How this L.A. choreographer's cancer diagnosis deepened his connection to dance

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“The work is about healing,” choreographer and cancer survivor Jacob Jonas said.We’re sitting against the brick wall of a building with the sun beating down, a few feet from the entrance to the Los Angeles Ballet studio in Sawtelle, where dancers in Jonas’ eponymous company practice for “Keeping Score,” a trilogy by Jonas premiering next week at the BroadStage in Santa Monica.They finish rehearsal by stretching and running through choreography.

Music blasts.Minutes prior, dancers scattered across the studio, looking at their phones as they tried to pick up dance steps from a video.Incense burned at the front near Jonas’ work station.

Dancer Alyse Rockett tossed her phone on the seat next to me, revealing the material for which the troupe has been preparing.The three works in “Keeping Score,” titled “Product of Divorce,” “Nature Sounds While the IV Drips” and “Restart,” document Jonas’ evolving relationship to illness following his 2022 diagnosis of Stage 4 lymphoma.The trilogy marks Jonas’ first post-cancer piece, and Jonas reflects on how his environment affected his life before, during and after cancer.

Entertainment & Arts After 20 years of bringing new contemporary dance to Los Angeles, Bodytraffic will cease operations in July.The unexpected news comes a little more than a year after the company received a $1-million multi-year grant from the Perenchio Foundation.Coinciding with his recently published memoir, “Cemented Beauty,” which includes journal entries and photos from his journey through chemotherapy, Jonas, 33, considers “Keeping Score” the final purge of a chapter that altered his understanding of life, relationships and nature.As a recent rehearsal transitioned into a run of “Nature Sounds While the IV Drips,” seven dancers separated into two lines.

The piece has eight sections, representing eight rounds of chemo...