BalletX brings together Matthew Neenan’s old and new works to celebrate its 20th anniversary
For many years, BalletX was a laboratory for company cofounder Neenan, as he developed his artistry and gained notoriety. The company is dancing a program of his work this week.
BalletX is celebrating its 20th anniversary this season. So, of course, it had to honor its cofounder, who has gone on to do big things.
Matthew Neenan was an up-and-coming choreographer when he and Christine Cox, both dancers at Philadelphia Ballet (then called Pennsylvania Ballet) decided to start a company in 2006. It wasn’t their first attempt.
In 2000, there was Phrenic New Ballet, a company Cox and Neenan formed with another colleague, Amanda Miller, as well filmmaker Tobin Rothlein. But there were too many cooks in the kitchen, so the pairs went their own ways.
For many years, BalletX was a laboratory for Neenan, as he developed his artistry and gained recognition, working with major troupes around the country. When his freelance choreography took off, he quietly left his BalletX duties but remained close with Cox, who regularly presents his work.
BalletX’s spring season, which opened Wednesday at the Suzanne Roberts Theater, was an all-Neenan program. It featured two works from his rise as a choreographer as well as a world premiere.
» READ MORE: At 20, BalletX is nowhere near done bringing the most exciting new ballet and choreography to Philly
Two of his pieces included live music played on stage, which is always a treat.
Neenan’s choreography leans a little more into the classical than most of BalletX’s works. Two of the pieces on Wednesday had at least some pointe work.
The world premiere ballet is Squares. Neenan and composer Scott Ordway said in a video played before the piece that it was the result of a joke between them. Neither tends to create abstract work, so they talked about a piece that leaned heavily into dance and music without a narrative, using mostly patterns and gestures. They talked it into reality with Squares.
Despite an industrial-looking set (a bare stage with a large square hanging from the ceiling), the piece is beautiful and still very balletic, drawing from the colors and shapes of classical dance, especially the corps de ballet work in which dancers move from one formation into the next. The costumes are lovely pastel tank tops and pants designed by Karen Young. Ordway plays the electronic score live on stage.
The program opened with Neenan’s Show Me, originally choreographed for the Vail Dance Festival in 2015. For this, he was inspired by recordings of the quartet Brooklyn Rider, and another quartet played live on stage.
The program notes say Neenan choreographed it with the dancers’ personalities and physical prowess in mind. While most of the company’s current dancers are new since the piece premiered, they jumped right in and the piece looked like it was set on them.
Neenan’s Broke Apart premiered at the 2006 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, when the company was young. Cox, Neenan, and associate artistic director Tara Keating were among the original cast. Here, sections of a ballet barre have many uses. They are props for dancers to move, throw, hurdle, and play with, as well as employing them as scenery, to evoke rooms or doorways.
The spring season is nearly sold out, but BalletX will be back on a Philadelphia stage in June at the Highmark Mann Center for what looks intriguing: a new version of The Four Seasons.
BalletX spring series. Through March 22. Suzanne Roberts Theater. $55-$90, 215-225-5389 x250 or boxoffice@balletx.org