Heidi Duckler Dance, a contemporary theater company based in Los Angeles, celebrates its 39th anniversary with its performance “Dance in the Light of the Harvest Moon” on September 21.

The anniversary celebration will take place at Loyola Marymount Law School beginning at 5 p.m. and will continue through the final night of the Harvest Moon performance in 2024. There will be dinner, dancing on the rooftop overlooking the city, and an awards ceremony honoring three individuals who have dedicated their lives to the community.

The award-winning crew, led by Heidi Duckler, founder and artistic director of the dance company, has been creating “site-specific works” since 1985. Each of their choreographed works is created for the specific location in which they will be performed. In 35 years, Duckler has created over 500 original works worldwide, with a strong focus on Los Angeles and the surrounding area. This year, the company received grants to perform on behalf of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

This evening’s performance reflects the historic significance of the Loyola Law Campus, which was reimagined by renowned architect and designer Frank Gehry. Although he is best known for his later roles in designing the postmodern works of the Guggenheim Museum in Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, he brought his visionary approach to Loyola Law School in 1978. His work at the school was the first major project to bring national and international attention to Gehry’s work, the school explains on its website.

“When Loyola selected Gehry to build its new campus, he was not yet an international star. The project was intended to expand Gehry’s work from the national to the public sphere,” it says.

He transformed Loyola from a single-building law school into a series of contemporary buildings arranged around a central plaza. He began initial design in 1979 and his expansions continued into the 21st century.

The Heidi Duckler Dance Company describes the phases of the campus expansion as “the many phases of the moon,” a nod to the title of the evening, “Dance in the Light of the Full Moon.” The performances do not take place on a stage, as Heidi Duckler Dance rarely does; instead, they utilize the Gehry-designed staircases scattered throughout the campus.

While the evening’s main purpose is to celebrate the company’s nearly four decades of contributions to Los Angeles’ contemporary dance community, it also offers a glimpse into the future of the city’s artists, designers, academics and community leaders. Before the dance performances, an awards ceremony will honor three community-minded individuals from the Los Angeles area who are each making a contribution in their respective fields and striving to make the city a better and safer place for all.

The honorees include Alex Johnson, vice president of public affairs for the California Wellness Foundation, one of the state’s largest public health philanthropic institutions. Through their grants, they have played a role in promoting violence prevention, particularly ending gun violence, and launched initiatives to improve the health of black women. After 20 years in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, Johnson returned to the California Wellness Foundation in January, where years earlier he worked as a senior fellow on gun violence, health equity and immigration issues, and redesigning the juvenile justice system. He will receive the Human Impact Award from Heidi Duckler Dance.

Joining him on stage is Marla Bleavins, accepting the Civic Engagement Award in recognition of the diverse roles she has filled in her hometown. She began her career with 25 years of service to the City of Los Angeles, continuing the legacy of her parents, both of whom were public servants. She started as a management assistant in the city clerk’s office and later worked at the Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Port of Los Angeles. In May, she returned to Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates the Los Angeles International Airport, where she works as the airport’s chief administrative officer. Bleavins is proud to have “grown up in the city” both professionally and personally, having attended St. Bernard High School and living in the greater Crenshaw area where she grew up.

Therese Maynard, the Leonard Cohen Chair in Law and Business at LMU Loyola Law School, is the final honoree of the evening, receiving the Education and Learning Award. Maynard teaches corporate mergers and acquisitions, as well as advanced courses in venture capital financing. A nationally known educator, she has authored two widely used casebooks: Mergers and Acquisitions: Cases, Materials, and Issues and Business Planning: Financing the Start-up and Venture Capital Financing. She uses these casebooks to provide education to law students around the world, and at Loyola she has developed an innovative curriculum to prepare her own students to enter the world of business law after graduation.

To underscore the importance of this evening, three new works will be presented. They will be choreographed and directed by three Heidi Duckler Dance artists: Madison Olandt, Genna Moroni and Aleks Perez. All three artists were born and raised in Los Angeles and their work can be seen all over the world. The titles and details of the dances are still unknown, but they will undoubtedly utilize the Loyola Law School campus in the style of Heidi Duckler Dance.

Duckler’s choreographic process reflects Gehry’s architectural philosophy, the company explains, as both work to create spaces that go beyond their traditional roles and have worked to become pioneers in their craft. She is also a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the Department of Film and Media Studies, and has demonstrated a range of artistic skills beyond dance, expressed in her short films “Where We’re Going” and “The Tender Bondy Sings.”

For more information about each choreographer, visit heididuckler.org/people.

In addition to the works making their debut, transdisciplinary choreographer Shoji Yamasaki will perform an original piece titled “School of Fish.” The bilingual artist visits both American and Japanese schools simultaneously, creating immersive works that explore history, architecture, and community.

The prices for the evening, which lasts from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., are as follows:

• Single admission: $300

• Tickets for two: $500

• Artist Sponsor: $1,000 (includes a shared table, tickets for four people and company logo or name on all media materials

• Event Sponsor: $2,500 (includes a table and tickets for 10 people and mention of company logo or name on all media materials)

• Season Sponsor: $5,000 (includes two tables and tickets for 20 people, wine bottle service and company logo or name on all media materials)

• Organizational Sponsor: $10,000 (includes two tables and tickets for 20 people, wine bottle service, company logo or name on all media materials, and a private cocktail reception on the roof of The Bendix in 2025)