As BalletX\u2019s 2016-17 Choreographic Fellow, Tommie-Waheed Evans hasn\u2019t had a commissioning opportunity quite like this before. He has spent substantial time with the company\u2019s versatile dancers, all eager to dive into every experiment he suggests. There\u2019s also the pressure of premiering his work before BalletX\u2019s audiences for this two-week series. But Evans feels well-supported. His mentor, the seasoned Munich-based choreographer Cayetano Soto, challenged him in an email exchange to express how he was really feeling. After facing various fears about this choreographic process, Soto helped Evans go forward confidently with his unusual inspiration.<\/p>\n
The work of video artist Bill Viola focuses dramatically on the elements\u2014earth, air, water, fire\u2014and on birth and death, so it\u2019s not easy source material for a ballet. Evans isn\u2019t interested in creating anything that replicates Viola\u2019s visual world, though. Instead he\u2019s realized that what touches him deepest in Viola\u2019s work is how it renders extreme suffering, and reveals how that intense experience may transform into something of beauty. So Evans envisions his new work, In between the passing…, similarly building in intensity and then transforming.<\/p>\n
In rehearsal the BalletX dancers launch into a series of duets and solos that powerfully draw out the strengths and character of each person. Evans gave initial phrase material and asked each dancer to craft their own version inflected by words like \u201cweight,\u201d \u201cinvisibility\u201d or \u201cunpredictability.\u201d One dives into the floor, another is electric with tensile strength. In a group, they turn liquid and later earthy, with some Drake sounds slipped into the sound mix. Using urban sounds is crucial to Evans; it charges up the dancers.<\/p>\n
Evans himself was a knockout dancer in Philadanco for 13 years, and has made works on a range of companies. Still, he wasn\u2019t sure how what he calls the \u201cAfricanistic quality\u201d in his choreography would sit with the BalletX dancers. They\u2019ve taken fully to its polyrhythms, repeating pulses and sometimes low center of gravity.<\/p>\n
The question Soto asked Evans \u2013 \u201cHow do you really feel?\u201d — informed the development of Soto\u2019s Schachmatt (\u201ccheckmate\u201d in German). Initially asked to make something 10 minutes long and funny, Soto later felt it wanted to be something bigger. Expanded in 2016, the piece still has plenty of playfulness\u2014cartoonish stylizations and clever two-dimensional passages. But it finishes with a softer, tender ending. Along the way we hear hot Latin brass, a plaintive French chanteuse, and much in between.<\/p>\n
The Last Glass by Matthew Neenan is a company favorite, having played at The Joyce Theater and Vail International Dance Festival after its 2010 Philly premiere. It\u2019s a feast of dance, some en pointe, with a procession of duets and solos in diverse moods. Set to an appealing score by the indie band Beirut, it\u2019s a fitting end to the arc that BalletX\u2019s directors were aiming for\u2014one where we, the audience, leave feeling enriched and perhaps challenged, but certainly complete.<\/p>\n
By Lisa Kraus, Dance Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the Spring Series 2017 Program Note by Lisa Kraus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-ballet","category-program-notes"],"acf":[],"cp_meta_data":{"_edit_lock":["1592517565:5"],"_edit_last":["5"],"_thumbnail_id":["5948"],"slide_template":["default"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["218"],"filter_category":[""],"_filter_category":["field_575000bf40f4b"],"show_donate_baletx_banner":["0"],"_show_donate_baletx_banner":["field_573341c2d686c"],"show_slider_revolution":["0"],"_show_slider_revolution":["field_578755a04f37f"],"slider_revolution_short-code":[""],"_slider_revolution_short-code":["field_578752fb40ad0"],"top_show_dates":[""],"_top_show_dates":["field_576bb0c8af8e4"],"show_dates_period":[""],"_show_dates_period":["field_576bb0c8afcb8"],"numbers_of_premiers":[""],"_numbers_of_premiers":["field_576bb0c8b00d5"],"show_choreographers":[""],"_show_choreographers":["field_576bb0c8b0475"],"page_show_dancers_all":[""],"_page_show_dancers_all":["field_576bb0c8b0848"],"show_schedule_title":[""],"_show_schedule_title":["field_576bb0c8b0fe4"],"show_sidebar_rows":[""],"_show_sidebar_rows":["field_576bb0c8b1375"],"show_sidebar_tickets_title":[""],"_show_sidebar_tickets_title":["field_576bb0c8b1745"],"show_sidebar_tickets_description":[""],"_show_sidebar_tickets_description":["field_576bb0c8b1b34"],"show_sidebar_tickets_link":[""],"_show_sidebar_tickets_link":["field_576bb0c8b1ee1"],"show_sidebar_video_title":[""],"_show_sidebar_video_title":["field_576bb0c8b22b7"],"show_sidebar_video_link":[""],"_show_sidebar_video_link":["field_576bb0c8b2684"],"show_colaborators_section_title":[""],"_show_colaborators_section_title":["field_57767382e42fa"],"show_colaborators_cart":[""],"_show_colaborators_cart":["field_576bb0c8b2e6f"],"show_sponsors_section_title":[""],"_show_sponsors_section_title":["field_57767127e4dee"],"show_mobile_sponsors_carousel":[""],"_show_mobile_sponsors_carousel":["field_576bb0c8b35ed"],"show_this_event_as_featured":[""],"_show_this_event_as_featured":["field_5799c6d329b15"],"_eael_post_view_count":["1305"],"_elementor_page_assets":["a:0:{}"]},"yoast_head":"\n