Exploring the intersection between these two worlds is nothing new for Ouramdane, whose work “Corps extrêmes,” presented at Sadler’s Wells back in 2023, transformed the stage with a giant rock climbing wall. Yet despite its bridge building intentions, “Outsider” offers little true crossover between the two elements it strives to connect. The aforementioned athletes are nowhere to be seen for the first third of the piece. Instead, a large cast of dancers—Ouramdane is known for mass movement direction—runs, dives, and ripples across the stage, the rapid, relentless keys of Julius Eastman’s piano score. Entering and exiting in relay-like times, the dancers’ execute acrobatic sequences, fluidly whipping each other up into the air and around one another’s bodies in the blink of an eye. It’s undeniably mesmerizing: Everyone always seems to be in a state of flight, flux, or lability, their every action bleeding into the next, like colors merging on an Impressionist canvas.

There’s a distinct feeling that something is missing, however, as a largely unacknowledged crisscrossing web of high wires and slacklines hovers above the performers. Perhaps leaving it alone in this first section is intentional, building anticipation for the eventual arrival of the athletes? When they do appear, they glide in from the wings, each suspended from a line and drifting effortlessly like objects on a conveyor belt or Mary Poppins ascending a bannister. This illusion of effortlessness fades as they transition to sitting and then standing on the wires, their motions slowing to a careful, deliberate pace.