By Christine Cox, BalletX

We launched our *eXpand the eXperience* program with our November dance series and it was a huge success. In addition to presenting two original new ballets and a work from our repertoire, we wowed audiences with unexpected performances in the lobby of the Wilma Theater before the shows and in the theater during intermissions. The feedback we have received from both our audiences and from the press has been tremendous and the experience far surpassed our expectations. There was a buzz between the shows as people wondered if they would experience the same thing at the performance they planned to attend. The highlight for me was watching a very young father tell his 6 yr old son who had just drummed on the stage with the West Philadelphia Conestoga Drill Team “I am so proud of you”. I will never forget the look in the young boys eyes, both father and son never imaged their drill team would be here performing at The Wilma Theater. My eyes watered up and I realized the idea we submitted to Knight Arts Challenge was touching more then just our audience.

Merilyn Jackson wrote for the Inquirer: “BalletX opened its fifth season at the Wilma Theater on Wednesday with a triple bill sparkling with surprising and lovely performances by company newcomers and more-senior members. A new initiative backed by the Knight Foundation and Wells Fargo included intermission entertainment that kept the excitement going. During the first, the Conestoga Angels Precision Marching Drum Corps shook things up by marching down and taking the Wilma stage with stomping, rib-pumping drills and bold-as-brass drumming. It was like taking an expansive breath between the show’s two dark opening numbers.”

Janet Anderson of The Broad Street Review wrote: “One of the evening’s most intriguing events occurred when the sopranos Adrienne Bishop and Julie Bishop began singing La Jasmin (the flower duet from Delibes’s Lakme). As the beautiful music washed over the theater, people in the audience began twisting their heads to see where the sound was coming from. Not the stage, not in the program – there they were, smack in the middle of the audience, rising from their seats. It was a wonderful, subtle, touch.”