Last weekend’s Complexions Contemporary Ballet show at Penn Live Arts led me to think about content and meaning. This program’s content not only made me unsatisfied by its overall lack of meaning, it left me feeling contentious. Looking back at what I saw in the company’s 2003 Philadelphia debut (then Annenberg) and then again in 2015 at the Prince Theater, I’m coming to realize that what puzzles me, in part, are the choreographer’s musical choices.  

Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson both began their dance careers at Alvin Ailey and went on to found Complexions in 1996. They each continued to dance dazzling roles. The interracial company sustains their hallmark style which I’d now characterize as having vague intent and speed over nuance.

While they are now retired from the stage, they continue to run the company. Programming is an art and this touring program had a gathering sameness. No scenery, black backdrop, even Michael Korsch’s lighting lacked variations. The most steam I saw was from the moist (musty smelling) fogger that accompanied each of the five works.

Two programmatic exceptions were Odetta’s plaintive song “Another Man Done Gone,” which gave deep meaning to “Gone,” and Jillian Davis’s solo in “Elegy.” An excerpt from “Bach 25” had its 18 dancers rush out en masse in soft ballet slippers in nonstop movement that matched the notes of the music, eventually growing into a line dance. One image stuck with me—a trio of company women dancing static, angular steps that resembled William Forsythe’s full-stop phrases.