The final piece of the evening, Lang’s “The Lorenz Butterfly,” provided yet another stark contrast. Lang is in the final year of a three-year partnership as “artist in residence” with the southwest Florida company, having presented two previous world premieres to mixed reviews. During the pandemic, the choreographer—whose father is a visual artist—began to explore painting as a catalyst for her choreographic inspiration and this newest work, which she describes in program notes as “chaos theory meets color theory,” bears testament to the success of this creative process.

With a backdrop of two enormous projections of her colorful, abstract artwork; costumes of unitards with flowing asymmetrical skirts for men and women alike in colors mirroring the paintings; subtly evocative lighting by Ethan Vail and Robert Schumann’s tumultuous Piano Quartet in E flat major, Lang manages to integrate the dancers into the painting and vice versa despite the at times frenetic pace of the action.

As do many of Lang’s pieces, with as many as 10 dancers on stage at once, often all doing different things, the magnitude and diversity of the movement can feel overwhelming. That said, the intention here is for the audience to do exactly what the choreographer was trying to do—explore the structures within the disorder, view color as a change agent and find connections within the chaos. 

Despite the nonstop action and a plethora of challenging moves—runs, slides, whirling dervish turns—the dancers again seemed freer and more confident, throwing themselves into the work with all the alacrity, enthusiasm and mastery missing from the evening’s first piece. In particular, the zest of first soloist Sierra Abelardo, one of the few upper-level ballerinas remaining from the past season, was contagious and joyful.

To date the company has hired at least a half dozen new dancers, none higher than the rank of coryphee (one step above corps de ballet). Kuranaga will appear in two programs during the upcoming season but, like a baseball team that’s suffered multiple free agent losses, it’s clear there is some rebuilding to be done in the upper ranks. Even though just one male principal departed, those who remain are nearer the end of their careers than the start (as is Kuranaga). 

Time will tell how that transition takes shape and whether the company will continue to rely on the Ashton repertoire as its avenue to renown, as it has for the duration of Webb’s 18-year tenure.