BalletX’s winter series lights up with high energy and world premieres

On a cold, rainy, sleepy Wednesday night, BalletX opened its winter series at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre.

The energy inside was in full force.

The company presented two world premieres and revived a 2019 ballet, and the dancers never stopped moving, lifting, stretching, taking risks.

The highlight of the program was Gregory Dawson’s Sojourner, one of the world premieres. A piece for the full company plus a six-piece band that played on an elevated platform at the back of the stage, which vibrated with wonderful music and dance.

» READ MORE: BalletX looks ahead with new ballets, a new theater, and a stable future

In a video played before the piece, Dawson said he was inspired by walking in Center City during visits to Philadelphia and particularly the brass plaques of the Walk of Fame, which includes many jazz musicians.

Live music almost always elevates dance, and this featured a commissioned score by Luke Carlos O’Reilly, who also played the piano during the piece, frequently watching (and presumably reacting to) the dancers as he performed. From the first few notes, everyone was on.

Dressed in golds and earth-toned costumes by Martha Chamberlain, the dancers slithered on stage and then moved in groups that sometimes looked like warm-ups, using the musicians’ platform as a barre, and sometimes were a high-energy contrast of solos or duets on the other side of the stage.

The company has come a long way from its start 19 years ago, and there are so many strong dancers now. Favorites of the night included Ashley Simpson, Francesca Forcella, Peter Weil (formerly of Philadelphia Ballet), and Minori Sakita, who joined last year and is petite but powerful.

The other world premiere, Figments of Song, is by Caili Quan, who danced with the company for eight years and returned to make her second piece on her friends and their new colleagues.

Hers was a jukebox ballet based on the soundtrack of her childhood, which she said in a video was a best-of-the-decades CD collection her mother played in the car.

Dressed in stylized black, white, and red bathing suits by Christine Darch (later paired with skirts or pants), the cast of eight dancers performed another dynamic piece. Vignettes were set to “Under the Boardwalk,” “Little Bitty Pretty One,” “Danke Schoen,” and others.

One off-note was when the lighting matched up to the “flash, bam” in “Orange Colored Sky,” a cliché in an otherwise polished piece.

The program opened with the revival of Nicolo Fonte’s Steep Drop, Euphoric, which starts with a dancer held high above the group and then dropped (as if on a theme park ride) into the piece. From there, it’s full speed ahead to music by Ezio Bosso.

An interesting section has a dancer exploring the boundaries of a piece of Marley (a.k.a. vinyl dance flooring) hanging from the ceiling that she could roll out to move farther across the stage.

This is the second program in BalletX’s new home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, after many years across the street at the Wilma. Last time I found it less intimate. This time it made more sense, given the larger cast (the company is up to 16 dancers) and the pieces that easily filled out the stage.

Next up, BalletX, though, moves to an even larger space, its spring home at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in May. I’ve been looking forward to that since a section of Maslow’s Peak premiered last March. A full-length ballet based on Lord of the Flies seems improbable, but the preview was exceptional.

📅 Through Sunday, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 💵 $25-$85, 📞 215-225-5389 x250, 📧 [email protected]