BalletX opens its fall series with a lush program and fresh faces

BalletX is 18, “and it’s going to college,” artistic director Christine Cox joked Wednesday night before the curtain went up on the fall series at the Wilma Theater.

Like a freshly minted adult, it looks more mature. There are more dancers — 15, including two dance fellows; each piece now has two casts, so everyone can have a chance. Among the new faces, there is a familiar one: Peter Weil has moved over from Philadelphia Ballet, where he was a soloist.

The three pieces on this season’s program seemed lush with movement.

This was especially true in Jamar Roberts’ Eros & Psyche, a co-commission with the Vail Dance Festival, where the piece had its world premiere in August. A string quartet and a pianist played Philip Glass music on a very full stage with the dancers.

Here we get the first glimpse of Francesca Forcella, who has been with BalletX for 10 years, and Jerard Palazo (along with Ashley Simpson and a few others) moving into the most prominent roles. Palazo was new last season and hadn’t gotten his moment. But here he and Forcella looked ready to take on whatever BalletX’s many guest choreographers throw at them.

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Wearing leotards that look like stained glass (designed by Christine Darch) and set against a blue-lit stage (lighting by Michael Korsch), they danced a controlled, sleek, and stunning duet that showed off their rippling muscles.

When the whole group came on stage, the dancers moved as if through water, pushing their arms, sliding into positions, giving an illusion of deeper movement, even on a stage that was quite crowded.

If Roberts’ beautiful piece was a blue ballet, BalletX cofounder Matthew Neenan presented a red one in his world premiere, Siete.

He, too, used live music, a series of guitar pieces composed and played on stage by Michael Poll. The costumes were again by Darch: flamenco pants with a stripe down the side and a sheer red matador-type top with fringe on one arm.

As the name suggests, it’s a suite of Spanish-style dances for seven dancers. In formations, often with their backs to the audience, they danced in simple but effective stomping and lunging steps, pulsating to the guitar, calling to mind Balanchine’s famous quote, “see the music, hear the dance.”

All the dancers got their moments, but my favorite was Savannah Green, with her quick arched-back jumps, nearly kicking her head.

Philadelphia doesn’t get as many new Neenan ballets as it used to. He cofounded BalletX with Cox and for many years was choreographer in residence at Philadelphia Ballet. Now he is in high demand with companies around the United States. So it was interesting to see how his work matured. Most of his trademark movements that had become a trope are gone and his work is far more varied and sophisticated.

The program also includes Jennifer Archibald’s Exalt, which BalletX premiered in 2022 at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. Back then, in the larger theater, on a dark night, it had been hard to see the details, but in the more intimate Wilma, it shone. Set to a soundscape of house music by a variety of artists, it was the one piece of the night in pointe shoes.

Here, the men wore skirts, the women wore pleather and the movement was a party.

It’s also a great reminder that ballet is a style that works as well with modern music (and dancers from diverse backgrounds) as it does with the European masters. For all the resistance to change from the ballet community, the art form is easily adaptable.

BalletX fall series. Through Oct. 29, 2023. Wilma Theater, 265 S Broad St., Phila. balletx.org