A Birthday Suite

Complexions Contemporary Ballet turned 30 this year, and their two-week residency at the Joyce Theater was a party. Highlighting the work of co-artistic director and principal choreographer Dwight Rhoden, the residency included multiple world premieres and a throwback “Retro Suite” which excerpted Rhoden's work on the company throughout the years.

Performance

Complexions Contemporary Ballet's 30th Anniversary Gala

Place

The Joyce Theater, New York, NY, November 21, 2024

Words

Cecilia Whalen

Complexions Contemporary Ballet celebrates its 30th anniversary at the Joyce Theater

Program A ran for the first week. This program featured the only non-Rhoden piece of the season, Jae Man Joo's “Cry Me,” a suite of wild duets and a solo performed to Philip Glass.

Joo, who is the company's resident choreographer, is a Complexions alumn and it shows. “Cry Me” makes use of the dancers' signature dynamite facility with flying legs and balances in extreme positions. In the pas de deux, dancers throw each other around almost violently, with Rhoden-esque drama furrowing their brows.

The highlight of Joo's piece came in the middle, with the introduction of one of the company's standout performers, Christian Burse. Like all Complexions dancers, Burse's technique is virtuosic: In her solo, she holds 180-degree développés so effortlessly it is as if she is raising an arm and not a leg. What sets Burse apart, however, is her grounded-ness and a sense that she is rooted to something beyond technique or exaggerated emotion.

In “Cry Me,” Burse performs supple contemporary isolations, undulating as if responding to vibrations beneath the earth's surface. Burse finds her way to the floor, then jumps back up with a lifted chest. In this striking moment, it is as if she is momentarily sucked up by some invisible force, held floating for a split second before being released back into the ground.

Jillian Davis and Joe Gonzalez in “Endgame” by Dwight Rhoden. Photograph by Taylor Craft

“Cry Me” followed Rhoden's latest, a large group piece which tests dancers' stamina with repeated, precise contemporary ballet phrases. It's entitled “This Time, With Feeling,” which is tongue in cheek, as it's rare to catch any Complexions piece that is not “full out and with feeling.”

Complexions is characteristically over the top, in technique, emotion, and sheer energy. Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, who was the first African American principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre and, like Rhoden, a principal at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, started Complexions 30 years ago as a performative experiment. Their first show in 1994 was radical in many ways, partly because it brought together a diverse array of dancers from the ballet and contemporary dance worlds, and especially because Rhoden's ballets were raw and sexy, performed to music like U2 and Prince, rather than Mozart or Bach (although Rhoden has plenty of work to classical music, too). Rhoden and Richardson arguably brought what we might think of as popular contemporary dance into the mainstream, and you can see Rhoden's influence all over TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Complexions pieces always leave an audience in awe of what its dancers can do. Some of these pieces can run together, though, especially when, like the first three pieces on this Program A, they rely heavily on leg extensions, turns, and heterosexual pas de deux, and a similarly angsty emotional sensibility.

Jillian Davis and Joe Gonzalez in “Slingerland” pas de deux by William Forsythe. Photograph by Taylor Staff

The “Retro Suite,” which concluded the evening, provided for more variety. Featuring eight of Rhoden's pieces from the last 30 years in excerpts, the “Retro Suite” demonstrated Rhoden's versatility (only a peek, though: He's made more than 100 ballets).

A duet from “Momentary Forevers,” to music by Handel and John Cage, which was created for Charlotte Ballet in 2008, depicted two dancers who look like they're stepping out of Wonderland. They wear asymmetrical orange costumes (by Christine Darch) and move around stiffly like objects that have recently come to life. Conversely, “Gone,” from 2000, is an entirely human trio for three men to the heart-wrenching song “Another Man Done Gone” sung by Odetta. The solo excerpt from the 1994 “Growth” starts with the words “resistance and stamina,” which are spoken by the dancer. On this evening, “Growth” was danced by Burse, and was another knock-out performance of agility and control.

“Retro Suite” is a look back, but it's also a celebration. The suite opens with a group dance to Earth, Wind & Fire from “Higher Ground.” Dancers are dressed in sparkly multi-colored outfits and face front with wide smiles and playful sass, their bodies bouncing and shimmying to the beat.

Cecilia Whalen

Cecilia Whalen is a New York City-based dancer, choreographer, and writer. She is a graduate of the Martha Graham School and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In addition to her work with Fjord, her writing can be found in various publications, including Dance Magazine and Commonweal Magazine.