Ballet Fleming - lively and looking ahead

In After the Summer Sun, Ballet Fleming takes a smart step forward. For its second Fringe show, Christopher Fleming's fledgling company follows other young ensembles by hiring established choreographers to augment repertoire and grow audience.

The evening opened with excerpts from Fleming's Long Train Running, a dance theater-style piece I first saw in 2011 that initially felt better in the costumes worn three years ago. Time for Three's music lends a distinctly country-western feel; Fleming's dancers strode on stage in ballet rehearsal attire (leotards, loose chemises). But the strong ensemble quickly showed that this enjoyable homage to a hootenanny has more to do with attitude and movement than with bolo ties and snakeskin boots.

Local tap diva Jenn Rose choreographed Blind Landing to Guster's "Parachute." From the back of the stage, the dancers struggled against a current in slow, painful steps forward, only to drift back and fall. They hovered and tottered on boxes, the lip of the stage, bounding back up to plunge again. The entire piece made great use of the Performance Garage, creating a vertiginous feel across a shadowscape created by designer Matt Sharp.

Former company member Thomas Gant Jr.'s Echoes Down the Hallway was a better vehicle for the dancers' classical training. Variations of repeated positions and turns matched the hypnotic music of Balmorhea's "The Winter." Dancers turned and whirled in fluid cadence around a love triangle played out by Tricia Koch, Dillon Shifferly, and Gina Battista Shifferly. He moves in pairings from Koch to Shifferly and the third intrudes, crafting a stark, engrossing depiction of the past lingering into present lives.

Fleming also premiered Clapton, a fun, stylish, if sometimes predictable piece set to Eric Clapton's music. "Wonderful Tonight," though danced with great care by the two Shifferlys, was an obvious choice for a duet, whereas "Promises" captivated with the dramatic rawness of Tricia Koch and William MacNeil as a couple who can't help resorting to fisticuffs moments after making amends from their last melee.

During the rest of the piece, the company exploded with energy that matched Clapton's guitar-driven hits. Dancers ran in to glide like figure-skaters on the tips of their pointe shoes and combined pop moves with classical ballet poses, showing the youthful exuberance this company will bring into the future of Philadelphia dance.