BalletX celebrates female choreographers

Girls and women dominate ballet classes. Yet nearly all the positions of power in the dance world - choreographers and company directors - are filled by men.

This is true in other female-oriented pursuits as well. Cooking and fashion come to mind. But ballet is so seeped in estrogen - with its pink satin and tulle, princes and fairies - that it's even more curious.

With that in mind, BalletX decided to devote its summer season to female choreographers. Yet even though a woman, Christine Cox, is one of the company's directors (Matthew Neenan is the other), it proved difficult to fill the bill.

That's why "I'm on the program nine months pregnant," Cox said during a discussion with the audience following Wednesday's opening-night performance at the Wilma Theater. Her due date is Sunday.

The performance - with world premieres by Cox, Helen Pickett, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa - made the dearth of female choreographers seem even more absurd: All three pieces were creative, musical, meaningful and fun. And aside from Cox's theme - romantic relationships, which are often addressed by men as well - nothing about any of the pieces suggested the gender of the choreographer.

BalletX - whose goal is to create modern ballets steeped in classical tradition - is ending its first year as the Wilma's resident dance company and has signed on for three more. Wednesday's performance, as well as most of the other work we've seen in the past year, offers great promise of what Philadelphia audiences can expect in the future.

Lopez Ochoa gets the award for producing the work I'll remember years from now. The Colombian Belgian choreographer created

Still@Life

after a visit to the Sistine Chapel; in it she traces Michelangelo's work, from his monochromatic sculptures to his creation of the brilliantly painted chapel ceiling. The dancers begin, black-clothed, as pieces of sculpture, then are transformed in bursts of color.

This could seem deep and serious - except the piece is invaded by green apples from another painting (program notes say Lopez Ochoa "never really understood the beauty of still life"), which dancers pass from mouth to mouth, toss to one another, and bowl across the stage. The movement is mostly classical jumps and lifts, but one trio mostly comprised small movements and sounds made by the dancers.

Cox's work is a light, fun, jazzy piece about singleness called

Numb Roads

, a revision of a 2001 piece she did for

Shut Up and Dance,

set to trip-hop songs by Portishead. Pickett's

Union

is a thought-provoking look at the art of building - from classical to modern and folk-dance movements, animal calls to more melodic music, and nearly nude dancers to costumed - all set to an original score by her brother-in-law, Bernd Sippel.