Sex is at the core of “Marie Antoinette.” Malandain’s movement vocabulary, which blends the courtlier aspects of classical ballet with a more modern flavor, honed in on sex in its weird, wacky, and wonderful ways—largely through the interactions of King Ludwig XV (Lászlo Benedek) and his mistress, Madame du Barry (Mila Schmidt)—but also in its most repressed, unsure, and isolating.

It’s noted in the program that the title character and her husband did not consummate their marriage for seven years following the wedding—Malandain’s choreography explores the effects of this distance on both characters. When their first child is conceived, the pair’s physical meeting is painfully, almost comically, awkward. By portraying two bodies so close in physicality but far apart in spirit, Malandain cuts to the core. The dancers’ stilted movements and choreographed lack of chemistry emphasize the emotional disconnect.