It is admittedly hard to follow such a showstopper as a first act, and this places Darrell Grand Moultrie’s excerpt of “Vivir” perhaps in unfair contrast. The solo, performed by João Pedro Silva is a love letter to Spanish Harlem, set to “Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar” by Bebo & Cigala, which finds an uneasy balance between expression and restraint. Pedro Silva—a strong and exacting dancer—gets few opportunities to show his range as he passes through extended phrases of port de bras, accented with more staccato contractions that cast a faint shadow of Martha Graham’s influences. This solo, while artful and performed to its full potential, may simply err on the side of underwhelm outside the context of its full, 23-minute work.
Closing the first act, however, dancers Lanie Jackson and Jared Kelly develop the most emotional number of the entire program. Performing a pas de deux from Nicola Wills’s 24-minute piece, “Two People in Love Never Shake Hands,” which BalletX debuted in 2024, the pair has a natural chemistry that’s so embedded in their movements—gestures small and large—that they successfully create, in the span of a single dance, a devastating love story.
There are elements of this pas that are reminiscent of that which ends Angelin Preljocaj’s 1994 ballet “Le Parc.” Touch is not ornamental or utilitarian, but rather, an essential pillar of how the dancers relate to one another. In the beginning of the piece, their interactions have a fluttering quality; this is the dawn of a flirtation, which settles into a honeymoon stage. When the dancers caress one another’s faces, their intimacy is palpable. This level of comfort with one another has a great effect on the work’s more challenging lifts, giving undoubtably difficult sequences a sense of passion and whimsy. At times, the dancers almost seem like figure skaters—so smooth does Kelly whip Jackson around in circles.
But this love story is a doomed one, and gradually, the caresses and carefree twirls turn into more punctuated placements of the arms, palms upward in gestures of frustration. So affecting is this final emotional turn of the piece that it’s worth calling out: these dancers can act, too.
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