In one top-notch evening, four Philadanco choreographers revisit their work

With the wisdom of years, are you satisfied with your earlier work?

That’s what Philadanco founder and artistic adviser Joan Myers Brown asked four choreographers who frequently make dances for the company.

Ray Mercer and Tommie-Waheed Evans, both resident choreographers with the company, opted to make new works. Rennie Harris and Milton Myers revisited previous pieces.

Myers’ piece was from 1987. Harris’ was more recent, from 2019.

Many of the dancers had been hired in the last couple of years, but the technique and range was top notch. This was a program that any top ballet company might have performed — emphasizing that in 2023, despite some hiring efforts, dance is in America is still highly segregated.

Last weekend’s program at the Perelman, called “Moving … Beyond Forward,” was one of the company’s best.

It opened with Ray Mercer’s Balance of Power. Mercer, who performs in The Lion King, is one of the longest performing dancers on Broadway. For his piece, he commissioned a pulsating original score by Bongi Duma, his Broadway castmate.

His dancers looked fantastic in every way. In the beginning, a group of men present a woman overhead before dropping her in a breathtaking movement. The men in particular did not always synchronize their movements, but the dancing was fast and powerful. Even the lighting, by Nick Kolin, was special, making their skin glow.

But the best was a bit of theatrical magic: In a flash of movement, the women removed the men’s purple-lined blazers and put them on themselves. Seconds later, the men spun the women and wore their blazers again.

Myers revisited his The Element in Which It Takes Place, a take on The Rite of Spring, he said in a postshow chat. Set to music by Philip Glass and Meredith Monk, it’s impressive for its range of dance, from ballet to movements from various African styles. Myers didn’t change the dance based on new knowledge, he said. Rather, he reworked the rituals for a new generation of dancers and their talents.

Harris’ F-E-A-R, set to music by the Cinematic Orchestra, is a piece for the women of the company and is about an unknown threat. In 2019, it seemed it could be police brutality. This time in the program notes, he explains that it is an acronym for “false events appearing real” and that what you think is not necessarily true and that every movement in street dance has an underlying politic, economic, or social narrative. Whatever the threat, the emotions are palpable, and it’s a relief when lighter movements cut the tension and the dancers audibly let out their breath.

Evans’ piece, Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth, was dedicated to the memory of Philadelphia dance pioneer Debora Chase Hicks, who died in 2019, and was dynamic and highly virtuosic. Set to a sound design by Connor Lemon, it has the men performing huge leaps across the stage and fast series of pirouettes. The dancers do hop turns across the stage and then lift an arm to the sky, like the opening of Balanchine’s Serenade.

This is the sort of work that won Brown a rare second National Medal of Arts last month. In 2012, President Obama awarded her an individual honor. This time, President Biden selected the International Association of Blacks in Dance, which Brown founded, for a medal.