BalletX

July 21-25, $30, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., 215-546-7824, balletx.org.

by Julia Askenase

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Jul 14, 2010

Bill Hebert

dance

For its fifth birthday, BalletX is celebrating the best way it knows how: by mashing up traditional technique and experimental choreography. It's fitting, then, that co-artistic director Matthew Neenan drew sonic inspiration from the indie band Beirut, whose antique, cross-cultural influences — from Balkan folk and French chanson to Mexican funeral dirge — blur the lines between foreign nostalgia and modern American pop. Neenan will première The Last Glass, a theatrical piece he choreographed to eight Beirut songs, feeding off the band's lush sentimentality with jumps and high-energy ensemble dancing. "The piece is about our daily life struggle," says Neenan. "There's a lot of sadness and darkness, but we've got to strive and move on."

Look Who's Talking
DesignLab
PlayPenn
Hallucinating History
Off the Cuffs
Silkscreen: A Universal Tool of Justice
Kaleidoscope
Can't Afford the Freeway