With its latest season at the Joyce Theater, which opened on Tuesday, the company turns its focus to a particular cultural crossroads: where Hispanic and Asian diasporas meet.
That is, at least, the theme proposed by Eduardo Vilaro, the troupe’s artistic director, in a program note introducing new and restaged dances by Taiwanese-American choreographer Edwaard Liang, Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Filipino-American choreographer Bennyroyce Royon. In practice, any such connecting thread is harder to trace.
Liang’s “El Viaje,” a premiere, reads like a placeless meditation on an outsider’s relationship to a group. While inspired by Chinese mass emigration from the 19th to mid-20th centuries, as well as the Chinese-Cuban diaspora, the work for 11 dancers lacks specificity; though elegantly constructed, it could be anyone’s, anywhere. To the surging “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a soloist in red (the striking Melissa Verdecia) gradually merges with an ensemble dressed in more muted tones. As the collective engulfs her in its beautifully spiraling embrace, what may have been intended as a universal story feels instead generic.
A stronger sense of location — or of migrating between locations — came through in the other new work, Royon’s boisterous “Homebound/Alaala.” Stacks of multicolored moving boxes, continually rearranged by the cast of 11, suggest a long journey in progress. Royon and Amanda Gladu designed the attractive scenery; Gladu also designed the costumes, using material from Anthill Fabric Gallery, a company that works to sustainably preserve Filipino weaving traditions.
To an upbeat playlist of music by Filipino artists, the dancers hurtle through fast, fluid phrases, at one point breaking into song and bickering, like a big family. Raúl Contreras and Omar Rivéra find a moment of privacy, enmeshing in a duet that, when others barge in from the wings, feels like a secret; they abruptly part ways. But if there are any fractures in the group, they seem to be healed by the end, when everyone joins together in a finale that puts pairs of flip-flops to percussive use.
“Homebound” is a lively, if not entirely coherent, addition to the Ballet Hispánico repertory. But the program’s high point was an older work made new: Lopez Ochoa’s “Sombrerísimo,” originally for six men, restaged with six women. While doing tricks with bowler hats, Tuesday’s cast shattered the idea, too pervasive even in contemporary ballet, that women should be lifted, not do the lifting. Nailing the work’s athletic partnering, they rivaled the strength and swagger of their predecessors.
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Ballet Hispánico
Performances continue through Sunday at the Joyce Theater; joyce.org.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.