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IMPRESSIONS: Complexions Contemporary Ballet at The Joyce
By Miranda Stuck
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Published on December 17, 2025
Jillian Davis & Joe Gonzalez; Photo: Steven Pisano
Founding Co-Artistic Directors: Dwight Rhoden & Desmond Richardson
Executive Director: Muadi B. Dibinga
Associate Artistic Directors: Jillian Davis & Joe González
Principal Choreographer: Dwight Rhoden
Artistic Advisors: Carmen de Lavallade & Sarita Allen
Resident Lighting Designer: Michael Korsch
Resident Costume Designer: Christine Darch
The Company: Bilgude Ariunbold, Jordan Beasley, Aeron Buchanan, Michael Cherry, Jillian Davis, Angelo De Serra, Chloe Duryea, Joe González, Aristotle Luna, Marissa Mattingly, Laura Perich Villasmil, Jasmine Robinson, Imani Sailers, Lucy Stewart, Manuel Vaccaro, Drazen Wilmers (Apprentice)
A marathon doesn’t always look like runners vigorously racing through a large city; in the dance world, it looks like Complexions Contemporary Ballet at the Joyce Theater. Celebrating their 31st season, the company shared a variety of premieres on opening night, including works by founding Co-Artistic Director Dwight Rhoden and choreographer Houston Thomas. The two-week run included three programs with an array of Complexions repertoire and premieres by guest choreographers. The opening night program offered versatility in dance and music, bringing together classical Beethoven, spunky rock music, and nostalgic old-school jazz for an evening of sparkling contemporary ballet.
Imagine Joy, choreographed by Rhoden, opens the program in a dazzling, romantic way. Dressed in metallic rose gold leotards and bodysuits, the full company of 16 dancers appears in flat shoes, which ground their movements for turning and landing jumps. As an audience member, it's easy to connect to the immediacy of their intertwining partnered sequences, which are built on trust and intimacy. As soft piano notes ring, the dancers seep into deep à la seconde lunges and pliés with complete focus and awareness of their bodies. They float and glide, at times releasing their joints in a deconstructed, liberating manner.
At a moment’s notice, a unison passage takes place upstage as a new soundtrack by Samuel Barber strikes with abrasive volume: the bass rattles, setting off a choreographic frenzy of quick, limb-flicking movements and abrupt transitions on and off stage. Sometimes we hear the dancers’ breath or a huff to signal choreographic cues and timing. Purple, golden, and crimson light soaks the stage throughout the work, cutting through the infinite atmospheric gray smoke above the dancers’ heads.
The cast finds embrace, only to leave dancer Vincenzo Di Primo behind for the New York premiere of Rhoden’s solo work Honestly, set to music by Donny Hathaway. Di Primo is a master technician, executing razor-sharp quadruple pencil and coupé turns, high extensions, and coupé jetés at an impressive pace. His swift articulations of his torso and arms mesmerize as he offsets his center of gravity to jut into picturesque, hypermobile positions.
Young Lovers, choreographed by guest artist Houston Thomas is set to music by Jeff Buckley, Tarika Blue, India, and MAW. Thomas, a former soloist with the Dresden Semperoper Ballett, brings a calm, cool, edgy vibe to the stage for the first time. The dancers’ dark matte red unitards and cropped velvet costumes compliment bursts of deeply vibrant red, white, and royal blue lighting. Quick fouettés and chaînés feel effortless, gliding like butter across the floor. We witness moments of pause and breath in Thomas’s choreography that allow stillness and anticipation to fill the air between sequences of movement.
Closing the program is the company premiere of Midnight Riff, choreographed by Rhoden. The sparkling “jazz-a-thon” serves as a multi-part ode to historic Black female jazz musicians through multiple eras, including the iconic voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone. Six dancers capture our eye in shimmering, sequined flapper-style dresses and pointe shoes. Racing to keep up with the music, they bring a playful air with an effortless, candid attitude, executing moves not often seen en pointe, such as jazz walks and the Charleston. Prisms of fragmented light splay over the floor as the dancers perform ever-changing transitions between partnered combinations, group unison, and duets, each as a high-spirited conversation. Midnight Riff is an exercise for the audience’s eye as our attention darts around the stage. In this old-fashioned underground jazz club, the company has finally found their groove.
The beauty of Complexions Contemporary Ballet lies in their defiance of expectations, seen this evening most notably in Imagine Joy. Whether through choices in partnered pairings and groupings, or in the composition and look of the company's dancers, Complexions' Dwight Rhoden and Co-Artistic Director Desmond Richardson continue to challenge the boundaries of contemporary ballet, reminding us that this is a genre in constant evolution.
