3 world premieres at Wilma
BalletX's fall program saves best for last, by a maturing Matthew Neenan.
Three world-premiere ballets, each 15 to 20 minutes long, with two intermissions. Would that be enough dance to fill an evening?
Instead of going by in a snap, two-thirds of BalletX's fall program dragged at Thursday's opening at the Wilma Theater. Happily, the final piece - Matthew Neenan's aptly named Last of the Year - was fun, light, quick, and joyful, and ended the evening on an up note.
Meredith Rainey's They Break and Alex Ketley's Silt suffer from the same problem: lack of composition. There are interesting elements in each, but the ballets do not flow naturally from one section to another.
On the same night that TV's Project Runway was strutting through its season finale, the Wilma's stage lights went up on They Break to show bare-chested men in cement-colored skirts and women in matching dresses. What would Heidi say? But the movement of the fabric was alluring during fast turns, evoking ocean waves.
Rainey takes risks in They Break, and sometimes they pay off, as when dancers jump and leap into one another's arms. But there were missteps as well: Anitra Keegan and Bradley Schlagheck got arms and legs tangled in a partnering move on opening night, and the usually strong Tara Keating fell off pointe twice early in the piece.
While They Break recalls waves, Silt explores the idea of erosion. Its strength is in the deconstruction of duets, slowing down and breaking apart movements. But when they aren't performing, the dancers sit in the background on folding chairs, looking a bit bored.
Neenan knows what looks good on his company, and he proves it once again with Last of the Year, a celebration of some of his classical favorites, Vivaldi, Schubert, and Borodin. It is filled with his signature elements: Dancers swivel their hips, play with scenery, explore balance, drag one another across the stage, and perform unexpected, witty movements.
But Neenan has matured as a choreographer. While his earlier works were packed with pet moves and jokes, recent ballets, including this one, are better at timing surprises within a more straightforward classical vocabulary.
BalletX is still a young company, hiring dancers as available for individual projects. This time it has quite a few impressive new ones, including alumni of American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet, and Boston Ballet. Particularly striking were Jennifer Goodman, all fluidity and passion, and Colby Damon, who bursts with stage-filling energy.