This is the opening to BalletCollective’s fall 2025 program, “Echoes of the Unseen,” which is staged in the round in St. John Divine, one of the largest cathedrals in the world—though even in the monumental space, the performance retains a sense of intimacy. This may be because the the three works that compose the program are deeply relational, finding structure through inventive partnerships that play to the dancers’ strengths and musically complex passages that challenge the way the dancers connect with their scores.

“Magnitude of Verticality,” the first piece in the program, by choreographer Alysa Pires, throws six New York City Ballet Dancers (Owen Flacke, David Gabriel, Ashley Laracey, Miriam Miller, Sebastian Villarini-Vélez, and Kloe Walker) into a clash of weaving formations. There is a frenetic energy to the piece, which aligns with its inspiration: the lithographic prints of artist Linn Meyers, which feature tight-line waves across Nicky Sohn’s musical score. 

There are moments in the beginning of the piece which feel a touch too focused on making a lot happen within set time frames, but it reaches a flow state once it settles into an adagio with Miller and Flacke. Miller moves the way that a cello sounds, and in this more fluid pas, the dancers drift wonderfully together. Later, a trio with Laracey, Walker, and Villarini-Vélez, introduces a greater sense of play with a whirling allegro. Gabriel, in a solo to a segment of music that has an echo of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” also stands out with his controlled développés and measured turns in arabesque. 

The strongest moments of the piece are those that are more pared back—both in terms of their steps and the number of dancers who appear on stage. Still, there are moments of beauty in a group formation, which the dancers fold into a few times throughout the piece: Miller at the center, striking a posture akin to the “Winged Victory of Samothrace.”