BalletX Fall Series Review
November 5, 2026 | Suzanne Roberts Theatre – Philadelphia, PA, USA
Can ballet be funky? Can it be moody, dark, foreboding, rebellious, and funny? Yes to all of it. BalletX‘s Fall Series 2026 takes audiences on quite a ride.
The triple bill brings together Amy Hall Garner’s Switching the Groove, Christian Denice’s In the Wake, and the world premiere of Loughlan Prior’s Speakeasy. Three choreographers, three approaches to making dance, and one company capable of delivering all three.
It’s easy to take this for granted when you live in Philadelphia, a city spoiled with world-class art.
BalletX’s dancers hail from around the world and right here at home, each bringing something distinct to the stage. Yet, for all their individuality, this company seems to dance with the instincts of a single organism. It’s difficult to explain unless you’ve seen them yourself.
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BalletX Fall Series Review
Amy Hall Garner understands something fundamental about dance: sometimes the music should lead. Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, and trained at Juilliard, Garner brings a keen musical ear to Switching the Groove, putting the mechanics of classical ballet in conversation with the driving rhythms of house music.
It’s funky. I’m nodding my head to the music.
Which, come to think of it, isn’t something I typically find myself doing at the ballet. This ballet is a vibe. Again, not something I typically find myself thinking.
Garner gives classical technique a different personality. Quick footwork, directional changes, and shifts in weight respond to the score’s rhythms. The dancers maintain precision while allowing their upper bodies to loosen and play. Some attack the musical accents; others settle into the groove.
For the bunheads among us, Switching the Groove presents a particular challenge. Classical ballet demands extraordinary control, precision, and discipline, but those same habits can make letting loose surprisingly difficult. Moving from ballet’s fluid technique into the grounded, rhythmic dynamics of house music requires a different relationship with the body. I imagine it’s harder than it looks.
Some dancers appear more comfortable with the transition than others. You can see who genuinely feels the groove and who is still negotiating it.
João Pedro Silva shines here.
There’s joy written all over his face, and I wish we saw more of that in concert dance. He looks like he’s having the time of his life, and it’s a pleasure to watch.
And can we take a moment for the women of BalletX? These ladies are baddies. Honest to God. Their work on pointe regularly has me sitting in the audience thinking, “Damn, girl.” The speed, strength, and sheer command of their technique deserve recognition. In case any of them are reading this, I wanted to say it. I see you.
New company members Rui Cruz, Clay Murray, and April Watson join an already formidable ensemble.
Cruz is one to watch. His technique is exceptionally clean, but it’s the quality of his movement that caught my attention. His isolations are precise and controlled, yet there’s a beautiful, wave-like fluidity to the way he moves. His long lines give shape to every phrase, and he makes the transitions between them just as interesting as the movements themselves.
Part of BalletX’s physical versatility may come from how these dancers train. Like other elite athletes, dancers benefit from conditioning that extends beyond their primary discipline. Practices such as the GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC® Methods, which use circular, spiraling, and wave-like movements, offer a different approach to strength, mobility, and coordination.
That kind of physical preparation seems particularly relevant to a company asked to move between so many choreographic languages.
What distinguishes BalletX is the relationship between technical discipline and individual expression.
These dancers don’t all move alike, nor should they. Garner takes advantage of their differences, allowing each dancer’s movement quality to contribute to the choreography’s musical character.
At their best, they seem to become the music itself.
Garner sends us into the rhythm. Christian Denice takes us somewhere much less comfortable.
This is my second time seeing In the Wake, and I was struck by how much the lighting and stage environment changed my experience of it.
The piece begins with hands emerging through darkness. Ropes appear. It’s eerie. I love it.
Alyssandra Docherty’s lighting design is particularly striking during a passage with an almost aquatic quality. The dancers appear suspended in shadow and light, giving Denice’s choreography an atmosphere I hadn’t fully appreciated during my first viewing.
Set to an original score by Philip Daniel, In the Wake examines grief, memory, and the rituals that accompany loss. The choreography is dark, moody, fast, and intelligent, with a macabre quality I find strangely enjoyable.
Denice explores emotion through gesture, repetition, and partnering. Hands reach. Bodies fold. Movements return with subtle variations, as though the dancers are attempting to resolve something that refuses resolution.
There is anguish in the choreography, but also tenderness. Sometimes, there is even beauty in the grief.
The partnering is stunning. Dancers exchange weight, redirect momentum, and negotiate demanding sequences while maintaining the work’s emotional intensity. Their awareness of one another’s balance and timing makes the most complicated passages appear instinctive.
And Denice’s choreography is demanding.
For my non-dance friends, imagine the stamina required to sustain this level of physical intensity against Daniel’s cinematic score. It’s something like running a marathon, only you’re also expected to interpret grief along the way.
At moments, I found myself in a trance, following the repeated gestures and changing relationships across the stage.
The title offers another way to consider the work. A wake is the disturbance left behind by something moving through water. It is also a gathering to mourn the dead. Both meanings seem appropriate.
We leave wakes in one another’s lives, whether we intend to or not.
Seeing In the Wake a second time deepened my appreciation for Denice’s choreographic intelligence. He doesn’t attempt to explain grief. He gives it a physical life.
After Denice’s meditation on grief, Loughlan Prior offers a different kind of release: a room full of people behaving badly. His world premiere, Speakeasy, takes us back to the 1920s, when Prohibition sent drinking underground and high society and low society found themselves sharing the same bar. Rich or poor, respectable or rebellious, everyone has come to imbibe, exchange secrets, and perhaps behave a little badly.
Prior is a storyteller, and a funny one at that.
With an original score by Frank Moon and scenic and costume designs by Emma Kingsbury, Speakeasy is full of illicit liquor, questionable behavior, and theatrical surprises.
At the center of Kingsbury’s set stands an enormous barrel, large enough to fit the entire cast. It serves as the entrance and exit to the speakeasy itself. A knock on the door opens an entire world of secrets. I’m not sure how Kingsbury pulled it off, but I now want one.
I particularly loved Lanie Jackson as the dancing nun, determined to sneak into the speakeasy for a drink and a little music. The ballet gives BalletX an opportunity to show off its theatrical chops, and watching these extraordinarily disciplined dancers pretend to be drunk was a pleasure in itself.
At one point, my mind wandered to the possibility of teaching drunk dancing as a formal technique. A semester-long course, perhaps. I’d love to see it offered for credit.
Jared Kelly, meanwhile, steals the show as the Judge. His bench wig, pompous marching, and spectacular hypocrisy had the audience howling. Kelly commits to the character so completely that the dancing and comedy become inseparable.
Prior has a wonderful sense of humor, and Kelly handles the comedy like a pro.
Jonathan Montepara’s character finds himself seduced by the pleasures of the speakeasy, with April Watson bringing lively theatricality to their encounters. Watson, one of the company’s newest members, looks perfectly at home in this ensemble.
Still, there were moments when the theatricality overpowered the dancing. With so much happening in the background, I occasionally found my attention drifting away from the choreography. I wanted more opportunities to appreciate the dancing itself.
Somewhere between the drunken antics, the dancing nun, and the Judge's questionable behavior, I began to wonder whether Prior was getting at something deeper.
After all, Prohibition was as much a story about morality and power as it was about alcohol. Here are characters representing institutions expected to uphold society’s rules, sneaking off to break them. Apparently, the law is for everyone else.
A century later, that joke still lands.
Perhaps Speakeasy is also a reminder that even in difficult times, everyone deserves a little merriment. Rich or poor, good or bad, or somewhere in between, people need opportunities to let loose.
Or perhaps I’m overthinking it.
Regardless, Speakeasy is one of the most delightful narrative ballets I’ve seen in a while. It’s mischievous, funny, and thoroughly entertaining.
What interests me most about Fall Series 2026 is what each choreographer reveals about these dancers.
Garner brings out their musical instincts. Denice tests their emotional and physical endurance. Prior gives them permission to be theatrical, mischievous, and downright ridiculous.
BalletX is stacked with artists, and its choreographers know what to do with them.
BalletX can do anything.
No, seriously.
Featured Photo of BalletX‘s Jonathan Montepara and April Watson in Loughlan Prior’s Speakeasy. Photo by Vikki Sloviter.
