BalletX presents 'Summer Series' 2018: Penny Saunders, Matthew Neenan, Andrew McNicol (first review)

Foremost among BalletX’s strengths are the caliber and range of its 11 dancers, who skillfully extend themselves across works in various tones and movement styles. Additionally, the company commits to performing to live music whenever possible, and I love that dancers take turns writing program notes for each performance.

As dancer Andrea Yorita’s notes observe, each work in the Summer Series is quite distinct. All three are world premieres: Andrew McNicol’s "Requiem," Matthew Neenan’s "Situated," and Penny Saunders’s "Rock-a-Bye."

Finishing "Requiem"

The performance opened with "Requiem," created by choreographic fellow Andrew McNicol. McNicol characterized the piece as an exploration of loss and remembrance, and Yorita described it even more clearly as bearing witness to one person’s journey through losing a loved one.

The dance is set to portions of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem in D Minor, and newcomer Stanley Glover performed the role of the bereaved. He capably rose to the task and was well paired with Francesca Forcella, who danced the lost love.

In one scene, she balanced on Glover’s leg during a duet. In another, Glover watched Forcella walk away from him, slowly and deliberately, as her exquisitely pointed toes created an image of powerful elegance.

McNicol’s sculptural arrangements of bodies were often beautiful and sometimes moving. For instance, "Requiem" began with 10 dancers prone onstage, their bodies rolling and writhing like a sea of human feeling. Figures occasionally rose and fell as if riding waves of emotion, until one, Glover, was lifted above them, becoming the central figure in the loose narrative.

Mark Eric’s artfully draped costumes were a highlight; neutral tones of grey and nude evoked the timelessness of the work's themes. The white of Glover’s and Forcella’s costumes both distinguished their roles and recalled one of the colors of mourning.

Take a seat

Neenan’s "Situated" followed, performed to live piano accompaniment by eight dancers with chairs (by the time it ended, the Wilma’s air conditioning had finally kicked in). This piece contained humorous moments, such as a recurring sequence of dancers bouncing while seated in the chairs, as if taking a bumpy bus ride.

Neenan made inventive use of the chairs, in which the dancers moved, constantly shifting configurations. Caili Quan walked across a line of chairs, and then dancers removed individual chairs from a pile in a scene resembling a game of Jenga.

Yet "Situated" did not quite cohere. Its strongest section, a romantic duet for Roderick Phifer and Daniel Mayo, used no chairs, and the costumes resembled ill-fitting pajamas. Nevertheless, the whimsy of "Situated" offset the gravity of "Requiem," and it afforded the dancers the chance to show their range.

Shaped by fate

The program concluded with "Rock-a-Bye," the evening’s most interesting piece. In her first work for BalletX, choreographer Penny Saunders created an exploration of family and fate in collaboration with composer and musician Rosie Langabeer.

"Rock-a-Bye" is ambitious and evocative, if not always clearly articulated. It began with Quan, who danced the role of Fate, standing alone before a curtain. The hands of other dancers reached under the curtain to create gestures and shapes.

Next, the curtain rose to reveal a set designed by You-Shin Chen suggestive of a domestic scene, including a kitchen table and backdrop with hanging pots and pans. The musicians — Langabeer, Tara Middleton, and Gregg Mervine — sat at the far end of the table. Their original score incorporated expressive lyrics about mothers, children, and time. Musical features ranged from ethereal to earthy, such as the sounds of crickets chirping and a whisk scraping a mixing bowl.

"Rock-a-Bye" captured lives and relationships shaped by fate as dancers took turns lifting and spinning each other on a grassy-looking rug. Quan alternately observed and controlled other dancers, seeming to bring them together and then drive them apart.

Her sinuous arm and hip movements appeared to form a romance between Glover and Yorita. Later, Quan performed a mirror duet with Yorita, which Chloe Perkes interrupted. When Yorita danced away from them, she seemed to fight for control. The piece ended with Yorita taking the place at the head of the table under Quan’s watchful eye.

Yorita wrote in the program, “You never know what you’re going to get when you come to see a BalletX performance.” This is true, and the variety that signifies a willingness to stretch and take risks makes the company fresh and interesting.

The Summer Series showcases these qualities and offers audiences the chance to see terrific dancing and creative risk-taking, including beautiful design and poignant human architecture. However, the program was not quite as strong as that memorable Spring Series earlier this year.

To read Camille Bacon-Smith's review, click here.