BalletX at the Mann: Great dancing but not equally great views

Last June, BalletX put a first toe back on stage after more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Their first performance was at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, where they would be safely outdoors but could have a sizable audience and finally premiere some works that had been put on hold.

It was so successful that BalletX and the Mann decided to make it a longer-term partnership.

Wednesday night, BalletX opened at the Mann, the start of a three-year residency.

It’s wonderful seeing the company on a larger stage with breezes blowing in, and the dancers seem to get better all the time. But some of the pieces chosen would have worked better in the intimate Wilma Theater, where the company usually performs. The Mann location worked well for bigger, bolder dancing and costumes, but it was harder to see the details in other works.

Also, seats closer to the stage do not offer better views. There, the slope of the audience is such that it can be hard to see the dancers’ feet, which is integral to watching ballet.

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Midnight Circus opened the performance, and it was one of those that would’ve worked better in the Wilma. Set to music by Manuel Wandji and Hugues Le Bars, Lopez Ochoa described this world premiere in the program notes as a vaudevillian affair with a Cubist flair. And it was delightful.

But even from my seat about a third of the way back, it was hard to see whether the dancers were on pointe or flat or even identify any of them. Lopez Ochoa generally does inventive work, but it was hard to discern all the details.

Most entertaining was Shawn Cusseaux as the ringmaster, whose part hearkened back to another Lopez Ochoa role for BalletX, the snake in The Little Prince. Here, Cusseaux was also sleek and long-limbed, taking charge of the rest of the scene.

Some of the dancers were like the dolls in Nutcracker, intentionally mechanical characters dancing the roles they were programmed to do. At times, the dancers were like cogs in a machine, acting and reacting to each other, while Cusseaux directed.

The costumes and especially the makeup would’ve shown up better in the black box Wilma Theater.

Matthew Neenan’s The Last Glass, which the company cofounder choreographed for BalletX in 2010, is a company favorite. It feels something like a companion piece to the Lopez Ochoa. Set to music by the indie band Beirut, Neenan’s scene is a circus-like look at city life, with its characters, costumes, and activity. Andrea Yorita is the main character here, someone who sometimes participates in the wild street life but often seems removed and saddened from the raucous world around here.

An older piece, it had many of the signature Neenan moves that he no longer includes in every ballet: walking on heels, swooping arms movements, deep plies.

The evening ended with Jennifer Archibald’s world premiere, Exalt, set to a soundscape of music by numerous artists. This piece could’ve been put on the same program with Hans van Manen’s Grosse Fuge, which Philadelphia Ballet danced last week at the Academy of Music. Here, too, the men were bare chested and in long black skirts, and the dancers performed sleek, lovely, highly athletic movements.

The black costumes on a dark stage in the evening air made the details hard to see at times. This bolder piece works well on the Mann stage, but more contrast in the lighting would have helped.

BalletX seems to get better with every outing, rising to the occasion of whatever a choreographer asks of them. This larger theater demands just the right programming.

With the Mann’s lovely bucolic setting, it was nice to arrive with a picnic dinner and casual clothes, though some took the more relaxed atmosphere too far. A number of audience members were taking photos and videoing throughout the performance, which is disturbing to both dancers and fellow theatergoers. The Mann should control this.

BalletX

Thursday at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. $25-$45. balletx.org or 215-225-5389 x250.