Stick a feather in your cap, BalletX’s summer series is a wild, wonderful ride

Just over two weeks ago, BalletX announced that one of its longtime admirers, former Penn professor Joan DeJean, had left the company a gift of $7.4 million before her death.

It seems impossibly quick for the troupe to have made noticeable strides, but when it opened its summer series Wednesday night at the Wilma Theater, the dancers seemed to have risen to the occasion.

This series is one of the most delightful, well-balanced programs the company has presented, featuring three world premieres that show off different aspects of the dancers’ talents.

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The evening opened with Suite No. 46, Op. 1, by Amy Hall Garner, the company’s choreographer in residence. Garner has gotten a lot of attention lately, making work for Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, Miami City Ballet, and in May, for the 75th anniversary of New York City Ballet. It’s easy to see why she is on the rise. Her piece, set to music by Vivaldi and Bach and played live on stage by a string quartet and pianist, is perhaps the most classical piece this contemporary ballet company has performed.

But it was lovely and soothing, with dancers in brightly colored costumes performing mostly playful duets and solos, and geometrically patterned group sections. It is a piece any of the top ballet companies could have looked good performing and BalletX, at 18, has matured to be able to dance nearly anything.

Belgian choreographer Stina Quagebeur’s Everything InBetween, set to an original composition by Jeremy Birchall, is the study of a couple in therapy. Every point they make, every feeling they express is danced — both by the couple, but also by a cast of past selves in similar but more muted blue costumes. Will they stay together? They touch, they pull toward each other, but then another point comes up and another pair shows us what happened.

This is an emotional story ballet where the ending remains open-ended and unresolved. But it is still easy to get wrapped in and to pull for the couple, even though the drama is compelling.

Last month was Pride Month, but BalletX continued the party with the most outrageous, flamboyant fever dream of a ballet that is Loughlan Prior’s Macaroni. Prior, who is resident choreographer at the New Zealand Ballet, made his first piece for BalletX as a dance film during the early days of COVID-19.

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This time he made a weird, wonderful piece partly based on the song “Yankee Doodle” but that mostly seems to have stemmed from whatever rose to the top of his head at the moment. Set to an equally wacky original composition by Claire Cowan, it is based on the idea that in the 18th century, calling a man a macaroni meant he was effeminate and a subject of ridicule. Prior, however, celebrates that idea. His dancers are dressed in fluorescent yellow and black, with bright yellow wigs and feathers (to be stuck in caps).

It is Revolutionary War-era-Philadelphia-meets-Bridgerton-meets-a-period-movie-meets-drag queens and addresses everything from tea time to riding horses, to lawn flamingos and Christmas sweaters. There is a message of acceptance in there, but mostly it is just a wildly entertaining ride. I hope BalletX will bring it back sometime.

Tickets are never easy to come by when BalletX performs at the beautifully intimate Wilma Theater, so try to snatch up whatever is left. Next year the company will be moving to the larger Suzanne Roberts Theatre down the street.

BalletX’s summer series. Through July 21 at the Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. Tickets start at $25. 215-225-5389 x250. balletx.org