On the Eisenhower Theater stage, two of the country’s most interesting and exciting younger dancers cavorted to a fast waltz with a Prokofiev-like edge of slyness. (The composer was Oliver Davis.) Dressed in burning orange, Zsilas Michael Hughes ended a whirr of pirouettes with sky-tossed arms and a silly head-bobble; Ashton Edwards flicked delicate and impeccably turned-out legs through a tricky test of supported turns, then stretched into a retire balance that paused like a roller coaster about to crest its peak. Here were two gender non-binary Black dancers, friends and fellow company members at Pacific Northwest Ballet, dancing with a joy that transcended their identities—but didn’t negate them. Their teasing, devil-may-care rapport could not have been more galvanizing.

The original question of 2022’s “Reframing the Narrative” project was this: What would happen if Black-identifying dancers from predominantly white companies were brought together to work with Black choreographers, thus given the chance to dance in a Black-defined space for the first time in their careers? Two years later, this new “Exercises in Reframing the Narrative” program extended the experiment, jettisoning 2022’s multi-company festival, but still bringing together dancers from across the country to create new works at both Jacob’s Pillow and the Kennedy Center. This year’s “Pathways” also convened a conference for dance writers, led by Howard, which I attended with the aid of a travel stipend from the nonprofit Critical Minded (complicating my ability to project objectivity in a review, but also re-energizing my criticism practice at a time when the dance writing field can feel fated for imminent extinction).

For the dance writers, this was an intense three days of heated debates, despairing laments, and passionate resolutions to write honestly and thoughtfully even as challenges continue to mount. Behind closed studio doors, meanwhile, the dancers were surely experiencing trials and tribulations, since they had only two weeks to bring together a world premiere by Jennifer Archibald to cap the show. To their great credit, though a few moments on stage did feel like an “exercise,” the performance as a whole was a wonder.