BalletX presents pieces compelling and athletic

On its own,

Le Baiser Inevitable

, the new ballet Jodie Gates choreographed for BalletX, is visually compelling, powerful, beautiful.

But there's no getting around the fact that it was set to Ravel's Bolero, an extremely well-known piece of music that is loaded with sensuality, emotion and expectations - in this case, expectations unmet. Bolero builds on relentless repetition of a rhythmic phrase, and because choreography is often considered a visual representation of music, one expects the steps to follow suit.

However, Le Baiser Inevitable, which had its world premiere Wednesday night at the Wilma Theater, does not have a through line or a set of distinctive phrases that shows up again and again. Nor is the piece particularly sensual or even romantic (despite the fact that it ends with the "inevitable kiss" of the title).

It's all but impossible to ignore the expectations created by the use of Ravel's music, which is why Bolero is often considered difficult to choreograph. Nevertheless, the California-based Gates - like most of the BalletX team a former Pennsylvania Ballet dancer - has produced a piece that offers much to like.

Le Baiser Inevitable starts out with a woman (Laura Feig) dancing in a ring of light to West Coast composer Jack Eddy's electronic "Prelude." One by one, the cast members step into the light and perform a short solo. They move as a group as Bolero begins, and break out again into solos and duets.

In filmy sheaths over red bikinis for the women and dark red pants with bare chests for the men, the dancers took lots of physical chances, if fewer emotional ones. At times - for example, the twisty lift that ends in a kiss between Tara Keating and Matthew Prescott - these paid off. Some of the duets, however, teetered on the edge of control.

The evening's most successful ballet was co-artistic director Matthew Neenan's Broke Apart, which premiered at the 2006 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Amy Aldridge, who is also a Pennsylvania Ballet principal dancer, threw herself into the female lead role body and soul - at one point literally flinging herself a considerable distance into the arms of three men.

Set to a variety of contemporary songs, Broke Apart is a highly athletic ballet that uses sections of a ballet barre as props for dancers to move, throw, hurdle, and play with, as well as employing them as scenery, to evoke rooms or doorways.

The piece also highlights the acrobatic talents of crowd-pleaser Jermel Johnson.

The evening opens with another piece from the 2006 Live Arts Festival, Jorma Elo's Scenes View 2. The first half has the dancers stretching, reaching, and marking their steps, while whispering stage directions about the scene, their characters, the mood, and their motivations, while the second half is danced out fully to Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo Violin.

The whispering is a behind-the-scenes look at how dancers break down steps. But it can become distracting, and the narration doesn't necessarily help audience members navigate the dance. Still, the movement, lighting, and music are lovely and soothing.