X Goes Next Level
Though BalletX has been around since 2005, it seems with this production the company is truly coming into its own.
by Deni Kasrel
City Paper, Published: Nov 7, 2007

Even before anybody danced a step, the atmosphere bristled at BalletX's opening night show. Perhaps the crowd was stoked because the program consisted of three world premières — the good old excitement of the new. Whatever, a charge filled the air, and that sense of stimulation was reciprocated by the dancers who delivered an enthusiastic, well-executed performance that at times elicited audible signs of appreciation from the crowd — ahs, gasps and excited clapping in response to certain movement phrases.

Though BalletX has been around since 2005, it seems with this production the company is truly coming into its own. The roster features erstwhile Pennsylvania Ballet members Christine Cox, Matthew Neenan (the company's co-founders), Heidi Cruz-Austin, Tara Keating and Meredith Rainey; plus Corey Baker, Rosalia Chann, Anitra Nurnberger, Leyland Simmons and Emily Wagner, whose backgrounds include stints with Philadanco, American Repertory Ballet and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. All these outfits demand a high caliber of technique combined with a studious approach to dance and that surely benefits BalletX. All the better to pull off the eclectic choreography for the three premières, each of which placed particular demands on the cast.

Neenan's effervescent Once Again playfully toyed with classical steps to create a soft-textured ballet where one phrase often upended another. Neenan added plenty of twists to formal moves, such as feet tilting askew rather than in the traditional straight line with the leg, and exaggerated échappés (where both legs spring out sideways) that looked like spider-leg quadricep squats. There were even sight gags, such as a woman lying on the floor lazily twirling her finger while being pulled offstage by a male partner.

Cox has said that M.O.M. (My Own Memory) was inspired by her own and her mother's experience with aging. While the pensive work does contain phrases to suggest caregiving, that theme is not necessarily overt. M.O.M. — which occasionally inserts stylings from urban dance clubs — proves a dreamy ode to the passage of time and relationships that occur within that span.

The edgy finale, Risk of Flight by Adam Hougland, started off slow and gradually acquired momentum. A study in contrasts, it was both stark and full-bodied, dissonant and harmonious. The overarching push-pull theme was most fully embodied by a sensational duet by Rainey and Cruz-Austin who portrayed a pair of on-off-on lovers with dramatic brio.

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BalletX succeeds in three premieres
By Ellen Dunkel
For The Inquirer

The beauty of a world premiere is that the steps are custom-created for the dancers you're seeing, meaning they're shown in the best possible light.

That could be why, for the second year in a row, I saw BalletX and wondered: Were the dancers always this good? This time only half the cast of 10 dancers was familiar – from this company and Pennsylvania Ballet. The other five were recent hires, but all looked powerful, both physically and emotionally.

BalletX presented three successful world premieres Thursday night at the Wilma Theater, where it is the resident dance company. Matthew Neenan and Christine Cox, co-artistic directors, each created a piece. The third was commissioned from Adam Hougland, a freelance choreographer who has also worked with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company and Limon Dance Company.

The evening opened with Neenan's Once Again, set to a lush score of trumpet music by Frederic Fasch, Giuseppe Torelli and others. It is a light, lively ballet with plenty of humor: A woman longs for a man, only to push him away at the last minute; one dancer does little massage-type karate chops across a partner's back; a woman lies on her stomach and raises her upper body in a remarkably flexible and stunningly beautiful arch.

Cox's piece, M.O.M.: My Own Memory, takes the audience on an emotional journey through time. Set to hauntingly sad music by Evelyn Glennie, with vocals by Björk and tribal rhythms by Beats Antique, it features Tara Keating as a woman facing a difficult phase of life – dealing with an aging parent. The beginning section is especially beautiful, with the six dancers almost swimming through primordial fluid.

Leyland Simmons was vibrant in his solo, whipping off multiple pirouettes on a flat foot. He and Corey Baker added powerful turns and jumps while remaining sensitive to the otherwise gentle ending.

The deep emotional tug continued in Hougland's Risk of Flight, set to cello music by Zoe Keating. The centerpiece of the dance is an anguished duet for Heidi Cruz-Austin and Meredith Rainey, about a couple on the verge of breaking up. They run to and away from each other, sink all their weight into their partner's arms and brush each other off. Occasionally the movement was difficult to see, though, as the right side of the stage was not well lit.

Nov 3, 2007

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What The Critics Say about BalletX and its Co-founders. . . . .

BalletX's dancers better than ever

BalletX, the Wilma Theater's new 2007-08 artists in residence, staged a lovely coming-out party Wednesday night that raised it from being just some dancers' pet project to the status of contemporary ballet company worth watching.

Both BalletX's artistic directors, Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan, and all its dancers are current or former members of Pennsylvania Ballet. But interestingly, they looked better at the Wilma than they often look dancing with the better-known company.

Part of that is because Neenan - who choreographed all three pieces on the program, one in conjunction with Cox - knows the dancers very well and can cater to their strengths and accommodate their weaknesses.

But even then, BalletX, launched in 2005, looked much stronger than it did in September at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Has Francis Veyette always pulled off multiple pirouettes so easily? Did Amy Aldridge always smile so joyously through most of a performance? Did everyone always attack the steps with such confidence? That last one is a particular sticking point with me, and the dancers seemed far less cautious Wednesday than they sometimes have when performing in the past, whether with BalletX or with Pennsylvania Ballet.

The evening, which launched the closing week of the Wilma's DanceBoom! series, included a world premiere, "I like you different," choreographed by Neenan and Cox. Set to a selection of vocal music by James Brown, Ray Charles, Norah Jones, Nancy Sinatra and others, it's a ballet about many types of relationships, with a good dose of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll stirred in.

My favorite section was a witty duet the artistic directors created for themselves to Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good." Neenan grabbed Cox by one leg, and she trotted along on her hands. He danced a short set of kicks, aiming playfully at her rear. He lifted her, and she almost immediately grew bored and looked at her watch.

But the highlight of the evening was the opening piece, Neenan's 2002 ballet "Die Menscheit," set to Mozart. The clever and sometimes humorous choreography, soothing music, dramatic lighting and gorgeous bodies hit all the right notes in the beautiful theater that will be BalletX's home for the coming year."

Ellen Dunkel
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 15 2007

 

“Neenan stands tall among the current roster of post-Ballanchine American choreographers.  He has set six works on Pennsylvania Ballet, and he and Cox want to fill what they call a void for small ensemble, contemporary ballet.”

“Once Neenan’s About February took over, the evening crackled with bracing inventiveness and variety.  To Lidia Kaminska’s live accordion playing, Cox and Rainey danced with Francis Veyette and other Pennsylvania Ballet colleagues.  Milo Doi-Smith injected elegance with her long, trailing limbs and spiraling torso.” 

“Swirling on her heels in ballet slippers, Tara Keating brought an “April in Paris” giddiness to the scene.  Staying in the same romantically playful vein, Laura Bowman and Jermel Johnson sought to join or break up dancing couples who were oblivious to them.” 

            - Pointe (December 2005/January 2006)

 

“Matt Neenan and Christine Cox, disbanded their five-year old Phrenic Ballet recently to form a new venture. They call it BalletX. The company was introduced at the Arts Bank this week to an enthusiastic full house. There were only two works on the program -a great way to focus attention. One dance was by London-based choreographer David Fielding, the other was Neenan's.

“Fielding's Easy Living, is a fascinating working out of physical space set to Steve Reich's perpetual-motion score Electric Counterpoint. The seven dancers, most of whom also dance with Pennsylvania Ballet - performed its abstract motions smartly. Costumes, by Yumiko, were colorful and sporty. The performance was first-class by performers who in addition to Cox and Neenan include Laura Bowman, Jermel Johnson, Tara Keating, Miko-Doi Smith, Meredith Rainey and Francis Veyette.

“Neenan's piece is called About February.  Music by Ole Schmidt and Rameau is superb and was played superbly by the accordionist Lidia Kaminska. The dance carries a story line of sorts -which I'm still puzzling out - it also references café dance history with a powerfully performed opening duet and variety of ensemble roles. It's worth repeating. . . .”

            - CriticsPicks, WRTI.org (Sept. 7, 2005)

 

“Take one new company - BalletX, launched by Matthew Neenan and Christine Cox, two founders of the disbanded Phrenic New Ballet - and add composers from the Network for New Music, and the result is “Doubletake.” In this latest collaborative effort by The Dance Project, four short chamber music works were played alone and then as accompaniment to choreography. The musicianship and choreography were so strong that “Doubletake” wasn’t an experiment after all - it was vital dance theater.

“In Cox’s Dancepiece, a trio in swirling counterpoint set to music by James Primosch and danced by Neenan, Tara Keating, and James Ihde (all on loan from Pennsylvania Ballet), her deceptively simple movement patterns break away to intriguing lifts, phrasing, and interplay in a sort of deconstructed classical jam. She followed that with Amore Scaduto (meaning “love, trashed”), a smoldering tryst for herself and her frequent partner, Meredith Rainey.
. . . .

“In Neenan’s Vibrate, two songs by bad-boy pop composer Rufus Wainwright, “Vibrate” and “Oh What a World,” were used as springboards for a string quintet by Robert Maggio. Cox, Keating, and Rainey joined Neenan in quick-tempo, asymmetric movement that directly interpreted the music’s tonal drama. Neenan’s dervish-like spins to face the musicians joyously represented the creative intimacy here.”

            - DanceMagazine.com (April 2005)

 

“Cox also created the dance to composer Lee Hyla's Amore Scaduto. Dancing with Meredith Rainey, she matched Hyla's intense violin-cello duet, marked by rhythmic symbiosis and pouncing phrases, with some inventive partnering that suggested extremes of intimacy.

“Composer Robert Maggio has worked before with choreographer Neenan, and their collaboration here telegraphed a happy comfort level. . . .  The three dancers - Cox, Keating and Rainey - fell toward and away from each other with a louche humor that mirrored Maggio’s casual quasi-tonalities and loping lines.”

            - Philadelphia Inquirer (March 11, 2005)

 

“If the new Pennsylvania Ballet triple bill, featuring works by Peter Martins, Matthew Neenan and Twyla Tharp, were a meal, Neenan’s 11:11 would be its sumptuous main dish. Its world premiere Wednesday brought cheers from a euphoric public. There are so many fresh ideas in the work that it made the rest of the program look dusty and tired.

“Dancing to Rufus Wainwright’s lush, yearning music must be a high because in 11:11, set to six Wainwright songs, the dancers are by far the fullest and most impassioned we see them all evening.
. . . .

“With ‘Oh What a World,’ Neenan pulls out all the stops, rendering garlands of fleeting geometries and finally constructing a giant carousel of dancers, the women rising and lowering like its horses.  Breathtaking.”

            - Philadelphia Inquirer (Feb. 4, 2005)

 

“[I]t’s sheer exhilaration to witness the way [Neenan] weds a choreographic idea with a musical score to make magic on the stage. . . .  Whether he is making chamber dances with BalletX - an experimental playground for his ideas - or commissioned pieces for the big field players, this young man is at the top of his game.”

            - Dance Magazine (Feb. 2005)

 

“Neenan’s choreography was innovative - showing off the company’s athleticism and individual strengths - as well as visually refreshing, with strong ensemble segments and wonderful use of space and movement patterns.  Coupled with Wainwright’s intriguing lyrics, Neenan’s creativity kept me at the edge of my seat for the entire piece.”

            - Ballet-Dance Magazine (2005)

 

“Phrenic New Ballet has some nerve presenting four distinguished and pulsating world premieres in the dog days of August, when so few dance afficionados are in town.  But this four-year-old company is known for nerve. . . .

“Taking a deep breath, they placed their bets on a run that began Wednesday . . . and they came out winners.

“Phrenic cofounder and Pennsylvania Ballet dancer Christine Cox choreographed Tabula Rasa, inspired by her physically challenged sister, Barbara.  Cox gave her a cameo in the first section, and like the trouper she is, Barbara played her role with charm and nerve.”

            - Philadelphia Inquirer (Aug. 15, 2003)

 

“Ryan Brooke Taylor's Cantata blended jazz by Miles Davis and Joshua Redman with Chinese and Korean music.  He and Cox alternated a steamy duet with Taylor's martial-arts solo and her bluesy solo. Cox, back to back on Taylor, pulled her crossed ankles close in and then, letting her feet flutter down, provided the best lift of the evening.

“Neenan’s thoroughly magnetic Frequencies . . . was a masterpiece.

“The lighting throughout the evening, by John Stephen Hoey, was some of the most original I've seen in years. To muted klezmerlike music, Neenan and the others flexed their feet folk-dance-style; Cox preened on pointe. All managed steps that could have looked silly. But the work’s innate classicism gave it a cool sophistication, with just a hint of sass.

“This is my 42d dance concert so far this year, and to people who ask if I don’t tire of them, I say: When dance is like this, it can make me feel as if I were in heaven.”

            - Philadelphia Inquirer (Aug. 10, 2001)