BalletX revisits the greatest hits from its first decade. It left the audience wanting for more.
At 20, the company is always pushing its new work. But its older pieces, which should be showcased more, remain a delight.
BalletX opened the first week of its two-part 20th anniversary celebration Wednesday night at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, and its obvious growth was on full display.
The company’s journey started with cofounder Matthew Neenan’s 2006 Frequencies set to “Cathedrals,” by Jump Little Children. The piece was originally danced by Neenan, artistic director Christine Cox, and now associate artistic director Tara Keating. With its premiere back in 2006, the company established its signature choreography, clean lines, and beautiful music.
Wednesday’s program revisiting the company’s oeuvre started with Frequencies, which features mostly pedestrian steps and soft patterns across the stage with the dancers (Ashley Simpson, Ben Schwarz, and Lanie Jackson on Wednesday) in simple costumes and angel wings. It is classic early Neenan, with shuffling movements, port de bras, and experiments with balance.
Thereon, through the evening, we see his work, as well as that of the company, develop in front of us.
Neenan has three works in the program, including 2007’s Die Menschheit, set to music by Mozart and the 2014 Sunset, o639 Hours, his first full-length work, which was a breakout piece for both Neenan and BalletX. With original music by Rosie Langabeer and Andrew Mars (originally played live on stage), it is a rich tapestry with a solid storyline, many genres of dance, colorful costumes, and heart.
Only some of that came out in the short excerpt on Wednesday, but it was clearly the turning point of the program.
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Another highlight of the program was Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Still@Life, set to music by Bach. Lopez Ochoa now works all over the world, and in 2019 premiered her full-length The Little Prince with BalletX. But in 2008, she came to the company with a quirky idea about still-life paintings and a bunch of green apples and made a charming piece that was hard to forget and still resonates.
Nicolo Fonte’s 2013 Beautiful Decay, set to “Old Skin” by Ólafur Arnalds and Amór Dan, is another strong piece, although it looked very different in 2025 without the “decay” part.
It originally featured a guest older dancer moving slowly alongside the younger troupe, for a meaningful look at the value of aging. This time, only the company dancers performed, but it was still beautiful. One original dancer from the piece, Skyler Lubin, is still in the company and repeated her role.
It’s interesting to see how BalletX was on the ground floor of so many choreographers’ careers, hiring Jorma Elo, Jodie Gates, Edward Liang, and others, early in their successful careers.
It’s also fun to see the dancers’ quick changes from piece to piece (there were 10 on the first decade’s program), although most of the costumes were much simpler in the early days, and the cast switched frequently.
There were quite a few pauses for changes, and some video interviews talking about BalletX over the ages.
BalletX is so determined to keep pushing forward new work that it doesn’t often repeat previous pieces. It has a vault full of delights, many of which didn’t make the cut for the two-week retrospective. Most of the present troupe of dancers never performed the work presented this week. It would be great to see the company rework and refine older pieces more often as well as creating new choreography.
BalletX 20th anniversary retrospective. “Program A: The first decade,” through Nov. 2. “Program B: The second decade,” Nov. 5-9. Suzanne Roberts Theatre. $65-$90, 215-225-5389 x250 or boxoffice@balletx.org