Philadanco is a company in transition. A few years ago, Joan Myers Brown, the pathbreaking institution builder who founded the Philadelphia Dance Company in 1970, stepped aside, installing Kim Y. Bears-Bailey as artistic director. But when the troupe returned to the Joyce Theater on Tuesday for the first time since the handover, it looked pretty much the same as ever.
There they were — the impressively skilled dancers with the speed, sharpness and stamina, the rock-solid balances and spins. There was the Philadanco give-it-your-all spirit. And there was the choreography that showed all that off but rarely suggested a deeper artistry.
The program, oddly titled “Intangible!,” features four New York premieres. The first, “From Dystopia to Our Declaration” by Nijawwon Matthews, is the murkiest. Fifteen dancers sit in dimness, supervised by some kind of overseer. They move in mechanical tandem, snapping their heads back, until one (the striking Raven Joseph) stands and points. She somehow leads the way to freedom, though that journey is hobbled by Dave August’s score, which is cinematic in a crude sense.
“Mating Season,” by Christopher Rudd, is much clearer. Rudd is on the rise; two of his works have recently been performed by American Ballet Theater. Here, he arranges three couples in erotic acrobatics. The women throw a leg up on the men’s shoulders, hook a foot on a neck and lean back. A man and a woman somersault while conjoined, and finish by turning that bodily circle into a rectangle. A man holds a woman over his head, upside down with her legs spread, and they spin.
So it goes, inventive and applause-getting and sometimes beautiful, to music (by Loscil and Tariq Al-Sabir) that is unobtrusive electronic burbling. A program note asserts that rejecting the shame of attraction will promote gender equity. Toward the end, there’s a flash of same-gender partnering, and choreography from the beginning is repeated with the gender ratio reversed, now two women supporting a man. Throughout, the men have been mounting supine women, but in the final image the women are on top.
Ray Mercer’s “Balance of Power” has no overt theme, but there is a hint of a shifting power balance of gender when a fierce female trio is followed by Floyd McLean Jr., who drapes a sports coat over one shoulder. McLean — lithe, cool and quick — partners a series of women. The first takes his jacket, only to give it back later; this jacket swapping becomes a motif for the whole ensemble, helping to tie the lively work together.
“Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth,” by Tommie-Waheed Evans in collaboration with the dancers, is a tribute piece, dedicated to the memory of Deborah Chase Hicks, who served Philadanco in many roles for more than 45 years. It’s a good closer, with the best music of the program: some Phyllis Hyman, Jeff Buckley and Afro-house mixed by Connor Lemon to sound like it’s coming from a better place.
The work is somewhere between Alvin Ailey’s “Memoria” and Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room.” In hazy light, dancers keep arriving and leaving, in different groupings adroitly arranged by Evans. With some Black vernacular moves tossed in for spice, the performers display again their technique and drive — a tribute not just to Hicks, but also to Bears-Bailey and the legacy of Joan Myers Brown.
Philadanco
Through Saturday at the Joyce Theater; joyce.org.
