BalletX’s ‘Maslow’s Peak’ promises a spectacular ‘Lord of the Flies’ ballet next year

Almost anything can be a ballet, but it doesn’t mean it should be.

A Lord of the Flies ballet? That sounded like a stretch.

Yet when BalletX opened its spring season Wednesday night at the Wilma Theater, it performed the world premiere of Jennifer Archibald’s Maslow’s Peak. It is an excerpt of a full-length Lord of the Flies show the company will be performing next year.

If this exceptional preview piece is representative of what’s to come, it’s going to be a highlight of next year’s dance offerings.

» READ MORE: 10 spring performances our dance critic is most excited for

This section is about enlightenment, and Archibald set her piece to a mix of music by Federico Albanese, Armand Amar, and others.

The theater nearly vibrates with music and movement. The dancers, in skirted black costumes, dance in socks and never stop moving. They’re lifted upside down, they’re sliding on the ground on their knee-padded legs, they pop up in various directions in group dances. In one section where they might have been still, their hands keep pulsating open and closed. They never waste a beat of the music, and it’s exciting.

If Archibald’s piece was a book, Nicola Wills’ was a movie. Wills was this year’s BalletX choreographic fellow and Archibald her mentor. Wills, an Australian dancer with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Belgium, had never choreographed outside her own company, but she presented a fully realized piece in Two People in Love Never Shake Hands, set to music by Ab Ovo, Sol and Luna, Josep Beving, and an original composition by Adam Vincent Clarke. Part of the score was recorded plus a string quartet played on stage.

This was the eighth year of the fellowship and Wills’ stylish piece is the most memorable. With all the drama and glamour of old Hollywood, it’s the story of two people — Lanie Jackson and Jared Kelly — who find each other in a sea of prospects and how their relationship develops.

There are a number of clever moments, from Kelly wandering around with a bouquet of flowers, searching for the one, to him swiping left and right on people right in front of him. When he finally gets together with Jackson, a pair of matchmakers strip off their formal clothes for an intimate scene, even removing Jackson’s pointe shoes.

The program of all female choreographers also included the revival of former Philadelphia Ballet dancer Jodie Gates’ 2017 ballet Beautiful Once, a piece that is beautiful still. In a short film before the piece, Gates said she reworked the piece, set to music by Ryan Lott, based on the current crop of dancers. An abstract piece about community, relationships, love, and loss, it is a vision in gray Martha Chamberlain costumes, beautiful pools of light, clean lines, skids on pointe, big tricks, and clean technique.

BalletX regularly sells out the Wilma. Its next outing will be in April at the Mann, which has seats to spare. But it’s worth looking for tickets early next season for Archibald’s Lord of the Flies.

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