Growing by leaps

LISTENING TO THOSE involved in Philadelphia's dance community, it's easy to figure out where the Wilma Theater's DanceBOOM! Festival got its name.

"The arts in Philadelphia are booming and they have been for the past 10 years," declared Christine Cox, co-artistic director of Philly-based company BalletX.

"A couple years back, everybody came to the realization that there was a dance boom going on in Philadelphia and we ought to do something about it," explained Terry Fox, the festival's curator, about its origins six years ago.

That B word keeps cropping up, and looking at the current state of Philadelphia dance it's not hard to see why. Not only is the medium booming, but it's doing so at such a pace that it fully justifies the explosive all-caps and exclamation point rendering in the festival's name.

From the established companies in major spaces (Philadanco at the Kimmel, Pennsylvania Ballet at the Academy and Merriam) to the plethora of independent and experimental troupes making use of makeshift spaces across the city, there's almost constant movement in movement these days.

According to Fox, that rush of activity is reflected in the diversity of the work, which resists being labeled with a consistent local style.

"It's not a 'Philly Sound,' " she said, referring to the instantly recognizable soul music style that arose in the city in the 1960s and '70s. "But the fact and volume of it is really quite impressive."

The challenge, then, became showcasing that diversity, difficult even within the space of a three-weekend festival.

"It's really hard to represent the breadth of work," Fox admitted, "unless you're going to do an encyclopedia of what's going on in Philly. But I think what's going on is a lot of really high-spirited, serious inquiry into dance in whatever form it takes. I think that the artists here are really serious about their work, they work hard, they work to get to a good technical standard, and sometimes they have something to say that's really important."

Her solution was to find a theme for each weekend's program, themes which reflected the trends that arose as she looked at the work.

Week one, "Men Dancing," features a number of all-male companies (see sidebar, Page 42), while week two, "Illusions of Space," focuses on pieces that play with the confines of the stage area, either through physical structures or multi-media interactions.

Week three spotlights Philly-based modern ballet company BalletX, making its debut as the Wilma's first-ever dance company in residence.

Having provided a stage for dance with DanceBOOM! over the past several years, the residency seemed a natural progression, according to Wilma managing director James Haskins.

"BalletX's mission to redefine ballet and bring it into the new century is a compliment to the Wilma's," said Haskins, "which places an emphasis on new play development and re-imagining the modern classics. This is a rare opportunity for us to nurture a company we feel is artistically excellent and whose vision and artistry we believe in."

Cox sees a similar alignment of missions from BalletX's perspective.

"They take risks and they try to push the envelope with theater and get cutting-edge writers. We're trying to do the same thing with ballet."

BalletX will perform three pieces at DanceBOOM! From their repertoire, they'll draw "Die Menscheit," set to a Mozart piece, and "Frequencies," accompanied by a collage of different music.

They also will offer a world premiere, "I Like You Different," created by Cox and co-artistic director Matthew Neenan, which features songs by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Chaka Khan.

"We wanted to bring a little soul into the ballet," explained Cox. "We're basing it around a duet that we created about a couple that's frustrated in their married life. It's a real fun and emotional piece."

Working with more modern music is just one way the BalletX is striving to make ballet more immediate to contemporary audiences, Cox said.

"We formed this company because we really wanted to be more experimental with classical ballet. You'll see dancers in point shoes dancing to a variety of music. It's very human, and you see the dancers up close, and you'll see the refinement of classical ballet in the performance, but there are no tutus."

Besides its artistic philosophy, the Wilma drew praise as an ideal venue based on its physical dimensions.

"It's so intimate that the audience member gets a much closer perspective of what goes into being a dance company and a dancer," said Cox. "They see you sweat. They feel part of the dance."

Fox agreed, saying, "Dancers love being there. It's big enough that you're not right on top of the dancer, as in these small alternative spaces, and it's not so large that the dancers are reduced to being an inch high. You really get a sense of the choreography, of the space, and yet you can still see the expression on their faces."

Despite the lack of a dedicated dance space in the city, Cox sees the presence of so much dance in the venues along the Avenue of the Arts, with a focus in DanceBOOM!, as testament to the strength of the city's artistic community.

"It enriches our culture. It's so important to the fabric of the city. It gives us things to do that are outside of sitting in our homes and watching television and being on a computer." *

E-mail Shaun Brady at bradys@phillynews.com.

Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., tomorrow-June 17, $20-$25, 215-546-7824, www.wilmatheater.org.