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Ballet X at Wilma's DanceBoom!

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2 minute read
Something old, something new

LEWIS WHITTINGTON

Two out of three of “DanceBOOM!” programs presented strong work.

Matthew Neenan and Christine Cox look backward and forward in their repertory as their chamber company, Ballet X, takes up permanent residency at the Wilma Theater. Two works from their previous small company, Phrenic New Ballet, were revived, and a ’70s novelty radio mix was the unsubtle premiere.

Die Menschheit, Neenan’s 2002 piece for eight dancers, scored to Mozart, showcases his formalism, straightforward and skewered. He introduces the troupe’s theatricality with perfectly appointed group jêtés to claim their classical turf, then contrasts it with the immediate intimacy of duets that demonstrate Ballet X’s wiliness to flaunt and flout any balletic training. The musicality in the work is illuminated by Neenan’s inventive phrasing, which naturally blooms and evolves.

Cox and Neenan traded off styles for I Like You Different, using rhythm-and-blues hit songs hits with witty but very fragmented results, which made the piece look under-rehearsed. But who cares, because there was Jermel Johnson’s great solo to Sly Stone’s If You Want Me to Stay, throwing heel-to-head back kicks, explosive layouts, and landing somersaults in a split.

Frequencies is an early Neenan work, and like his Mozart piece will remain a company classic. It’s still choreographically fresh, both because of its solid structure and its introduction of what are by now Neenan signatures: unspooling, liberated spins that let the dancers revel in their body velocity, decorated poses, heel chassés, and fanning port de bra.

The radiant ballerina Amy Aldridge’s solo made it look like her hardwiring was short-circuiting en pointe, and Francis Veyette powerfully lunged forward with his arm splayed out like he was receiving code. The fabric dance now precedes the fleshy tether group dance Neenan used to great effect in Carmina Burana earlier this year. All this builds to the ending cupid tableau, with Neenan, Cox and Tara Keating’s pansexual humanity scored to the cathartic ballad Cathedrals. Neenan’s yawning, scratching and fluttering angels break out in iconic friezes.

For the second year, curator Terry Fox brought together some unlikely programming including the rarities in her “Motion Pictures” film series. As usual, DanceBOOM! pleases and confounds, depending on your personal taste, but Fox continues to establish an aesthetically relaxed and accessible festival environment— a key ingredient for artists and audiences.


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