As the cast radiate these tender moments outwards, hearts laid bare, I feel something stir in my own chest—a reciprocity that illuminates my aggravation with the companion piece on this bill, a new commission from Kameron N. Saunders, known for his work in American pop and film spheres. “Proper Conduct,” Saunders’s first full-length piece on a ballet company, persistently keeps the audience at arm’s length. It’s also woolly in its storytelling and seems desperate to goad, shortcomings that its dynamic orchestral score and genre-defying dancing, while presented with flair, can’t salvage. 

A growling Jigsaw-style voiceover frames the sunny opening section as something of a taunt. “Are you comfortable? Joyous?” it sneers, making it clear we should be neither. The dancing that follows is a cheerful group romp with flying pigtails and rainbow lighting. There are echoes of Justin Peck in this twee, darting display, which a 16-strong ensemble handle spryly, especially its syncopations, though it’s hard to bask in their brightness, as it’s so evidently being set up for an about-face. 

Enter Jose María Lorca Menchón as Jigsaw in a predictable intrusion smugly presented as shocking. Dressed somewhere between a clown and a competitive fencer, he’s here to deliver an indictment of . . . sex? “Beneath lies the rot” and “sickness hiding in plain sight” are two phrases he mutters as the cast strip to their underwear and writhe. There’s prowling and heavy breathing. One dancer mounts another like a horse. (And I thought Wuthering Heights was the only place I’d see ponyplay this spring!) Coupled with regular censures of “you” (us, I guess), the long spells of jiggling asses pointed at the audience start to seem contemptuous. Headlights are sporadically flipped outwards to blind us, which feels like a more explicit fuck-you.