Dancing ‘From Bach to Bowie’ with Complexions Contemporary Ballet

Susan Saccoccia

A recipient of NEA Arts Journalism fellowships in dance, theater and music, Susan reviews visual and performing arts in the U.S. and overseas.

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Spanning four centuries of music and multiple genres of dance, Complexions Contemporary Ballet performed two shows last weekend at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, presented by Global Arts Live.

Entitled “From Bach to Bowie,” the company’s 90-minute program provided an exciting introduction to the dancers and their repertoire. Choreographed by company co-founder Dwight Rhoden, the program began with a suite of five short works and, following an intermission, continued with a performance of “STAR DUST: A Ballet Tribute to David Bowie” (2016). Debuted a year after Bowie died from cancer, the dance opera is the first installment of what will become a full-length ballet that explores the rhythms, personas and dramas in Bowie’s music.

Rhoden, a former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater principal dancer, and Desmond Richardson, the first African American principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, co-founded the New York-based company in 1994 and remain its artistic directors.

Through its performances and academy, Complexions fosters a full-body technique that combines elements of classical ballet and contemporary dance to heighten a performer’s individuality, expressiveness, freedom and precision. Theirs is a physical language conducive to the unexpected.

These qualities were on display as the dancers performed to music by 18th-century Baroque masters Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel; a 2023 classical composition from the Pocket Symphonies of Sven Helbig; an anguished anti-lynching ballad, “Another Man Done Gone,” sung by Odetta; and “Blood Calls Blood (excerpt)” (2023) by New Orleans jazz musician Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott).

“Bach 25 (excerpt)” introduced the 20-member ensemble. Stark black-and-white staging with overhead lighting by Michael Korsch and minimalist, skin-toned costumes by Christine Darch — body suits for the women and briefs on the men — emphasized the contours of dancers’ muscles and the variety of their bodies. Some were long and slender like reeds, while others were robust and small in stature. They demonstrated their power, verve and precision in pairings, trios and clusters that were often linear and angular in form.     

In “Gone,” Michael Cherry, Aeron Buchanan and Angelo De Serra used visceral repetitive movements to embody the pulsing rhythm of Odetta’s chanting vocals. Alberto Andrade accompanied Jillian Davis, a quicksilver presence who moves with astonishing elasticity, for an edgy pas de deux in “Handel Remixed.” Accenting its surreal style was Darch’s costume for Davis, whose skirt, traditionally a shimmering fan of gauze, was instead a stiff orange disc. Matching the surging improvisations in “Blood Calls Blood (excerpt)” was a thrilling ensemble performance by Alberto Andrade, Christian Burse, Lucy Stewart and Joe Gonzàlez.

Gonzàlez, a Boston native, was a riveting figure here and throughout the program, injecting passion and authority into his various roles. Speaking by phone recently, González, a graduate of Boston Arts Academy and Boston Conservatory and a member of Complexions since 2022, cited the Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts as “the place where I discovered the emotion and soulfulness of dance.”

González is also co-executive artistic director and choreographer of Jamaica Plain-based Jo-Mé Dance, which on Oct. 19 performed the Boston debut of “Unbroken” at the Strand Theatre. The work tells the story of Sean Ellis, imprisoned for 22 years for a crime he did not commit. Ellis was in attendance.

“STAR DUST” unfolds to nine songs drawn from the four-decade career of David Bowie, a master conjurer who in 25 albums and in films and stage spectaculars created a truth-telling language out of fantastical characters and stories rich in artifice. The piece’s simple staging evoked Bowie’s alchemy. Korch’s lighting highlighted the dancers’ glitter-dusted faces and the sparkling costumes by Darch, which resembled the whimsical attire often worn by Bowie.

Songs that reincarnate Bowie personas turned the dancers into actors as they lip-synched the lyrics while dancing. González was convincingly passionate in the poignant “Lazarus,” from Bowie’s final album, “Blackstar” (2016). Another selection, Peter Gabriel’s melancholy rendering of “Heroes” (1977), recalled Bowie’s artifice-free performance at the post-9/11 concert in Madison Square Garden for police and firefighters, where he sang the song and dedicated it to his local ladder company.

Complexions concluded the program with an infectious performance of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.”