A rather fetal video installation by Tobin Del Cuore breaks up the first act, and brings the energy of the space back down to a meditative calm. With this realignment, Andrew Cummings and Mark Sampson take the stage for “human undoing (sloth),” a work that depicts what Barton considers the most dangerous of the seven deadly sins, representing “the sacred being drained from human existence.” The dancers tuck their hands below their wastebands and rap their thighs repeatedly, fluttering their pant legs. There is an animalistic, and at times erotic quality, to the way that Cummings and Sampson move, slinking downwards and dragging their scalps on the floor, folding in on one another. More absurd than humorous, this is the most anguished piece of the program.

Two more new works, both set to Baroque compositions (by Johann Sebastian Bach and Marin Marais, respectively) close out the first act: “Trio,” featuring Tobin Del Cuore, Mariah Gravelin, and James Gregg, and “Duet,” featuring MJ Edwards and Taylor LaBruzzo. Both exemplify the studied insoucience that figures prominently across Barton’s oeuvre—the loose-limbedness that complements and contrasts her more tightly wound choreographic passages. Through both, the dancers maintain a graceful, balletic sensibility. 

“LubDub,” a seven-dancer work that Hubbard Street Dance just premiered at home in Chicago, composes the second act. It’s chaos and order, particularly evocative when the dancers form claustrophobic arrangements, lining up chest to back like the legs of a centipede. The loose, gender-neutral costumes—long black pleated skirts and plum t-shirts—add to the visual effect of the dancers’ coordinated flailing of their arms and gyrating of their torsos. It builds to such a degree that when the dancers land on the floor in a circle, bellies down, and the stage goes to black, the audience errupts in a mid-performance applause. Then, they continue, hunching their shoulders, almost menacing, landing tiny jumps like football players, and torpedoing their bodies in an exhaustive, almost ritualistic fervor. It’s a riot. It’s a hit.