Out of Step

DANCE REVIEW: BalletX at the Wilma Theater

by Deni Kasrel

Before the start of BalletX's opening-night performance, co-director Christine Cox announced that two of their dancers got injured during rehearsals. Not exactly good news, except that the unfortunate circumstance left an opening for Matthew Prescott to join in. Prescott was a guest artist with the company last summer, and let me tell you, he's marvelous.

Yet the program proved uneven: The technical expertise was formidable as usual, but certain pieces just didn't hit enough high notes.

Hide, choreographed by UArts grad Lauren Putty, is meant to be about "the disconnection of human interaction in the universe." It's a lofty and all-too-common theme of young dancemakers looking to make profound statements with their art. Putty crafted lots of patterns to keep things busy, but the scenarios demonstrating how we hide emotions and create façades in our interpersonal relationships felt clichéd.

Myra Bazell and Monica Favand's Carry Me is a touching duet portraying parent/child love and role reversal due to illness. I've seen it before and found it elegantly evocative. Cox performed it here with Jennifer Goodman, who replaced an injured dancer. The duo was dramatic to the point of schmaltz, which diminished the emotional impact.

Cox's ambitious X or Y, performed to classical, Latin and Afro-Cuban sounds, offered playful visualizations of the music through body movement. Arms and legs opened and shut, bodies stretched and intermingled while formations appeared and dissipated in step with the aural accompaniment. The result was delightful work with colorful flair.

Thang Dao's graceful, angular One Word Play was another program highlight. Dao intends for it to convey how "we use and manipulate words to construct our identity and power," and while that message was indeed communicated, the piece was abstract enough that you could derive many other meanings, including the notion of trying to grab onto things you can't quite catch.

Wed., April 14, Wilma Theater