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Love Letter to Mother Nature

Ballet X gave a performance of “The Four Seasons Reimagined” on June 11, 2026, at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in a premiere week that began at its home base in Philadelphia’s Highmark Mann. At full-length, it is a major undertaking, even for a company known for its many commissioned works. 

 

Performance

Ballet X: “The Four Seasons Reimagined,” composed by Dan Deacon with choreography by Morgann Runacre-Temple, Penny Saunders, Jamar Roberts, and Trey McIntyre

Place

Saratoga Performing Arts Center, June 11, 2026

Words

Eva S. Chou

Ballet X in “Summer” by Morgann Runacre-Temple, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

The reimagining began with an invitation to the protean Dan Deacon to compose a work from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” a remix that would be freer than a Vivaldiana-style tribute, and he did. His collaborations with dance, though a recent development, are already known at SPAC through dances by Justin Peck performed during New York City Ballet’s summer residencies. For “The Four Seasons Reimagined,” Deacon, at the electronic keyboard, led his ensemble of eight musicians. 

In a kind of all-star turn, other commissions were made to noted choreographers, one for each season, to Emma Kingsbury for backdrop and costumes, and to Christopher Ash for lighting.  Kingsbury’s striking backdrop was done with black brushwork of lines and irregular peaks and washes that ranged blue-black to palest blue. The effect could be mountain ranges or clouds or cliffs above a lower register that suggested water. On this Ash’s lighting made gradual, profound transformations as season succeeded season. Videos of seasonal scenes were also projected onto screens high on either side of the stage, though its realism was visually hard to integrate.

Deacon retained Vivaldi’s programmatic intent in his score without his explicit cues of bird calls, storms, and so on. The choreographers responded with movements that were impressionistic of the seasons. Ballet X’s “The Four Seasons Reimagined” started with Summer rather than Vivaldi’s Spring so that, as artistic director Christina Cox explained in a pre-performance talk, the work could end with Spring, the season of its premiere and a finale appropriate for a work that is “A Love Letter to Mother Nature.”

Ballet X in “Summer” by Morgann Runacre-Temple, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

Ballet X in “Summer” by Morgann Runacre-Temple, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

Opening the piece with energy was “Summer,” by Morgann Runacre-Temple, created for nearly the entire company of sixteen. Often, the dancers, facing outwards, formed a circle or the arc of a circle and pulled or swayed against each other. At times, a group of dancers, converging on another group, produced a gentle flower-like explosion upwards. A notable segment, though riveting was puzzling: in each of two groups, a woman stood on the shoulders of two men while a third in the back reached up to steady her at the upper thighs and a fourth might have been a spotter. The two groups slowly came closer, and each woman reached out to tentatively touch the top of the other’s head.

Penny Saunders’s “Autumn” also employed the full company to great effect. Swirling past each other in loose costumes of rich autumn colors, the dancers gave the sense of leaf-blown motion, propelled by a force outside themselves. Quieter passages employed women dancers only or men dancers only. Dancers in these groupings tended to move together, seeming to share a common goal that was elusive. Paired dancing was another highlight. Each pair would do something spectacular and exit as pairs succeeded each other at a fast pace. The autumn wind could be felt nearly throughout.

Jamar Roberts’s “Winter” was an icy world in which the backdrop was nearly bleached by the lighting and further lit to produce a mirror image in the water so everything seemed even colder. The dancers were in silvery grey-white tunics with fluttering fabric on the body, glistening with icy crystals. The scene began in near silence into which single liquid notes dropped one by one. Dancers in pointe shoes carefully stepped to those notes, one step, another, and another, like long-legged birds picking their way. Arms joined the stalky legs, sometimes rotated, other times waving. The motif established, one began to see there were also men dancers. Throughout, there was much emphasis on arms moving from strong shoulders, which are after all the most powerful muscles of birds. 

Minori Sakita and Francesca Forcella in “Winter” by Jamar Roberts, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

Minori Sakita and Francesca Forcella in “Winter” by Jamar Roberts, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX
Francesca Forcella in “Autumnr” by Penny Saunders, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

Francesca Forcella in “Autumnr” by Penny Saunders, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

“Spring,” by Trey McIntyre, gave off a cheerful vibe with dancers clad in brightly colored swimsuit-like dancewear further brightened by swirling bands of color. They started out loosely grouped in a triangular shape, one arm raised “Serenade-esque,” as if to shield from a bright sun. They were often on stage in shaped clumps, walking with arms raised straight up in energy or opened in receptiveness. In the closing moment, the ensemble clustered together and, repeating an earlier motif, each raised an arm and waggled the hand at its end. We were told at pre-performance that this image of actively growing plants was a favorite with schoolchildren, and well it might be. Aside from ensemble work, company members (the women in pointe shoes) also danced in solos, duos, and trios, sometimes playing off the ensemble. Most notable was a trio in which two men rapidly handed off lifting and turning the woman alternating with lifting each other in twisty ways. 

Ballet X in “Spring” by Trey McIntyre, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

Ballet X in “Spring” by Trey McIntyre, part of “The Four Seasons Reimagined.” Photograph by Vikki Sloviter for BalletX

The common elements of the Deacon score and the backdrop linked but did not impose. Ultimately, each of the four seasons was a star turn on its own. Fittingly for an egalitarian company—its members are unranked, all “dancers”—Kingsbury’s costumes were ingeniously unisex and worked well and flatteringly for both sexes throughout. “Autumn” and “Winter” startled with their aptness. It did seem, though, that the costumes of “Summer” and “Spring” might be swapped to advantage. The light fabrics and delicate colors of the opening piece, “Summer”—mostly white with thin bands of light blue or light lilac—seemed springlike, while the swimsuit solidity and neon colors of “Spring” felt like the heat of summer. Still, the latter’s joyous effect made them a fitting finale for an evening-length celebratory work. “The Four Seasons Reimagined” deserves to be a popular repeat in Ballet X’s repertory.

Eva S. Chou

Eva Shan Chou is a cultural historian of China, currently at work on “Ballet in China: A History.” She has published articles on the establishment of the Beijing School of Dance, on China's first “Swan Lake,” the founding figure Dai Ailian, and China’s cultural policies. For Ballet Review she wrote on performances by Stuttgart Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Opera Ballet of Rome, as well as companies from China performing in the US. She is professor in the Department of English, Baruch College, City University of New York.

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