false ego," and they all really are magnificent. However, there is always a piece that an audience member recalls more than the others, and in this case, it could very well be the sexy, infectious, and lustfully seductive "artificial seduction." This dance sucks you in, and both dancers, Julia Cinquemani and Vincent S. Adams, move in a way that is truly captivating.

Josie Walsh's "SIRENS" is the next dance performed. Filled with mythical beings and a short story depicting men battling water creatures, Walsh's piece offers an intriguingly unique look at men and women with an antique tale but in a neoteric aspect.

"Be Still" is arguably the most innovative of the four sections of the ballet. Dancing trio Allyssa Bross, Zheng Hua Li and Molly Flippen highlight choreogropher Stacey Tookey's interpretation of time, where the cast dresses in somewhat strange attire. Nevertheless, it succeeds as an ending piece.

In "NextWaveLA," contemporary ballet has never looked better.