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Getting in the Groove

In the first few seconds that the lights come up on BalletX at the Joyce Theater, an audience member murmurs her assent: “I love it already.” It’s an almost shockingly strong start, with “Scales on the Wings of a Butterfly,” BalletX choreographic fellow Noelle Kayser’s piece for 15 dancers—which premiered over the summer at the company’s home base, at the Susanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia—opening the program.

 

Performance

BalletX: “Scales on the Wings of a Butterfly” by Noelle Kayser, “Vivir (Except)” by Darrell Grand Moultrie, “Two People in Love Never Shake Hands (Excerpt)” by Nicola Wills, “Sojourner” by Gregory Dawson

Place

The Joyce Theater, New York, New York, September 27, 2025

Words

Rebecca Deczynski

Minori Sakita in Noelle Kayser's "Scales on the Wings of a Butterfly.” Photograph by Scott Serio

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This piece, which is inspired by microscopic photography and videography of the natural world (think: cells, insects, flora), starts with the dancers in a conical pile, a mass of limbs in multi-colored unitards by designer Amanda Gladu. The lighting—a beam of white that cuts through the shadows—adds to the drama of the scene (which does garner a few gasps from the audience) but simultaneously nods to the work’s scientific source material. We immediately look through the microscope, and what we find is almost inexpressably beautiful.

Set to a score by Jeff Kolar, which is searching and mysterious, we see the dancers rendered into not-quite human forms. They climb atop one another, then stretch their arms like wings. They hurdle their bodies through space one moment, then slink slowly into their next position. The elaborate partnering sequences, which are acrobatic in their intensity, are a definite strong point of the piece, especially when pairs of dancers move together, creating Rorschach-like configurations with their limbs. Kayser’s vision is fully realized thanks to the sharp technicality of the BalletX dancers, which this challenging and entrancing piece puts to the test. It’s a company-choreographer match made in heaven.

 

Lanie Jackson and Jared Kelly in Nicola Will’s “Two People In Love Never Shake Hands.” Photograph by Whitney Browne

It is admittedly hard to follow such a showstopper as a first act, and this places Darrell Grand Moultrie’s excerpt of “Vivir” perhaps in unfair contrast. The solo, performed by João Pedro Silva is a love letter to Spanish Harlem, set to “Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar” by Bebo & Cigala, which finds an uneasy balance between expression and restraint. Pedro Silva—a strong and exacting dancer—gets few opportunities to show his range as he passes through extended phrases of port de bras, accented with more staccato contractions that cast a faint shadow of Martha Graham’s influences. This solo, while artful and performed to its full potential, may simply err on the side of underwhelm outside the context of its full, 23-minute work.

Closing the first act, however, dancers Lanie Jackson and Jared Kelly develop the most emotional number of the entire program. Performing a pas de deux from Nicola Wills’s 24-minute piece, “Two People in Love Never Shake Hands,” which BalletX debuted in 2024, the pair has a natural chemistry that’s so embedded in their movements—gestures small and large—that they successfully create, in the span of a single dance, a devastating love story.

There are elements of this pas that are reminiscent of that which ends Angelin Preljocaj’s 1994 ballet “Le Parc.” Touch is not ornamental or utilitarian, but rather, an essential pillar of how the dancers relate to one another. In the beginning of the piece, their interactions have a fluttering quality; this is the dawn of a flirtation, which settles into a honeymoon stage. When the dancers caress one another’s faces, their intimacy is palpable. This level of comfort with one another has a great effect on the work’s more challenging lifts, giving undoubtably difficult sequences a sense of passion and whimsy. At times, the dancers almost seem like figure skaters—so smooth does Kelly whip Jackson around in circles. 

But this love story is a doomed one, and gradually, the caresses and carefree twirls turn into more punctuated placements of the arms, palms upward in gestures of frustration. So affecting is this final emotional turn of the piece that it’s worth calling out: these dancers can act, too.

Ashley Simpson and Eileen Kim in Gregory Dawson’s “Sojourner.” Photograph by Scott Serio

Closing the performance, post-intermission, is Gregory Dawson’s joyful and quick-moving “Sojourner,” featuring accompaniment by a six-person jazz band, positioned upstage for the duration of the work. Luke Carlos O’Reilly’s score is lively and energetic, with some more dreamy, contemplative moments—a mood that Dawson’s choreography matches. While the music itself may be jazz, the dancing retains an overall balletic essence.  

Many of the piece’s strongest moments present the dancers alone or in smaller groupings. Minori Sakita is a standout soloist in both “Sojourner” and “Scales,” equally comfortable with rapidfire turns of phrase as she is with melting adagios. Kelly, in a spotlight moment, is strong and bold in his expansive movements. Peter Weill, in an emotive pas de deux with Sakita and in his own solo moments, is grounded yet nimble. And Ashley Simpson, leggy and luminous—another standout in “Scales”—shows great prowess with her speed and delicate steps.

The big, euphoric staging of many group numbers in “Sojourner” lends the piece a celebratory air, though at times the speed of these movements come at a cost to the company’s unison. Still, these individual variations don’t necessarily detract from the performance as a whole. It’s a joy all the same.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Mezzanine Society. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

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